Novo Amor & Ed Tullett
TERRAFORM
Music Video - Fundraising Platform - Documentary - 2018
Directed by Jorik Dozy & Sil van der Woerd
Terraform tells the true story of the hardships and sacrifices the sulphur miners of Kawah Ijen in Indonesia make in order to provide for their family.
Director's Jorik Dozy & Sil van der Woerd
" When we learned about the miners of Kawah Ijen, we set out to tell their story as true as possible. When we met the miners in person, we realised that their story was so interesting, we simply had to tell it."
Together with about 100 more miners, Bas (the real miner featured in the video) extracts sulphur from the highly toxic crater of mount Ijen in Indonesia. Two times a day they carry loads weighing up to 95KG each up to the rim of the volcano and down the mountain, all without the use of any modern tools or equipment. All for less than 10 dollars a day.
With a reduced life expectancy and deteriorating health, Bas sacrifices himself to sustain his family and give his children a future.
To capture the video we followed Bas into the active volcano and experienced what the miners go through in a day's work; When the sulfur gasses hit us the cloud was so thick and big, there was no way to escape it. Even with our gas masks and goggles on it was unbearable as the smoke stung our eyes and lungs, making it almost impossible to breath at times. But the miners have no masks or goggles. They simply wear a piece of cloth in front of their mouth.
We covered our camera to protect it from the toxic sulfur fumes so we could film right in the middle of it, getting the close ups of the miners in action.
To achieve the family floating in the air we build an improvised rig in between trees on a school yard with the help of the local school teachers.
Watch The Story of Terraform, a behind the scenes documentary that dives into the hardships of the miners and their families:
Ijen Assistance - Get Involved
We were so touched by the miners' story and their warmheartedness in spite of it, that we felt no other choice but to raise awareness and try to help them. We founded Ijen Assistance; a platform that raises funds to help the Ijen community. The project is linked to Heinz von Holzen, who found out about the miners long before us and put incredible effort into helping them. He introduced trolleys so that the miners no longer have to carry the sulphur down the mountain, his foundation sends the miners' children to school, and provides the miners with clothes and shoes.
Through the video and website we hope to inspire others. We learned that a relatively small sum of money to us, means a lot to the miners and literally takes an incredible weight off of their shoulders.
To donate, please visit:
Novo Amor & Ed Tullett's visit
While travelling to Indonesia to perform a concert in Jakarta, artists Novo Amor and Ed Tullett took a detour in their trip and visited Kawah Ijen and Bas and his family.
They personally handed over the first check of donations collected through the Ijen Assistance project.
