Oscar-winning director captures wild lar gibbon trapped in city

Oscar-winning director Ruby Yang has captured the story of a gibbon stranded in a Malaysian city and his journey home in the documentary "The Vanishing Song".

Hong Kong-based Yang hopes to raise public awareness about the critical challenge of balancing urban development with the preservation of natural wildlife habitats.

Meet Han, the singing gibbon at the heart of "The Vanishing Song".

The 37-minute documentary follows this wild lar gibbon trapped in a bizarre reality, stranded between highways and residential estates in a Malaysia city for five years.

Oscar-winning director Ruby Yang brings this fascinating story from her lens to the spotlight, documenting how a team of experts brings Han back safely to where he belongs.

His habitat was originally a big patch of forest, the government built a freeway, six lane freeway cut in the middle of the forest.

So he no longer can find food.

And then the neighbour will come to feed him with fuji apples, banana and all the goodies.

And the neighbours becoming probably his best friends.

But the lar gibbon belongs to the wild, it shouldn't be coming down to the

neighbourhood to get fed.

So that's the problem, he should be back to the wild.

The documentary draws inspiration from the late Dr.Jane Goodall, an English primatologist and anthropologist, whose conservation philosophy resonates throughout the film.

Quoting Goodall's words "biodiversity is a complex tapestry, if we pull one thread out, the ecosystem will collapse",Yang urges audiences to rethink our relationship with the nature world.

The world is expanding very quickly.

We try to get resources from the wild to develop, to build more housing for the people and expand our city.

But we have to consider, we are taking resources from the wild.

I think we have to find a balance between the two.

Beyond environmental advocacy, Yang also reflects on the changing media landscape, pointing out documentaries carry a unique and treasured value in an AI-driven era.

She stresses being physically present on locations, connecting face-to-face, and capturing raw human and animal emotions become more precious, something AI simply cannot replicate.

As the Director of the School of Future Media of University of Hong Kong, Yang seizes the opportunity to let her students to participate in the post production of the documentary, offering them hands-on industry experience.

Professor Yang has travelled to the United States to promote this documentary, hoping to make the shortlist of the Oscar's award.