Private Project

The Last Defenders

We traverse Asia’s forests, mountains and seas to where endangered wildlife is poached and resources are plundered. It's a dangerous battleground where environmental defenders risk their lives to ensure nature's survival.

In Vietnam, anti-poaching officers from NGO Save Vietnam’s Wildlife, Lam and Julong face armed poachers and unpredictable elements to save pangolins and other wildlife from extinction in Cat Tien National Park.

In the Himalayan foothills of Uttarakhand, India, Deepa Devi and Kiran Bhandari lead a group of women fighting against the building of a stone crusher plant near their village by a powerful local mafia.

In Malaysia, Honorary Wildlife Wardens Edwin Alberto and Dr Achier Chung from NGO Reef Guardian risk violent high seas confrontation with fishing intruders and fish bombers to protect the fragile marine ecosystem of the Sugud Islands in Sabah.

We discover what drives these remarkable individuals and the price they pay for being the natural world's last defenders.

  • Ostin Fam
    Director
  • Srishti Lakhera
    Director
  • Yih Wen Chen
    Director
  • Aditya Thayi
    Executive Producer
  • Simon Hipkins
    Executive Producer
  • Syahirah A. Karim
    Series Producer
  • Raffaella Nathan
    Assistant Producer
  • Angela Kong
    Assistant Producer
  • Grace Xiao
    Editor
  • Darshan Karunamoorthy
    Editor
  • Sueanne Teo
    Editor
  • Ta Minh Duc
    Director of Photography
  • Amith Surendran
    Director of Photography
  • Chris Tan
    Director of Photography
  • Yih Wen Chen
    Director of Photography
  • Chin Hor Wong
    Director of Photography
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Documentary, Environmental, Nature, Wildlife, Conservation
  • Runtime:
    2 hours 17 minutes 32 seconds
  • Country of Origin:
    Singapore
  • Country of Filming:
    India, Malaysia, Viet Nam
  • Language:
    Hindi, Malay, Vietnamese
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ostin Fam, Srishti Lakhera, Yih Wen Chen

Director - The Last Defenders of Vietnam:
Ostin Fam (Pham Quoc Dung) is an independent filmmaker from Hanoi. His work seeks to elevate underserved narratives, but rather than attempting to capture the existential pain that comes with underrepresentation, he tries to hone in on the specifics of experience. The notion of cultural fluidity has become a focal point in his work; how we reconcile our identities in different lands with different customs. Ostin is also a member of Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, the first and largest collective of independent filmmakers in New York and one of four recipients of Sony Pictures' IFP Marcie Bloom Fellowship in Film in 2017.

Director - The Last Defenders of India:
Srishti Lakhera is an independent documentary filmmaker, whose decade-long career has seen many accolades. Her debut documentary feature, ‘Ek Tha Gaon’ is being screened in many international festivals currently. She has produced short documentary films for international organisations like UNISDR, government bodies like the forest department of Uttarakhand, national television channel DD, and international television Channel Newsasia. Srishti has been associated with grassroots organisations across India to conduct film programming, production, and facilitation.

Director - The Last Defenders of Malaysia:
Yih Wen Chen is a Malaysian documentary filmmaker and journalist. She has worked on international documentaries for Netflix, BBC, History Channel, Crime & Investigation Network, Business Insider, and CNA. Her #MeToo documentary won the NETPAC Award at the Busan International Short Film Festival. In 2019, her debut feature documentary premiered in London. Wen is an alumna of IDFAcademy and American Film Showcase. She holds a master's in Creative Media in Film & TV Production from RMIT University.

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