Latest news with #HighlyFlammable
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Area23a Sets Release Date For ‘We Are Guardians,' Film About Amazon Rainforest Protectors From Producer Fisher Stevens, E.P. Leonardo DiCaprio
EXCLUSIVE: Area23a has acquired We Are Guardians, an urgent documentary on Indigenous defenders of the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil produced by Fisher Stevens' Highly Flammable, and Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way. Area23a is set to release the film theatrically on June 6 beginning in Los Angeles, followed by a nationwide 50 city theatrical screening tour. Amazon will be releasing We Are Guardians imminently in Germany and the U.K. The film is directed by Edivan Guajajara, co-founder of Mídia Indígena, Brazil's leading Indigenous-led journalism collective, and environmental filmmakers Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman. More from Deadline Kubrick Estate On Board Upcoming Documentary On Impact Of '2001: A Space Odyssey'; Leonardo DiCaprio, Mike Medavoy & More Producing Leonardo DiCaprio Kicks Off Warner Bros' CinemaCon With More Footage From Paul Thomas Anderson's 'One Battle After Another' Disney Near Deal For Hawaii-Set Crime Pic With Scorsese, Dwayne Johnson, DiCaprio & Emily Blunt: The Dish We Are Guardians follows Tembé and Guajajara forest guardians of Brazil 'in their fight to protect the Amazon Rainforest from destruction,' according to a release. 'Shot in a close, character-driven vérité style, the film explores the complex intersections of politics, history, economics, and science, shedding light on the global implications of deforestation in one of the world's most vital ecosystems.' Stevens, the Oscar-winning producer of The Cove, said in a statement, 'With the current administration gutting the EPA and NOAA, along with decimating climate protections, the message and impact of We Are Guardians to protect our world's lungs is more vital and urgent than ever before.' Area23a owner Kirt Eftekhar commented, 'We're thrilled to be partnering with the teams at Highly Flammable, Appian Way, Random Good, and the filmmakers behind We Are Guardians. This visually stunning film—made for the big screen experience—offers communities across North America a unique opportunity to come together, spark impactful discussion, and take part in the mission to protect the Amazon.' The pace of deforestation in Brazil's rainforest slowed between 2023-2024, but in that time frame it still lost close to 2,500 square miles – roughly the size of the state of Delaware. 'We Are Guardians is a prayer for the earth, for humanity, for connection and an appeal to the whole of human society at a time of deep polarization,' said directors Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman. 'This film not only introduces us to the forest guardians in the Brazilian Amazon, but also to the loggers, farmers, and ranchers who must be included in this important conversation.' Previously, ZDF Studios' Off the Fence acquired worldwide rights to We Are Guardians, excluding North America and Latin America. The film was acquired by Netflix in 2024 for a release across Latin America. 'Through the release to date and the impact campaign's fundraising efforts, We Are Guardians has already provided meaningful support directly to the forest guardians, begun reforestation and is now positioned to provide even greater support,' the release states. 'The theatrical release will significantly help us invite new, larger audiences to contribute/join this effort.' 'We are so delighted to see the impact this film has had in supporting the Amazon Rainforest and its guardians,' said Jennifer Davisson of Appian Way. 'While there has been significant reforestation efforts and guardian training achievements, our work does not stop here. Through the North American theatrical release of this film, we will continue to amplify the voices of these indigenous communities and activate future generations of activists.' Director Edivan Guajajara said, 'We Are Guardians was just a seed…real and definitive impact in the Amazon was always the ultimate goal. The impact campaign is an extension of my life and my people's way of life, dedicated to the protection of the Amazon Rainforest and its guardians.' Fisher Stevens, Zak Kilberg and Maura Anderson of Highly Flammable produced the documentary along with filmmaker Chelsea Greene of One Forest. Leonardo DiCaprio, Oscar-winning actor and activist, serves as executive producer with Jennifer Davisson and Phillip Watson of Appian Way Productions, in addition to Christopher Gebhardt and Randy Gebhardt of Random Good, Bruce Cohen, Edivan Guajajara, Flay Guajajara and Erisvan Bone Guajajara of Mídia Indígena, Rob Grobman, Iz Web, Luiza Krapels, and Marco Krapels. Co-executive producers are Conscious Good, Michael Grimm, Brigit Grimm, Heather Conforto Beatty and Scott Beatty. Area23a, based in Portland, OR, is an 'event-driven theatrical distribution and marketing company' founded in 2009. Distribution credits include the Prime Video release Common Ground (dir. Josh and Rebecca Tickell); Fantastic Fungi (dir. Louie Schwartzberg); Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me (dir. James Keach); HEAL (dir. Kelly Noonan Gores); and Revenge of the Electric Car (dir. Chris Paine). 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The Guardian
