My Octopus Teacher Studio, Off The Fence, Acquires Timely Rainforest Documentary

ZDF Studios’ Off the Fence, the company behind Netflix’s BAFTA and Oscar-winning doc My Octopus Teacher, has acquired the worldwide rights (excluding North America and Latin America) to We Are Guardians. Executive produced by Appian Way Productions and produced by Highly Flammable, the documentary is the feature debut of directors Edivan Guajajara, co-founder of Mídia Indígena, the leading Indigenous-led investigative journalism collective in Brazil, and environmental filmmakers, Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman.

Winner of the Cinema for Peace Green Film Award, the Jackson Wild Impact Award, the Best Documentary Award at Raindance Film Festival, and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Mostra São Paulo International Film Festival, We Are Guardians tells an urgent story set in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, where Indigenous forest guardians stand at the frontlines of the fight to protect their ancestral lands from relentless invasions and deforestation. As more and more people illegally invade their lands each year, devastating centuries-old forests for resources and fast profits, these small groups of guardians risk everything to protect their forest and way of life.

Ahead of We Are Guardians’ release, the team from OTF will kick off sales at international content market MIPCOM this October in Cannes.

'We are so excited to partner with Off The Fence on this next phase of We Are Guardians. We look forward to amplifying the urgent message of this documentary and the crucial role indigenous peoples play in preserving our communities’ biodiversity. Their environmental stewardship is so important for our collective future', notes Highly Flammable producer, Fisher Stevens.

'We are Guardians' is a film about extraordinary people, who are passionately fighting for their home. A home which the entire world is reliant upon being protected. The team behind the film have created a beautiful, expertly crafted, intimate and profoundly powerful film and we expect a lot of interest at MIPCOM', says Loren Baxter, Head of Acquisitions and Co-Productions at Off the Fence.

A veteran producer, Fisher Stevens came to We Are Guardians following work on the Oscar-winning conservation documentary, The Cove, and after having collaborated with Appian Way on several other documentaries, including And We Go Green and Before the Flood.

Executive producers of We Are Guardians include tribal members of the Guajajara people and Mídia Indígena founders Erisvan Bone Guajajara, Flay Guajajara, and co-director Edivan Guajajara, along with Leonardo DiCaprio, Phillip Watson, Jennifer Davisson, Academy Award winner Bruce Cohen, Christopher Gebhardt, Randy Gebhardt, Rob Grobman, Iz Web, Luiza Krapels, Marco Krapels. Co-executive producers are Brigit Grimm, Michael Grimm, Heather Conforto Beatty, and Scott Beatty. Production companies are Mídia Indígena, One Forest, Highly Flammable, Random Good, and Appian Way.

Alongside the film, the We Are Guardians team has created a robust impact campaign bringing tremendous support to the Indigenous forest guardians and kickstarting reforestation and agroforestry projects in Indigenous territories along the eastern edge of the Amazon–a region critical to the health of the entire Amazon. In addition, the impact work has focused on educating and campaigning for a deforestation-free supply chain around the world.

We Are Guardians was acquired earlier this year by Netflix throughout Latin America and the producers are currently in negotiations for a theatrical release across North America in Q1-2025.

 

 

 

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