Fisher Stevens’ Rainforest Documentary ‘We Are Guardians’ to Stream More Widely This Earth Day
Fisher Stevens’ Documentary “We Are Guardians” Set to Debut on Earth Day
Fisher Stevens’ documentary We Are Guardians will premiere on multiple platforms on April 22, aligning with Earth Day. The film, which features executive producers Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson, and Phillip Watson from Appian Way, highlights the efforts of Indigenous forest defenders in Brazil’s Amazon.
Beginning on Earth Day, We Are Guardians will be available for streaming on the AVOD service Tubi in several English-speaking countries, including the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. It can also be rented or purchased on Amazon, Apple, Google Play, and Vimeo on Demand. The film has already been accessible on Netflix in Latin America and Prime Video in the UK and Germany.
The documentary chronicles the struggles of local communities striving to protect a critical ecosystem that serves as their ancestral home. It follows Marçal Guajajara, an Indigenous forest guardian, and Puyr Tembé, an Indigenous leader, as they confront the dangers of deforestation. The film also examines the plight of Valdir, an illegal logger trapped in poverty, grappling with the necessity of deforestation to support his family.
Directed by Edivan Guajajara, Chelsea Greene, and Rob Grobman, We Are Guardians premiered at the Hot Docs Festival and had a limited theatrical release in North America. It has also been screened at prominent venues, including the Brazilian Congress, the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and COP30.
Co-director Edivan Guajajara, a member of the Guajajara tribe, emphasized the global significance of the Amazon, stating, “People ask why they should care about a forest in Brazil when they live in Oregon or California or New York. Here is the answer: the Amazon generates 20 billion metric tons of water vapor every single day. That moisture becomes rainfall. That rainfall becomes crops. Those crops become food on your table.”
He added, “The companies that are destroying the Amazon, such as JBS and Cargill, are also the companies that influence the price of the food you buy. This is not a distant environmental problem. This is your grocery bill. This is your drought. This is your future.”
Directors Greene and Grobman shared their motivation for the film, stating, “We made this film to show what it looks like when communities refuse to back down against the most powerful corporations and governments on Earth—and win.”
Fisher Stevens, known for his roles in the Short Circuit films, is also an Oscar-winning producer, recognized for the dolphin-hunting documentary The Cove. We Are Guardians was produced by Stevens in collaboration with Zak Kilberg and Maura Anderson from the Highly Flammable label, alongside Greene from One Forest.
