“We and the Woods” Film

Tara C. Trapani

Today, we shine a spotlight on one of the winners of the 2022 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest.

We in the Woods is a short film about the efforts of Indigenous Karen Buddhist ascetics in the tiny Thai village of Ban Hmong Kua to preserve their woodlands from development and ecological degradation. It won second runner up in the contest and provides a window into their world and their work, using their traditional ecological knowledge to combat the pollution and destruction of their home. See the full 13-minute film below.

 

About the Filmmaker: Weeraphan Thavorn is a filmmaker and graphic designer whose work has been featured on Thai public television. His film “We and the Woods” premiered at the 2022 Changing Climate, Changing Lives Film Festival, winning second place in the documentary shorts competition.

About the Contest: The Yale Environment 360 Film Contest honors the year’s best environmental documentaries, with the aim of recognizing work that has not previously been widely seen. This year we received 490 submissions from six continents, with a prize of $2,000 going to the winner.

 

You can read about the winner of this year's contest here and watch the films from this and previous year's winners at the e360 Vimeo channel