Greening the Screen

In 2002 while our team was surfing along northern Philippines, we came across one of the last hunter gatherer tribes in the world living just an hour´s hike from our remote surf spot. They told us their story - a tale of a people fighting to retain their land amidst the threat of deforestation. On a whim, we purchased semi-professional camera equipment and lived with the tribespeople for six months to capture their plight on video. We had little knowledge of filmmaking and skeleton funds but a lot of conviction that the message was an important one. One year later, our little documentary Children of the Mountains won three awards in various international flim fests and brought about a stigma of awareness on the plight of the Agta tribe.

One of the biggest frustrations of environmental education its slow pace and limited reach to instigate change. Often, crude imagery and intense visuals are necessary to shock audiences into more immediate forms of action. Using film to inspire change in people seemed the appropriate next step for CEAE, and we found ourselves in a whole new world of video production to enhance our educational programs.

Photo: Cinematographer Boyd with
our first camera at the filming of
Children of the Mountains.