Delikado

Delikado also screens digitally nationwide between May 20 – 26 on HRWFF’s digital streaming platform. Watch here.

Q&A with Director Karl Malakunas, Film Participant Bobby Chan, Producers Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala and Michael Collins, and HRW Senior Researcher Asia Division Carlos Conde.

Palawan in the Philippines appears to be an idyllic tropical island, with its powder-white beaches and lush forests making it one of Asia’s most visited tourist destinations. But for a small network of environmental crusaders, it is more akin to a battlefield. Bobby, Tata and Nieves – a charismatic lawyer, a former illegal logger and a fearless politician – are three magnetic leaders fighting to stop corporations and governments seeking to plunder increasingly valuable natural resources. Often from Indigenous communities, environmental defenders in the Philippines are killed with impunity and the killers are rarely caught. The battles these climate activists fight are shared by allies worldwide – but the abusive government of President Rodrigo Duterte adds urgency to this deepening human rights crisis.

“Delikado is an important and powerful film. The tension is palpable throughout … but so is the incredible courage of the environmental defenders portrayed.” —Luciana Tellez-Chavez, Researcher, Environment and Human Rights Division, Human Rights Watch