00:00Well it's a competition, a documentary and a film, and it's been described as one of the most ambitious plans
00:06of its type.
00:07Eleven young people chosen from around the world to spend 100 days in the jungles of Borneo
00:12to try to put a stop to deforestation and to save the lives of endangered orangutans.
00:18It's a 3D film called Rise of the Eco-Warriors, created by Australian filmmakers
00:23who have just returned from their final days of filming.
00:28Well, award-winning filmmaker and director of the documentary, Cathy Henkel, joins me now.
00:33Cathy, if we could perhaps start, can you tell us a little bit about the role of these Eco-Warriors
00:37and some of the challenges that they come up against in the jungles of Borneo?
00:41Well, they're aged between 18 and 35, and just going to Borneo, the conditions there are very tough.
00:47It's really, really hot. They've been incredibly remote areas, having to adjust to the local climate,
00:52the customs, sleeping on the floor, dealing with the terrain.
00:57One of our boys nearly lost his life, drowning in a river.
01:01And also just dealing with the whole political situation of the palm oil companies
01:05and the local authorities versus the Dayak people, which are the local people who don't want the palm oil.
01:11So there were lots of conflicts going on all around them,
01:13and just trying to find their way through all that and understand it,
01:16and then try and do something about it and implement the incredibly ambitious programs that they took on.
01:22Of course, the goal in all of this is to rescue orangutans who might have been held in captivity
01:27or displaced by the logging industry.
01:30Just how dangerous or risky are these operations?
01:33Well, the orangutans often already have lost their parents, their orphans.
01:37They've been kept in horrendous conditions in cages and in very, very confined, horrible situations.
01:43And what actually has to happen is the Ministry of Forestry, they go out and they confiscate them
01:49and bring them to the rescue centre.
01:51The really challenging part is being able to revive them, sometimes from death,
01:55and then to rehabilitate them.
01:58So they've got to have a whole lot of health checks,
01:59and then they've got to be retaught, if you like, how to go and live into the forest.
02:04So it's a long, arduous process, and it is very distressing to see the condition that they come in.
02:10It must be hugely emotional, to say the very least.
02:13Cathy, you returned from Borneo just yesterday after filming the ending of this documentary.
02:19Was the progress better or slower than what you'd expected?
02:22Well, we've seen the main star of our movie is Jojo.
02:27She was held in a small cage and fed really bad food and given cigarettes.
02:32She was malnourished and she was not in a good condition when she was brought to the centre.
02:36And now she is terrifically healthy and vibrant.
02:39She was a two-and-a-half-year-old baby and has lost her mother,
02:43so she needs a lot of mothering and care.
02:46They're like humans that can't speak.
02:48That's really the way I like to think of them.
02:50Cathy, what is it about these animals?
02:52Why are you so passionate about this cause?
02:55Well, I first looked an orangutan in the eye in 2007
02:58when I was making The Burning Season, my previous film.
03:01And I think once you've had that experience, you just can't forget.
03:04They're, as I said, like humans without a voice.
03:06And I just feel that I want to devote whatever time and energy I have left on this planet
03:11to saving them.
03:12And that requires us to really get behind the stopping of deforestation
03:16because that's what's killing them.
03:18They're losing their home.
03:19We're losing 300 football fields of forest every hour still.
03:23But we can stop this.
03:25This is a fight we can win.
03:26And I'm in it because I believe we can win this one.
03:28And I want to save the orangutans because they are so amazing and beautiful.
03:32Of course, the film is The Rise of the Eco Warriors.
03:35We're very excited to see it.
03:36Cathy Henkel, thanks for joining us.
03:38Thank you.
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