Telling critical stories from the edges of the world.
In Cambodia, giant venomous spiders aren’t terrifying, they’re a tasty treat! If you are travelling to Cambodia don’t forget to try it out. By the way it not just started during the Khmer Rouge, but way before but only common in the country side. Yummy!
10 countries, over 100,000 kilometres, 45 critical water stories, 100 days. Expedition Blue Planet.
Alexandra Cousteau’s Expedition Blue Planet 2009 chronicled the interconnectivity of water. A key aspect of the project was its ability to show how individual stories are part of the larger, universal story of an inter-dependent and global water ecosystem. In this way, we created a new vision for what it means to live in a world where water is our most precious resource and plan for what we must do to protect it.
© Blue Legacy International
Once, evergreen forests stretched across Southeast Asia. Now the largest forest of this kind lies next to the Mekong River in Cambodia, and it is unprotected.
Custodians of the land and forest since before recorded history, the rhythms of Kuy traditions, beliefs, medicines and livelihoods are interwoven with existence of Prey Lang Forest.
Already there are mines, logging and rubber plantations. But these are small scale compared to what is coming next. International investment in mining, roads, plantations and dams could turn Prey Lang into an industrial estate with just a few years.
Once already the Kuy rose up to save Prey Lang from logger’s chainsaws. But more is needed than patrolling and advocacy. It is going to take the outside world waking up to the human and environmental imperative to save Prey Lang and the Kuy people.
Before the axe falls.
Four flights and just over 34 hours of travel marked the beginning of the second phase of our 2009 Expedition Blue Planet as we flew halfway around the globe to join the Blue Legacy film crew in Cambodia. What started as a research outline quickly evolved into a five continent expedition dedicated to chronicling the interconnectivity of some of our most critical water stories.
But it wasn’t water that caught my attention as we winged our way above the Mekong River and banked to touch down in Phnom Penh. It was a thick blanket blocking the sun and shrouding the twisting gold and orange spires of local Wats in a cloak of drab gray. The thick scent of burning wood was caught in my throat and I realized that the city’s shroud is it’s ancient forests slipping slowly skyward leaving only stumps and muddy hillsides where once stood a global treasure.
The Mekong River, a mother for millions in South East Asia now under threat by dams, development and climate change. Expedition travels to the heart of the river in Cambodia where locals fear for their future if large hydropower projects are built on their river.
Ratanankiri, North East Cambodia, and in 2010 the sudden release of excess rain waters from overburdened dams in Viet Nam has catastrophic consequences on river communities downstream in Cambodia. This is part of the Mekong Diaries series; Goodmorningbeautiful travelled the length of the world’s last wild great river as the forces of development change it forever.
Overfishing, pollution, and development of the Mekong River in Cambodia could kill off a rare species: the Irrawaddy Dolphin.
This film is part of the Mekong Diaries series; Goodmorningbeautiful travelled the length of the Mekong, the world’s last wild great river, as the forces of development change it forever.
From an urban slum in Phnom Penh, a teenage girl describes the sort of city she wants to be living in. While children in Metro Manila show us around their city, where every square kilometre houses around 43,000 people.
In many Asian cities 30-40% of the population are already living in slum areas and the percentage of poverty is as high as 40% of the population.
© World Vision Australia
Very little is known about what happens to the men and boys that end up working on fishing boats in Asia. Usually setting off with the promise they can return home after a few months at sea, the truth is that for some victims they will never reach the shore again. This is the remarkable account of a man, Prum Vannak, who has been to hell and back. Since his return he has recreated his experiences in a series of drawings. He believes without these pictures no one would believe his story.
This film is a part of the series “Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery.” A series of films and media documenting human trafficking as it is experience by millions of women, men and children throughout Asia; a generation of people, living outside of citizenship, borders and basic human rights.
The dramatic annual rise and fall of the Mekong’s waters create a pulse for the Tonle Sap, a great lake at the heart of Cambodia, supporting the lives of the poorest with an abundance of fish, for now.
Cambodians gather in their nation’s capital, Phnom Penh, to witness the traditional boat races and nightly fireworks.
In 2010 OXFAM America held a conference in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on the governance of extractive industries in southeast asia. This video was produced with a short delivery time to be used as an additional tool for participants and for those that could not attend the conference.
A first person story of trafficking illustrated through a survivors drawings. An advocacy film produced for World Vision.
Prey Lang is the largest primary lowland dry evergreen forest remaining in both Cambodia and the Indochinese Peninsula. With an estimated 600,000 people relying on the forest for survival, logging and mining interests have the potential to destroy this critical, fragile and ancient forest habitat.
The ‘Pregnancy and HIV’ video encourages people living with HIV that they have the same right to have a baby as everybody else and that their baby can be healthy and happy if they access PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission) services early in the pregnancy.
The Tonle Sap, the largest inland lake in South East Asia is geographically and culturally the centre of Kindgom of Cambodia. The flooded forests of this epic inland sea, are so rich in fishstocks that they provide nutrition for the entire nation.
Alexandra Cousteau interviews Carl Middleton from International Rivers on the Mekong River as it flows through Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Alexandra Cousteau interviews Conservation International’s David Emmett on the Tonle Sap, Cambodia.
