‘The
Conservation Conversation’ directed by Ong Kah Jing is a documentary film that
grapples with the vagaries of modern conservation. Recipient of the DBS Gold
Award at the National Youth Film Awards in the non-media student category, the
film follows the journey of 24 curious NUS students and their quest to
Indonesia to investigate modern conservation efforts.
The
film is a triptych, segmenting their journey through Lombok, Bali and Flores. The
film opens its discussion with a brief on ‘The Dorsal Effect’, a
Singaporean-led ecotourism effort that seeks to provide Lombok fishermen with
an alternative to shark harvesting. The film casts an unflinching eye towards
the horrors of shark trading; using Lombok as a microcosm of the larger
industry, the film deftly amplifies the severity of overfishing that the world
at large is at risk of committing. Fortunately, the film does not construct an
easy villain out of these fishermen, noting their necessary drive for
livelihood and survival as their push towards shark trading.
The
doubts that the documentary raises over ‘The Dorsal Effect’s long term effects
on the ecosystem encapsulates succinctly the essential catch-22 that plagues
many, if not most, conservation efforts; that it is quagmire fraught with
compromises and no genuine solution. As noted in the film, the key problem
comes from the potential and perhaps probable complications that may arise in
the future as the result of measures undertaken now.
As
the team’s expedition progresses to Bali, a thread begins to emerge. Almost predictably
human, commerce repeatedly resurfaces as the counterweight and boogeyman to the
conservation and protection of the precious wildlife species. In the case
discovered by the team in Bali, an entire homegrown bird trading industry arose
due to the popularity of bird chirping competitions.
The
film closes out with a jaunt to Flores that serves as a thinly disguised call
to action, its pièce de résistance if you will. The words of expedition leader,
Dr John van Wyhe, ring out resoundingly and ominously in the closing segment; a
reluctant soothsayer reminding and warning us of humanity’s irrepressible and
often heedless drive for harvesting and consumption. It is not all doom and
gloom however, as the film hangs its last word on a defiant, almost hopeful
uptick, handing us the responsibility and challenging us to bend against our
nature.
Written by Koh Zhi Hao
You can catch 'The Conservation Conversation' here.
For the full list of August 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.
For the full list of August 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.