EXCLUSIVE: ZDF Studios-owned Off the Fence, the company behind Oscar winner My Octopus Teacher, has signed deals with Prime Video to release its
EXCLUSIVE: ZDF Studios-owned Off the Fence, the company behind Oscar winner My Octopus Teacher, has signed deals with Prime Video to release its Amazon rainforest documentary We Are Guardians in the UK and Germany.
Prime Video will debut the film on its platform in both countries on June 20, two weeks after Area 23a opened the film theatrically in Los Angeles as part of a 50-city summer theatrical screening tour. As previously announced, Netflix acquired rights for Latin America.
We Are Guardians premiered at Hot Docs in 2023 followed by select festival appearances including Raindance, Rio, and the Mostra São Paulo International Film Festival, where it won the audience award.
The documentary follows Indigenous defenders of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil as they fight to protect their ancestral lands from invasion and deforestation. The ecosystem stabilises global weather patterns and generates much of the world’s rain, and rampant deforestation and tree canopy loss in the region has been linked to a global augment in extreme weather.
Leonardo DiCaprio served as executive producer alongside Jennifer Davisson and Phillip Watson of Appian Way Productions, Christopher Gebhardt and Randy Gebhardt of Random Good, Bruce Cohen, Rob Grobman, Iz Web, Luiza Krapels, and Marco Krapels. The roster includes tribal members of the Guajajara people and Mídia Indígena founders Erisvan Bone Guajajara, Flay Guajajara, and co-director Edivan Guajajara.
Fisher Stevens produced with Zak Kilberg and Maura Anderson of Highly Flammable, the company Stevens co-founded in 2023. Chelsea Greene of One Forest also produced, and is the film’s co-director alongside Rob Grobman and Guajajara.
Stevens, whose credits include The Cove and miniseries Beckham, said: “It’s very important that the film is accessible in locations where consumer buying decisions and trade policies, affecting the health of the Amazon rainforest, are made.”
Guajajara added, “We Are Guardians was just a seed… real and definitive impact in the Amazon was always the ultimate goal. The impact campaign is an extension of my life and my people’s way of life, dedicated to the protection of the Amazon Rainforest and its guardians.”
The deals were negotiated by Off the Fence, which represents worldwide rights excluding North America and Latin America.
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