WATCH | AN INDIGENOUS LEADER BATTLES WILDFIRES IN INDONESIAN BORNEO

Wed 13 November 2024:

A new fire season crackles to life in Kalimantan as 29-year-old Emmanuela Shinta monitors the air quality and distributes face masks to thousands of villagers expecting the worst. But she knows it is not enough.

Each year, the region is prone to deadly fires caused by deforestation, trapping Borneo in a permanent state of ecological crisis. The fires of 2015 were so formidable, the haze could be seen from outer space.

Now, climate change events also threaten to exacerbate the tinderbox conditions under the forest floor. Shinta starts raising funds to buy a plot of forest that she hopes will save her village from going up in flames.

Fire Beneath Her is a documentary film by Denise Dragiewicz and Anson Hartford.