Delikado: Defending the defenders
Event description
Join us for a lunchtime discussion of Emmy Award-nominated feature documentary Delikado, and the land defenders risking their lives to protect native forests and ecosystems in the Philippines and around the world.
Tune in on Tuesday 26 March at 12pm to hear film director Karl Malakunas, former logger-turned-land defender and film participant Tata Balladares, and Bardi-Kija-Nyul Nyul man and 2019 Conservationist of the Year Albert Wiggan in conversation to discuss the critical issues facing land and water defenders in their efforts to preserve our natural resources, and efforts to improve government and corporate accountability.
About the film
Multi-award-winning documentary Delikado follows three environmental crusaders confronting betrayal and murder as they battle to save the island paradise of Palawan, famed as the Philippines’ ‘last ecological frontier.’
Delikado is streaming now on DocPlay (Australia only). Watch now.
About the panellists
Tata Balladares is a farmer and grandfather from southern Palawan who was one of the Palawan NGO Network Inc. (PNNI)’s leading para-enforcers for many years. As a young man, Tata was the head of a para-military force created by the Philippine government to fight communist and Muslim insurgencies in Palawan. The unit was also meant to protect Palawan’s natural resources. Instead, it was assigned to illegally cut down trees. Tata has since risked his life countless times trying to protect Palawan's forests, seeking redemption for the logging he was ordered to do as a para-military head.
Karl Malakunas is the director, producer and writer of Delikado, as well as the Asia-Pacific Deputy-Editor-In-Chief for Agence France-Presse based in Hong Kong. Karl won the Walkley Award for Best Longform Documentary for DELIKADO, which has earnt more than 20 other awards at festivals around the world and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary. He is a two-time Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program Fellow. After living in the Philippines for eight years while working as Manila Bureau Chief for AFP, Karl drew on his experiences, contacts and deep inside knowledge of the country to make DELIKADO, his first feature film. His environmental reporting around the world has included covering the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan in the eastern Philippines, and the coal-powered rise of China’s economy.
Albert Wiggan is a Bardi-Kija-Nyul Nyul man from the beautiful waters of Boddergron (Cygnet Bay) on the Dampier Peninsula, WA, who is passionate about culture, Country and Indigenous science. When the government tried to build the world’s largest LNG plant at James Price Point, Albert lobbied the Supreme Court and fronted a blockade until the developer withdrew from the project - a story told in acclaimed documentary, Undermined - Tales from the Kimberley. Albert has worked as an Indigenous ranger and environmental consultant, has given a TED talk on Indigenous science and was named 2019 Conservationist of the Year in recognition of his work to protect WA's Kimberley region. He has toured international stages as a musician with John Butler and has worked in film and television for over 10 years. He is a co-producer of Undermined and Stories in Stone, and guest presenter on ABC’s Back Roads.