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Terror Danjah was the gregarious heart of the grime scene – and its greatest producer
It's not entirely surprising to hear the news of Terror Danjah's death, given he had been very unwell since suffering a stroke in 2019. But it still hits just as hard, and leaves a gaping absence in British music culture. Born Rodney Pryce, he was not only a foundational figure in grime at the turn of the millennium, but throughout his prolific career remained a great enthusiast, evangelist, musical explorer and connector of people. He was one of the first grime producers to work with singers, the first to have his instrumentals released in album form, and reached beyond the sometimes insular scene, joining dots into other areas of bass and club music, and helping grime itself to achieve maturity and longevity. He was also crucial in documenting the culture, and any conversation with him never stuck to music – his generally salacious anecdotes were packed with detail of how X was Y's cousin or went to school with Z, all precisely located on a detailed mental map of record shops, clubs and pirate station studios, and filling in inter-generational detail. So hilariously gossipy were his stories, it could often feel like an episode of grimey EastEnders, but it also brought the music culture vividly to life. Growing up in Forest Gate, east London, he had a standard early 90s adolescence listening to ragga and hip-hop, then jungle hit just as he was starting to collect records and DJ as Terror Danjah, He quickly built a reputation doing the rounds of house parties and youth clubs with his schoolfriend MC Dee – soon to be spelled out as D Double E. But he already had a deeper musical grounding, too: he had older siblings with diverse tastes, his brother-in-law had been on early pirates playing electro and house, and his dad was of the pre-reggae Jamaican generation and filled the family home with jazz, classical and country. He and Dee quickly got recruited by local pirate Future FM, then the bigger Rinse FM, and at the end of the decade, Terror Danjah tried his hand at his own jungle/drum'n'bass productions to little effect. But though he didn't like it much when his pirate peers made the switch to garage near the end of the decade, the minute he tried producing at that tempo, MCs and listeners were thrilled. The name 'grime' didn't exist yet, but he was tapping into the same set of influences as fellow Rinse names Wiley, Target, Geeneus and co, and tracks like 2002's Highly Flammable helped cement the sound: a wildly futurist music based around lurching bass, freezer-burned drum programming and fast-chatting lyricism. But Terror Danjah was already in a lane of his own even as he operated right at the heart of the nascent scene, having Skepta and Kano jumping on his beats, working with Nasty Crew and his own After Shock collective, and launching the careers of MCs like Bruza, Mz Bratt and Tinie Tempah. He helped create the R&B-grime hybrid 'R&G' with singers like Sadie and Shola Ama, but his instrumentals for MCs also had a unique musicality, combining Timbaland-style fidgety percussion, huge reggae soundsystem bass, melodic hooks galore and above all a natural sense of funk. This all helped him reach a wider electronica audience, and Gremlinz, his 2009 collection of beats for connoisseurs' label Planet Mu put a flag in the ground for grime as instrumental electronic music just as dubstep was beginning to outflank it. This was followed by music on Hyperdub alongside the likes of Burial and label boss Kode 9; helping to launch the Butterz imprint and parties, emphasising grime as party music above all; and generally forging links through the wider club and 'post-dubstep' scene. I first interviewed Terror Danjah around his early Hyperdub releases, and was bowled over by his geniality, generosity and love for his scene and locality. He became the biggest single inspiration for my book Bass, Mids, Tops, which mapped out UK bass music, and he took a starring role. Through the 2010s, his mercurial creativity seemed like maybe it kept him from the breakout success he deserved – he'd leap from making borderline EDM bangers to ultra-minimal dancehall, concept albums about planets to R&B rhythms for vocalist IAMDDB – often churning tracks out with little fanfare on his own Hardrive imprint. But every time I interviewed him or bumped into him at an industry do or rave, he seemed creatively fulfilled and happy to have the respect of his peers, getting regular collaborations with everyone from Wiley to Four Tet. It's bittersweet that he had just made his most coherent album yet, Invasion, when he was taken ill in 2019 – the thought of what might have come is almost too much to process. But he was already the best producer in all of grime, and so much more besides: his influence will only become more apparent with time.
