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SCREENING ORDER:
(Total duration of compilation: 4 hours 5 minutes 33 seconds)

PHOTOGRAPHER PROFILE: ROSLAN BIN CARANG
Duration: 2:25
Language: Bahasa Melayu
Subtitle: English

PHOTOGRAPHER PROFILE: MARISAN A/K PANDAK
Duration: 3:09
Language: Bahasa Melayu
Subtitle: English

TRAILER – BACKYARD RAINFORESTS
Duration: 1:00
Language: English, Bahasa Melayu
Subtitle: English

DOCUMENTARY – BACKYARD RAINFORESTS
Duration: 23:00
Languages: English, Bahasa Melayu
Subtitles: Bahasa Melayu, English

Synopsis
What does a lepidopterist, an art supporter and goat farmers have in common? With the common goal of racing to save Malaysia’s native tree species from the brink of extinction, the group is suddenly faced with an unexpected mass flowering of the forests. Seeds by the hundreds of thousands are ripe for the picking, but during a Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, will they be able to save the seeds on time and safeguard a future for these rare trees to help mitigate climate change? Not just that, the loss of the country’s Central Forest Spine will ultimately mean the local extinction of the Malayan tiger, Asian elephant and most hornbill species.

Q&A: TREES FOR THE FUTURE: SAFEGUARDING THE CENTRAL FOREST SPINE
(based on the Backyard Rainforests film, and Star Lifestyle’s EcoWatch feature articles “Nurturing Rainforests” and “Citizen Conservationists”)
Duration: 1:07:08

Moderated by Lau Joon-Nie, Singapore Press Club Vice-President
A lawyer by training, Joon-Nie spent over 15 years in broadcast television as a law and technology reporter, interactive producer, news and current affairs editor at Channel NewsAsia and its predecessors SBC News and TCS News. She then spent seven years at Nanyang Technological University, where she taught courses in news an PR writing, news presentation and overseas reporting. Until January 2022, she was Director, Asia at the World Association of News Publishers.

Assisted by Norsham Yaakob and Grace Chin

Panelists:
Henry Sackville Barlow, Owner of Genting Tea Estate
Henry was born in the UK, and trained as a chartered accountant. He was with Barlow Boustead Estates Agency Sdn Bhd, as its financial director and joint Managing Director of Highlands & Lowlands Group where he was very largely responsible for the Malaysianization of Highlands. He was the Honorary Treasurer of the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) for 27 years, and past Chairman of Board of Trustees, MNS. He also served as Council member and Honorary Treasurer of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society which involved considerable work assisting with the Society’s Journal and other publications. He is currently Chairman of New Britain Palm Oil Limited (NBPOL) on its acquisition by Sime Darby. He is also the Chair of the Grievance Committee of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

Simon KL Hok, Manager at Genting Tea Estate
Simon has worked at Genting Tea Estate for 30 years. He is responsible for tree planting and updating the database through mapping, tagging and photography.

Angela Hijjas, Owner of Rimbun Dahan
Angela has been living in Malaysia for 50 years, having come as an Australian volunteer in ’72 to work with Jabatan Peranchang.  After marrying, she worked with her architect husband, raised their family and then became involved with the Malaysian Nature Society and WWF Malaysia. Since ’93 she has managed the artists’ residency at Rimbun Dahan, where she has established an indigenous South East Asian species garden on her 14 acres, and nurtured Dipterocarps to form the canopy of the garden. Collecting seeds during the masting season in 2021 has initiated a nursery of local species to share with other rewilding enthusiasts.

