Sarah Matthews

Project Background

Proposed films

Indonesia has one of the world’s richest natural environments, harbouring an incredible diversity of plants and animals species. Unfortunately it is disappearing at an alarming rate. Home to more than 20 percent of the globe's coral reefs, the use of toxic cyanide and hooks to catch the fish, plus over fishing will mean an exhaustion in Indonesian waters of the most valuable species in three years.
Indonesia still currently holds 10 percent of the world’s remaining tropical forests.
Widespread logging in the last 32 years has meant Indonesia lost 40 million hectares of forest, equivalent to the combined size of Germany and Netherlands.
Landslides and heavy flooding are now commonly becoming frequently triggered by heavy tropical rains falling on areas already loosened by the deforestation. Many lives are lost and homes and communities destroyed.

I have been working on coordinating a project based in Bali (with the outlook to the whole of Indonesia) to make non profit films with the aim of education and preservation. The key is making films with the local people for the local people and the country they live in. The goal, to make films that can actually make a difference.
By going into the heart of countries and finding out what is really needed from the people that know the best, the natives. By working closely with the locals and other NGOs we can find out what films the countries in question would benefit from the most, what needs to be protected, what needs to be changed and who we have to target.