American Documentary

Overview

New York, N.Y. – August 23, 2022 – POV, currently celebrating its 35th anniversary season as America’s longest running non-fiction series, presents award-winning Australian journalist Karl Malakunas’s riveting directorial debut film, Delikado, about a small network of land defenders who risk death to save the Philippines’ last ecological frontier from developers. Produced by Malakunas, two-time Emmy nominees Marty Syjuco and Michael Collins (POV’s Almost Sunrise, Give Up Tomorrow), and Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala, the environmental thriller will make its national broadcast premiere on Monday, September 26, 2022 (check local listings).

Delikado will be available to stream free until October 26, 2022 at pbs.org, and the PBS Video app. In addition to standard closed captioning for the film, POV, in partnership with audio description service DiCapta, provides real time audio interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities.

Delikado takes place in the Philippines on the island of Palawan, admired by both local and international tourists for its natural beauty, as a UNESCO World Heritage site with one of the oldest, largest and most diverse rainforests in the world. It is the country’s “last ecological frontier”, but one of the deadliest places for land defenders in the world, next to Brazil, the Congo and Colombia. Malakunas follows three magnetic leaders Bobby, Tata and Nieves – a charismatic lawyer, an ex-illegal logger, and a fearless politician – as they work with indigenous communities trying to save their increasingly valuable natural resources from being plundered. Malakunas provides viewers with a first-hand look at the economic and political forces that profit from “paradise.”

Delikado also offers a unique exposé of then-Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”, which claimed thousands of lives – showing it was used as a tool for Duterte and his allies to maintain economic and political power.

“I am absolutely thrilled that Delikado will be shown across America and honored to be joining POV’s incredible family of brilliant filmmakers. Delikado is a timely film for audiences in America, offering inspiration and hope in our battle to contain climate change, while showcasing the courage of those on the frontlines. Delikado will also resonate for those interested in the legacy of American imperialism, as it takes a deep dive into the Philippines’ economic, legal and political structures established when it was a U.S. colony,” said director Karl Malakunas.

“Delikado is an extraordinary film that we’re so proud to have as a part of our 35th season. I’m in awe of Karl Malakunas’s fierce dedication to allowing this story to be guided and told by the activists in Palawan,” said Erika Dilday, executive director/executive producer of American Documentary | POV.

Delikado made its world premiere at the 2022 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto. The film won the Sustainable Future Award at the 2022 Sydney Film Festival, the Special Jury Prize: Best Documentary Feature at the 2022 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the Special Jury Mention: Best International Feature at New Zealand’s 2022 Doc Edge, and was nominated for the Tim Hetherington Award at the 2022 Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival. Delikado was an 2022 official selection of CAAMFest (San Francisco), Human Rights Watch Film Festival (New York), MountainFilm (Telluride), Melbourne International Film Festival, Cinemalaya Philippine Film Festival, DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (Korea), International Documentary Festival Visioni dal Mondo (Milan), Take One Action (Scotland), Newburyport Doc Film Festival and the Inconvenient Films (Lithuania).

Delikado is a Thoughtful Robot, Narravi Films, ITVS, and American Documentary | POV co-production in association with Naked Edge Films and Felt Films. Karl Malakunas is the director. The producers are Malakunas, Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala, Michael Collins, and Marty Syjuco. Collins and Syjuco’s previous projects premiered on POV, including Emmy-nominated Give Up Tomorrow and Almost Sunrise. Executive Producers include Daniel J. Chalfen and Laura Nix as well as Sally Jo Fifer for ITVS, and Erika Dilday and Chris White for American Documentary | POV.

Credits

Director: Karl Malakunas

Producers: Marty Syjuco, Michael Collins, Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala, Karl Malakunas

Executive Producers: Jody Allen, Suparna Bhasin, Jim Butterworth, Daniel J. Chalfen, James Costa, Erika Dilday, Sally Jo Fifer, Beadie Finzi, Alexandra Johnes, Ali Marsh, Laura Nix, Shanida Scotland, Rebecca Teitel, Chris White

Writers: Laura Nix, Michael Collins, Karl Malakunas

Editor: Michael Collins, Eric Daniel Metzgar

Cinematography: Tom Bannigan ACS

Composer: Nainita Desai

Sound: Karl Malakunas, Tom Bannigan

About the Filmmakers

Director/Producer

Karl Malakunas is an Australian journalist and filmmaker who has reported on conflicts, natural disasters and political upheavals around the world for two decades. He is currently based in Hong Kong, as the Asia-Pacific Deputy Editor-In-Chief for the international news agency Agence France-Presse, and the former Philippine Bureau Chief for AFP. Malakunas began making Delikado, his first feature film, while based in the Philippines as Manila Bureau Chief for AFP. His initial short film and essay on Palawan's land defenders won a special merit at the 2018 Amnesty International Asia-Pacific Human Rights Awards. Malakunas was a 2019 Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program Grantee and a 2019 SFFILM Vulcan Fellow for this film.

