Radical Listening” with Indigenous Communities

Client: Ashden Climate Awards
Subject: ASRI (Indonesia)

Exposure.ph traveled to Indonesia to partner with the Ashden Climate Awards, showcasing the transformative environmental initiatives of ASRI. In this documentary short, we highlighted ASRI’s approach to creating community-designed solutions through a process of “radical listening” with Indigenous populations.

Our production captured the profound connection between human well-being and the health of the forest. As detailed in the campaign, ASRI provides a sustainable way out of deforestation by purchasing chainsaws from loggers and offering them startup capital and training for alternative livelihoods. Through intimate, on-the-ground interviews, we documented the journey of a former logger who transitioned to becoming a fisherman with ASRI’s financial support and SME programming. We captured how this program allowed him to build savings, repay his seed funding, and permanently step away from logging. This piece reflects our ongoing commitment to traveling across Asia to craft visually compelling stories about vital, community-driven climate solutions.