Razak Aziz and Intan Jailani, Co-founders of SEEDS Malaysia
Razak holds a General Degree in Art & Design from MARA Institute of Technology. He has over 35 years’ experience in designing and creative project management, that includes designing for theme parks, exhibitions & museums for local and international clients. Since 2006. together with wife Intan and their six kids, they ventured into off-the-grid-farming. Now they operate a hands-on suburban farmstead training centre in Klang that offers programmes from co-curriculum based experiential workshops, to mentoring and coaching of wholistic natural urban and sub-urban farming based on Permaculture principles, with a focus on empowering the young ones towards ‘own community food production’. They are also actively making a difference addressing climate change via volunteerism and are now advisors to some NGOs on sustainable community empowering programmes.

Shah Redza Hussein, Director, Perak State Parks Corporation (PSPC)
Shah is an economist by training and a conservationist by passion. Over the decades Shah Redza has been involved in various NGO work especially in areas of nature conservation & environmental protection, indigenous & marginalised community development, sustainability, social equity and Community Based Conservation. He has directly been involved on several governmental-led national projects at the strategic development level. At PSPC, he is mandated to head and manage Protected Areas in the State of Perak which includes the protection, conservation and enforcement of the Royal Belum State Park, the conservation islands of the Pulau Sembilan State Park and the lowland wetlands of Kinta Nature Park. PSPC also manages the Kinta Valley National Geopark. Shah Redza was recently awarded the 2020 Global Winner of the Dr. Rimington Award for Tiger Conservation by the WWF Tiger Alive programme committee based in the United Kingdom.

Afzaa Abdul Aziz, Project Manager at Tropical Rainforest Conservation & Research Centre (TRCRC)
Afzaa is a Project Manager based at the Elmina Rainforest Knowledge Centre, responsible for activating public outreach programmes and managing the ex situ Elmina Living Collection Nursery of endangered native rainforest tree species in Selangor. She’s involved in stakeholder engagement, corporate sustainability training and biodiversity and conservation management. She holds a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Cities from King’s College London, Bachelor’s Degree in Development Studies & Economics from SOAS, University of London. Actively dedicated to tropical rainforest conservation and community-led conservation after a stint at Osa Conservation, Costa Rica.

Elango Velautham, Deputy Director, Singapore Botanic Gardens
Formerly with the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), Elango’s education background: BSc (HONS) Hort; MSC, DIC (Imperial College, University of London). Foci: Conservation, reforestation/restoration/rehabilitation, arboriculture, plant databases, nursery management for rare species

Leong Hon Yuen, Documentary Journalist
Hon Yuen is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with 30 years of experience in the media industry. She works in print, online, and broadcast media for a number of local and international media agencies and broadcasters. In 2009, she founded Factual TV so that she could explore stories on the environment, intangible heritage, and complex human-interest perspectives. In 2017, she started teaching digital media skills to marginalized communities so they can tell better narratives themselves. She is an associate member of the National Union of Journalists Malaysia, a member of the Malaysian Documentary Association and the Film Directors Association of Malaysia.

PHOTOGRAPHER PROFILE: MUSTAPA A/L RAMLEE
Duration: 2:36
Language: Bahasa Melayu
Subtitle: English

PHOTOGRAPHER PROFILE: NOORDIN BIN ASU
Duration: 2:05
Language: Bahasa Melayu
Subtitle: English

VIDEO: ARBORETUM OF GENTING TEA ESTATE GUIDED WALK BY HENRY S. BARLOW
Duration: 13:00
Language: English
Subtitle: Bahasa Melayu

Synopsis

Lepidopterist Henry Barlow gives viewers a virtual guided walk to his backyard rainforest, a former tea estate in what used to be surrounded by the Central Forest Spine in Pahang. On the walk, he points out interesting trees some of which are rare and endangered in the wild. His estate manager Simon Hok concludes the walk by showing viewers how to plant and care for a dipterocarp tree seedling.

