REPORT FROM SANDRA COOK:
At the centre an orangutan called Julius suddenly became ill. He was convulsing and frothing at the mouth. David, the English GP and the team at the centre flushed his system with drips and medicine. They did every-thing they could, but unfortunately the next day Julius passed away.
We filmed the team as they treated Julius, but it was so disturbing I couldn’t watch the rushers. I’m not sure if this will be in the film.
“It’s sad when any-one passes away, animal or human, but more so when it’s part of a species that’s on it’s way to extinction.” David
An hour after Lone learned that Julius had died; she received a call from the forestry department. They told her they’d found an orangutan in a village that needed to be confiscated.
We really needed to film Lone on a rescue and this was the scene we’d been waiting for. Lone had been sick for the past few days and was exhausted, but she said she’d go and allowed us to come.
It was a Friday night and I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be! We drove for five and a half hours on bumpy dirt roads through rain, and traffic chaos, listening to love songs. Lone’s a romantic at heart.
It was pitch black by the time we got to the village. Thankfully it had stopped raining. The orangutan had wandered into the village looking for food and someone had captured it and was holding it as a prestigious pet.
“What would you do if someone destroyed your supermarket?” Lone
The man said he’d only had it for a week and that someone else had been keeping it. He hands the orangutan over freely, but asks for money. Lone gives him an orangutan t-shirt, stickers and promotional pamphlets instead. The whole village came out into the street and watched as Lone loaded the cage onto the back of the Ute.
On the drive home Lone tells us that when she woke up this morning she had 640 orangutans at the centre, with one death and one rescue, the number remains the same.
The centre is stretched to the limit. As a result Lone has been forced to house the baby orangutans in her lounge room for the past six years! The next morning we went to Lone’s house, finally the babies are moving out, not too far, but to the house next door. Lone was elated as she put the final touches on the nursery, happy to be finally getting some privacy and space. Now she can have people to dinner or visitors stay. This is a major step towards life improvement.
As Lone did home renovations it looked like a typical Saturday after-noon in the West. Just like any parents who have newborns coming home for the first time, she was preparing the house for the babies. Lone the domestic goddess in domestic bliss!
We then followed Lone to the centre where she met Hardi. She tells Hardi about a pristine forest that is home to many orangutans. She knows that a palm oil company has been given permission to log the forest. The government gave permission stating that there were no orangutans in the area.
She asked Hardi to go to the plantation undercover, rescuing orangutans, but at the same time collect evidence in the form of photo's and video to show that there are orangutans living there.
Hardi stopped managing the rehabilitation center because he felt it was endless and as though he was just mopping the floor when someone really needed to turn off the tap. Hardi knows that this piece of forest has the highest density of surviving orangutans. He has to stop them logging it.
“Forest clearing for palm oil is worse than illegal logging, a excavator can clear 30 hectares a day, imagine if they have 10, that's 300 hectares a day! There are at least 250 palm oil companies. The destruction is massive. If you stop the company you can save the orangutans.” Hardi
We weren’t allowed to go into the field with Hardi because it’s too dangerous and Lone wouldn’t allow it. She didn’t want any-thing to risk his mission, it’s too important. I briefed Hardi about the footage we needed to tell his story and hoped for the best.
Over dinner we convinced Hardi to go to Bali for COP 13 in December. There he will take the evidence he acquired and show it to the media of the world. In terms of story telling, we really needed Hardi to go to Bali to link his and Lone’s story to the other characters in the film.
This was my favourite day, purely observational filmmaking. The nursery had an amazing feel to it and we just hung around waiting for nice moments. Lone and Hardi’s scene was also fantastic, all completely in the moment. I was so excited when I went to bed.
