Film poster. Image taken from Sunset over Selungo website.
The Cambridge University Southeast Asian Forum (which I was on the committee for the past 1.5 years) hosted a film screening today, of a film titled Sunset over Selungo.
Sunset over Selungo is set in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, Borneo, and is about the indigenous Penan tribe whose livelihood revolves around their rainforest. The film gives us an insight into how the Penans live, hunting their meat (wild boar, deer etc.) using blowpipes and fishing in the rivers, and how their way of life is being threatened by logging companies clear-cutting forests and driving the animals away. Their land rights are threatened, but the 18 villages of Penan tribe have banded together to try and fight the corporate land-grabbing with the Penan Peace Park proposal.
It’s only 30 minutes long and is DEFINITELY worth your time. On top of the storyline, the views of the Bornean rainforest are incredibly amazing, and remind me why I do what I do.
The director and producer of Sunset over Selungo, Ross Harrison, also made the film Beyond the Brink which I watched 2 years ago as part of the Cambridge Climate and Sustainability Forum 2013. He was in his final year of undergraduate studies then, and it’s really inspiring to see what he’s done in the 2/3 years since graduation.
Check out the film website here, they really want to get the message out to as many people as possible, so if nothing else, organise some film screenings and show it to your local community! If you want to donate towards the Penan Peace Parks cause, you can also do so from the website!
Nature rambles. 