Jose tells me his sister, Tara Illenberger, has just completed directing and producing a new movie, Brutus, a story about the exploitation of child labourers in the logging industry, on the Philippine island of Mindoro.

Operating discreetly, the loggers forego the use of large transport equipment that could cut deep into the forests to bring the wood to the lowlands. Instead, the loggers employ juvenile (teenagers) labor. These kids, oftentimes Mangyans, haul the boards up and down the mountains, out from the forests until they reach a river, the fastest route leading to the town. Paid a meager sum and using only brute force, these workers are locally called “Brutus”, human machines driven by poverty to engage in this abusive labor system.