As powerful and arresting as Jen Muranetz’s Fairy Creek, We Are Guardians, from directors Chelsea Greene, Rob Grobman, and Edivan Guajajara, shows a similar crisis, the story surrounding it, and the people on the ground, fighting against the rape of the natural world. The vast forests of the Amazon, the gigantic natural carbon filter of planet Earth, are slowly, systematically, and scarily being cut down, ploughed over, and burned in the name of churning out profits. If it weren’t for the indigenous peoples of the land, who were literally forced to resort to guerrilla warfare to preserve their centuries-old kingdom.
The country’s politics are part of the problem. Big money, big power. Humans might be swept from existence in pursuit of the almighty dollar. Indeed, we see the danger, but in a complex nature. For the forces, the threat to rob civilization of yet another of its natural wonders isn’t all purely motivated by greed. For some, logging is survival, farming is crucial, and we hear the different perspectives. How are there people and businesses that operate in harmony, and are dedicated to the preservation of the rainforests?
Unfortunately, the voices against the cause are both loud and ominous. From the opening frames of We Are Guardians, we see the contrasting images. The forest in all its silent and untouched majesty, paired with the trees falling, the bulldozers grinding up the ground. Then there are the analytical diagrams showing how much the Amazon has perished, along with those protected regions that are struggling to maintain their boundaries.
Marçal Guajajara paints his face in a moment of spiritual and tactical preparation for a surveillance mission
Photo credit: Edivan Guajajara
“The vast forests of the Amazon… are slowly, systematically, and scarily being cut down…”
As the battle intensifies, thankfully, so does the resolve of the tribal natives. Adorned in the cultural costumes, they chant and sing. Their songs are of defiance against the all-consuming wrath of industry. A small planet is slowly being stripped of its assets in order to accommodate an overpopulated species’ consumption habits.
If the message isn’t clear enough, be now. People are just blind, or they don’t want to see. But for those native peoples captured in the impactful We Are Guardians, that distills the fight down to its most basic element. What we do now is not for us, but for those who will come after. So, they might know the beauty of the world we’ll leave behind. The price of our ignorance on this matter…will be catastrophic.
We Are Guardians is a poignantly timed reminder that the time to act is now. The filmmakers have taken an engulfing forefront approach to deliver to us, the audience, the immensity of the disaster occurring as we sit, breathing clean air, and not giving a single thought to the fact that, in the future, a lung full of fresh air might not be as readily available. Actor-turned-producer Fisher Stevens continues to unearth incredible and confronting documents on the state of the world as we know it. Take the time to ingest what the stakes really are. Enough people are content to watch the planet burn. This is about those who oppose, and we should be grateful that such courage still exists.
"…a poignantly timed reminder that the time to act is now."