Producer

Marty Syjuco

Originally from the Philippines, Marty is two-time Emmy nominated filmmaker whose first film POV’s Give Up Tomorrow premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival where it won the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize. The film went on to win 18 awards and has been seen by over 50 million viewers worldwide. His second feature, POV’s Almost Sunrise won a CINE Golden Eagle Award, played theatrically at the IFC Center in NYC, and was nationally broadcast on PBS/POV for Veterans Day. His recent film, Call Her Ganda was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award and was recently broadcast on POV’s 32nd season. Marty is a proud ITVS, Bertha, Sundance, Tribeca, Fledgling, Wyncote, and Good Pitch Fellow, and was invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences last summer.

Producer/Editor

Michael Collins

Michael is an Emmy and Grierson nominated filmmaker and the founder of Thoughtful Robot, a film production company committed to telling stories that galvanize change. Michael’s recent film POV’s Almost Sunrise is the first film about "moral injury" and its connection to the veteran suicide crisis. The film premiered at Telluride Mountainfilm in 2016 and has had 600+ screenings across the country, winning six major awards including the Voice Award and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Current-Affairs Documentary. Michael’s first film POV’s Give Up Tomorrow premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011 and won the Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize for Best New Director. Give Up Tomorrow was selected for the Britdoc Impact Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.

Producer

Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala is a broadcast journalist based in Manila. She co-founded the video production company Storytellers International Inc. that has produced award-winning television specials and documentaries like Batas Militar (Martial Law), which is the highest rated documentary broadcast on Philippine television. The film swept all major awards in the Philippines and was a finalist at the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA), and a bronze medalist at the New York Film Festival. She is a contributing producer for ARD German Radio, Cable News Network (CNN) Hong Kong and Atlanta bureaus. Kara is a member of the Good Pitch Southeast Asia Team in Jakarta, has produced films for the History Channel and the Australian Broadcasting Company, and has reported for PBS and Voice of America.

Executive Producer
Daniel J. Chalfen is a Peabody and duPont winning and multiple-Emmy nominated film and television producer, and a co-founder of Naked Edge Films. Chalfen’s most recent credits include Kristine Stolakis’ Netflix Original Pray Away (executive produced by Jason Blum & Ryan Murphy), the Sundance award winner Always in Season (dir. Jacqueline Olive), Dava Whisenant’s Bathtubs Over Broadway (executive produced by Jason Blum & David Letterman), Dyana Winkler & Tina Brown’s United Skates (executive produced by John Legend) for HBO, and The Infiltrators (dir. Alex Rivera & Cristina Ibarra), Call Her Ganda (dir. PJ Raval) and The Feeling of Being Watched (dir. Assia Boundaoui’) that all aired on POV.

Executive Producer
Laura Nix is a director, writer, and producer working in non-fiction and fiction. She is known for her films Inventing Tomorrow (2018 Sundance Premiere), The Yes Men Are Revolting (2014), The Light In Her Eyes (2011), Whether You Like It Or Not: The Story of Hedwig (2003), and The Politics Of Fur (2002).

Photos

Download Delikado photos here

About the Participants

Attorney Robert “Bobby” Chan

Bobby, an environmental lawyer, is the executive director of the Palawan NGO Network Inc. (PNNI). Bobby finished his law degree, Juris Doctor, in 1994 in the Ateneo School of Law in Manila and immediately pursued an internship program with the Ateneo Human Rights Center, for which he was assigned to environmental law practice in Palawan. Bobby has been the head of PNNI since 2009, a position from which he has pursued his vision of empowering local community members to harness the law and stop illegal logging, illegal fishing, mining and other environmental crimes, through 'self-help' enforcement strategies and a bit of divine providence.

Nieves Rosento

Nieves, a mother of three and grandmother of two, is a longtime environmental campaigner. Nieves transitioned into politics and was elected mayor of El Nido, the most popular tourist town on Palawan, in 2016. She defeated a member of one of Palawan’s most powerful political families in that election. President Rodrigo Duterte accused her in a national address of being a drug trafficker just ahead of the next elections in 2019 and threatened to kill her. Duterte provided no evidence for these accusations and she was never charged. But the unfounded allegations contributed to her loss in the 2019 elections. She continues her environmental and community activism, and recently successfully re-launched her political career.

Efren “Tata” Balladeres

Tata is a farmer and grandfather from southern Palawan who has been one of PNNI’s leading para-enforcers for many years. As a young man, Tata was the head of a para-military force created by the Philippine government to fight communist and Muslim insurgencies in Palawan. The unit was also meant to protect Palawan’s natural resources. Instead, it was assigned to illegally cut down trees. Tata has spent the rest of his life seeking redemption for the logging he was ordered to do as a paramilitary head.

“Kap” Ruben Arzaga

Born: Oct 29, 1967
Died: September 14, 2017

Kap was one of the PNNI's on-the-ground volunteer leaders, with his main area of responsibility the forested mountains around his home town of El Nido. Kap was a dedicated husband and father-of-five, and led his community as an elected village captain. Kap was determined to stop the destruction of his local environment, regardless of the risks to his own life.

About

About POV

Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. The series is known for introducing generations of viewers to groundbreaking works like Tongues Untied, American Promise and Minding The Gap and innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras and Nanfu Wang. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. All POV programs are available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video app, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.

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About American Documentary, Inc.

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