PHOTOGRAPHER PROFILE: AZAM BIN CARANG
Duration: 2:20
Language: Bahasa Melayu
Subtitle: English

PHOTOGRAPHER PROFILE: DEDI BIN ROSLAN
Duration: 2:00
Language: Bahasa Melayu
Subtitle: English

TRAILER – LAK WAK TU NENG (TRACKING LOVE)
Duration: 00:40
Language: Jahai, Temiar, Bahasa Melayu, English
Subtitle: English

DOCUMENTARY: LAK WAK TU NENG (TRACKING LOVE)
Duration: 28:00
Languages: Jahai, Temiar, Bahasa Melayu, English
Subtitles: Bahasa Melayu, English

Synopsis

In Malaysia, at the start of the breeding season, indigenous trackers set off on foot for hours in the Temenggor Forest Reserve tracking hornbill breeding signs to get to the love nests before the poachers and loggers do. While Azam Carang and Marisan Pandak team up to scour the lush and dense forests, Roslan Carang is teaching his son Dedi on the job. Dedi is the youngest of the Hornbill Guardians but he is just as passionate knowing what is at stake – without hornbills the Orang Asli’s livelihood is in jeopardy.

Q&A: LAK WAK TU NENG (TRACKING LOVE)
Duration: 1:38:12
Languages: English, Bahasa Melayu

Moderated by Dr Serina Rahman, Visiting Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
Serina examines issues of (un)sustainable development, rural politics and political ecology. She is also Adjunct Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore where she teaches Environmental Politics of Southeast Asia in the Southeast Asian Studies Department. Trained as a conservation scientist, her practice is in community empowerment and ecotourism, citizen science and environmental education for coastal habitat conservation and marine artisanal fisheries resource management. She is an Iskandar Malaysia Social Hero Award Winner for Environmental Protection (2014), and was recently highlighted as a Channel NewsAsia Climate Warrior.

Assisted by Grace Chin

Panelists:
Roslan bin Carang, longest serving Hornbill Guardians of all the six. He has participated at international science/conservation conferences, indigenous people’s celebratory event and co-authored journal papers. He is a past participant of a photography workshop supported by the European Union through BirdLife International-led “Strengthening Non-State Actor Involvement in Forest Governance” Project. Roslan is from Kampung Chuweh in Temenggor Forest Reserve.

Marisan A/K Pandak, Hornbill Guardian. He has participated in international science/conservation conferences, indigenous peoples’ celebratory events, and he has co-authored journal papers. He has also been trained by the Thailand Hornbill Project team in hornbill conservation skills. He is a former participant in a photography workshop supported by the European Union through the BirdLife International-led “Strengthening Non-State Actor Involvement in Forest Governance” project. Marisan is from Kampung Chuweh in Temenggor Forest Reserve.

Yeap Chin Aik graduated from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM, Bangi) with MSc in Conservation Biology. He has been working for the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) for the past 20 years. Currently the Lead Investigator/Co-Founder of the MNS Hornbill Conservation Project and also the Senior Conservation Officer/Project Manager in the MNS Conservation Division in the Secretariat (Kuala Lumpur). While working for MNS, he has carried out various bird and non-bird conservation initiatives/activities. He is also currently a Steering Committee member of the IUCN Hornbill Specialist Group and Lead of the Habitat Subgroup under the IUCN Helmeted Hornbill Working Group.

Leong Hon Yuen is a documentary journalist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with 30 years of experience in the media industry. She works in print, online, and broadcast media for a number of local and international media agencies and broadcasters. In 2009, she founded Factual TV so that she could explore stories on the environment, intangible heritage, and complex human-interest perspectives. In 2017, she started teaching digital media skills to marginalized communities so they can tell better narratives themselves. She is an associate member of the National Union of Journalists Malaysia, a member of the Malaysian Documentary Association and the Film Directors Association of Malaysia.

Guest Hornbill Guardian:
Noordin bin Asu has participated in Indigenous people’s celebratory events and co-authored journal papers. He lives in Kampung Sungai Tiang in Royal Belum State Park. Noordin didn’t appear in the documentary Lak Wak Tu Neng as production funds were very limited. He appears on the panel to add his voice as a Hornbill Guardian.