»Most of all we need a shift in how we look at the world«

Boris Johnson drowning in plastic waste or people covered in crude oil. Sulfur miners floating over the steaming landscape of Indonesia where they do their deadly job – or a giant whale crossing the ocean that turns out to be built of trash: with cinematic power, an exceptional trained eye and with visual effects that are state of the art, Studio Birthplace tells of climate change and environmental destruction, animal cruelty and so­ cial injustice – and calls for action. We talked to the foun­ ders and creative directors, Sil van der Woerd und Jorik Dozy, about the beauty of the world, the responsibility of the creative industry to initiate change, about the po­ wer of images – and hope.

Sil, you’re living in the Netherlands and you, Jorik, in Bali. That’s quite far away from each other. How are you making this work?

Jorik Dozy: Our journey is pretty strange anyway. We are both Dutch but met in Los Angeles studying at the Gnomon school of visual effects and then ended up starting a company together while living on opposite sides of the world. But we make it work. We feel like brothers – there’s absolutely zero ego involved, and our communication is extremely fluent. It doesn’t matter where we are in the world.

What brought you to Bali, Jorik?

Jorik: As Sil was working as an independent director for music videos, short films and commercials, I was building a career in special effects working on big Hollywood productions for Industrial Light & Magic, first in San Francisco and then in Singapore. That was very exciting, ILM is famous for going into extreme detail, every pixel has to be perfect, und you get a really trained eye. At the same time, I started collaborating with Sil on our own projects, and the urge to break out of the corporate system grew stronger and stronger. When Wasteminster – the spot we did for Greenpeace in 2021 – went viral, I felt it was time to let go of my visual effects career.