In 2019, Edivan Guajajara, Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman began to film “We Are Guardians”, a documentary on indigenous forest guards who fight to protect their ancestral lands against invasions and incessant deforestation in the Amazonian forest of Brazil.
The directors followed various forest guards from Brazil as they fought to protect the Amazon forest from destruction.
“Thanks to the smoke and the confusion of the media from Brazil and the international community, we have decided to mobilize and discover the truth,” said Greene and Grobman in a joint declaration. “We wanted to hear those who are closest to the forest and fires, what was going on, from their point of view.”
After a year, Guajajara, Greene and Grobman showed producers Zak Kilberg, Maura Anderson and Fisher Stevens a coil of what they had captured in Amazon. The producers, who formed their very flammable production company at the time, were immediately intrigued and decided to “we are the first Shingle project.
“I worked in the Amazon with Leo (Dicaprio) on a film entitled” Before the flood “and I really wanted to do something in the environmental space,” explains Stevens, who won an Oscar in 2010 for producing the documentary “The Cove”. “When I saw the images, I said to myself:” Okay, it will be good as long as we bring the film “because the film was a little in disorder when we started. We also needed money.”
Thus, Stevens called for banners like Netflix, with whom the actor had worked with documents such as “Beckham” and “Tiger King”. Stevens also contacted Nat Geo allies, who distributed “before the flood” and Discovery, which broadcast two of the Stevens environmental documents – “racing extinction” and “Tigerland.
But there was a problem. Director Alex Pritz made a film similar to “We Are Guardians”, entitled “Le Territoire”. Regarding the tireless combat of the Aboriginal peoples of Amazon Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau-Wau-Wau-Wau-Wau-Wau-Wau-Wau-Wau-Wau-Wau-Wau-Wau-Wau-Waking brought by Brazilian farmers and illegal settlers, “the territory” would end up presenting the Spende Film Festival in 2022.
When Nat Geo acquired “the territory” of Sundance, there was suddenly no room for another doc on the Amazon forest crisis.
“We consider our film as an objective of” the territory “,” explains Anderson. “In a way, looking at the broader interdependence of the whole globe and the Amazon, while” the territory “was really focused on the territory. I want the distribution to have seen it in this way, because I think it could have pursued the conversation that” the territory “began in such an epic way. But, unfortunately, there is this state of mind,” well, we can only have one film for five years. “”
The filmmakers and very flammable have persevered. They collected funds and continued to film.
“We are guardians” finally made its world debut on Canada’s hot documents in 2023. A festival race and an impact campaign have kept the DOC in various theaters across the country in the past two years.
“The objective is to locate interest and find local tutors who deal with their own environmental problems in these various places,” explains Kilberg. “Whether California or North Carolina, almost all the places in the country are affected by climate change and environmental challenges.”
Kilberg adds: “The film ultimately consists in activating the guards wherever you are, wherever you live, and to show that we must bring together, get up and retaliate on these policies which continue to harm the environment.”
In April, after Appian Way of Leonardo DiCaprio rose aboard “we are guardians” as executive producers, the region23a acquired the doc. He opened in Los Angeles on Friday and New York on July 11.
Stevens admits that if he had not had the financial security that he was able to achieve by making “Beckham” for Netflix, he could not have worked on “We Are Guardians” or his last doc, “A King Like Me”, who follows the members of the first Tuesday Gras Krewe Black of New Orleans.
“The way of continuing to make these important social documents is that you must balance other (commercial) documents as a filmmaker,” explains Stevens. “Because we are not going to be paid to make these social impact films, but we must continue to do them.”
