Films by Ulrich Kodjo Wendt

2023, 87 min
by Rubén Abruña

When sewers were built in the 19th century, they were regarded as a blessing. Deadly epidemics that wiped out millions of people became a thing of the past in the Western world. However, sewers also abolished the millennia-old tradition of using our excrement as fertilizer, and broke the nutrient cycle of grow-eat-excrete-compost-to grow food again. The modern flush and forget toilet discards our excrement as waste, while agriculture uses more mineral fertilizers to produce food. Mineral fertilizers which require large amounts of fossil fuels to be extracted or are non-renewable and whose global reserves are uncertain and difficult to predict.

2023, 82 min
by Frederik Subei

The forest guardians aim to stop illegal loggers who are rapidly diminishing their forest lands. Without any support from the government, they patrol one of the last remaining rainforests in the state of Maranhão, east of the Amazon in Brazil. The guardians also share their land with the Awá, one of the last uncontacted people in the world, who are under great threat of extinction. Poor equipment, no pay and the constant threat of the logging mafia does not deter them from standing up for their land. But their work is dangerous. Olimpio, the leader, has a price on his head. THIS IS OUR EVERYTHING tells the story of a people whose world is crumbling around them. For Olimpio and the forest guardians there is more at stake than the environment, the forest is at the very heart of their culture and identity.