Launching #WatchReadThinkAct 2022: Delikado

Attention book folk and film folk alike!

We're over the moon to be bringing back last year's collaboration with Take One Action, the UK’s leading global change film festival.

This year, our pals over at the festival have created an absolutely stunning, carefully curated program of films to move hearts, change minds and provoke action, all based on the meaning of the earth beneath our feet: 'land as material, as power, and as terrain for violence and resistance'. These are to be screened in four cities around Scotland: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness.

Under the banner of #WatchReadThinkAct we'll be releasing a reading list for each programmed film starting today, every week until the start of the Edinburgh festival (16 - 18th Sep). Each list is curated by one of our booksellers who, having watched the film, suggests pathways for further exploration through a list of books that you can order directly from the website. We'll also include links to grassroots organisations and international campaigns to explore, tied to the subject matter of each film: a toolkit for watching, reading, thinking and acting.

First up, for the launch of the series, Jess has watched Delikado (2022) directed by Karl Malakunas:

With fierce honesty and a proud tenderness, 'Delikado' explores what it really means, in pain, grief and courage, to put one's body between the earth we depend on and corporate greed, facilitated by government corruption. As we follow a community of land defenders, dedicating their lives to protecting the forest of El Nido from illegal logging, the disgraceful lack of accountability behind rampant deforestation is laid bare - a system in which human lives count for so much less than the profit that comes out at the end of a production line. The film teaches us so much, not only about what's happening in the Philippines, but about systems of explotation and the dangers of challenging them that present themselves in every place we most urgently need to protect.

The reading list below offers a mix of approaches to the themes in the film, from novels about the history and political context in the Philippines, to writing on wider environmental justice, land defence, and challenging capitalism in the quest to protect life.

Last but very much not least, these are organisations and groups to learn from and support:

PNNI - The Palawan NGO Network Incorporated works in the area depicted in Delikado to maximise impact on policy.

Parabukas is a women-led, Asia-based international consultancy focused on laws and policies related to climate change, the environment, and sustainable development.

Global Witness is an international NGO dedicated to holding companies and governments to account, protecting the human rights of those most vulnerable. You can learn more about land defenders in the Philippines through their investigation Defending the Philippines.

In 2020 a new Anti-Terrorism Act was passed in the Philippines, worsening the already dire human rights situation in what has been listed as the world's deadliest country for land and environmental defenders. You can learn more and sign a petition, endorsed by a coallition of climate justice groups, HERE.

For more local groups working in the spirit of land defense and community-building:

GalGael are a working community based in Glasgow who work together on demanding common tasks that demonstrate ways of living with more humanity in our times.

Reforesting Scotland works to encourage social and ecological restoration in Scotland.

Check back in next week for our next #WatchReadThinkAct list! Take One Action's program of screenings and additional online short films is available on their website HERE.