In one of the last remaining wildernesses in South East Asia, Cambodian community activists are struggling to defend their forests. Rubber companies illegally cut down resin trees that the local population depends on, arguing the rubber industry is good for the area, providing jobs and development.

Environmentalist Chut Wutty, defies threats and intimidation and fearlessly investigates the corrupt logging syndicates. In April 2012 he travelled to the Cardamom mountains to investigate an illegal, military-controlled logging site, where he was stopped and shot dead.

Featuring exclusive footage of Wutty in the months leading up to his death, interviews with activists and family members as well as those benefiting from deforestation, I am Chut Wutty exposes the fierce battle against illegal logging.

Directed by Fran Lambrick
Duration: 57′
Year: 2014

On April 26th, Cambodian anti-logging activist Chut Wutty was killed by military police near one of the protected areas he was monitoring. The shooting was one of the most shocking episodes in the fierce battle to save the country’s forests from destruction by powerful, corrupt elites who have accumulated vast wealth from their plunder while the people remain devastatingly poor.

Wutty worked with many communities who find themselves in the firing line, fighting for their rights and those of the forest. This exclusively commissioned film explains why they stood firm in the face of extreme intimidation and state-sponsored brutality, and why he was willing to pay the ultimate price to protect the forest from the march of the loggers.

A showing of the ten minute film will be followed by interviews with colleagues of Wutty’s about their cause and the threats they face. This will then be followed by a session chaired by Global Witness on the links between natural resources, corruption and conflict in Cambodia and elsewhere internationally.

Chair by Christopher Mitchell, Managing Director of OR Media Ltd and Chair of the Global Witness Trust. He is an award-winning writer, producer and director whose films, mostly on international affairs, have been shown on most of the world’s leading TV networks. He has written for the Sunday Times and Independent on Sunday, and been a visiting lecturer at Oxford University, the Royal College of Art and the National Film School.

With:

Mike Davis, Head of the Conflict Resources Campaign at Global Witness.

Markus Hardtke and Sen Samnang, who have both worked with Wutty to protect Cambodia’s forests and other natural resources from destruction for many years.