SEMINAR: Three people in a unique Pacific Island community face the first devastating effects of climate change, including a terrifying flood. Will they decide to stay with their island home or move to a new and unfamiliar land, leaving their culture and language behind forever?
This is the reality for the culturally unique Polynesian community of Takuu, a tiny low-lying atoll north-east of Bougainville. As a terrifying tidal flood rips through their already damaged home, the Takuu community experiences the devastating effects of climate change first hand.
In this verite-style film, There Once was an Island, three intrepid characters Teloo, Endar and Satty, allow us into their lives and their culture and show us first hand the human impact of an environmental crisis. Two scientists, oceanographer John Hunter and geomorphologist Scott Smithers, investigate the situation with our characters and consider the impact of climate change on communities without access to resources or support. Intimate observational scenes allow Teloo, Endar and Satty to take us on their personal journeys as they consider whether to move to an uncertain future in Bougainville or to stay on Takuu and fight for a different, but equally uncertain, outcome.
This film gives a human face to the direct impacts of climate change in the Pacific, challenging audiences everywhere to consider their own relationship to the earth and the other people on it.
This public screening and workshop is ideal for student journalists and industry media people working on environmental and climate change assignments. Film producer Lyn Collie will introduce the documentary and take part in discussion on the many issies raised.
Director: Briar March
When: Thursday, 15 March 2012
Time: 6.00-8.30pm
Where: WT1004 seminar room, next door to the Pacific Media Centre, WT1006, AUT Tower, 2 Rutland St.
Map: www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/contact