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What if you had to leave your home forever? Takuu, a tiny atoll in Papua New Guinea, contains the last Polynesian culture of its kind. Facing escalating climate-related impacts, including a terrifying flood, community members Teloo, Endar, and Satty, take us on an intimate journey to the core of their lives and dreams. Will they relocate to war-ravaged Bougainville - becoming environmental refugees - or fight to stay? Two visiting scientists investigate on the island, leading audience and community to a greater understanding of climate change.
There Once Was an Island is an excellent case study for discussions about displaced communities, democracy, decision making, adaptation, conservation, and human rights. Four years in the making and winner of 15 international awards, this PBS documentary inspires audiences young and old to consider the immediacy of climate change and its cultural, political and environmental impacts, now and into the future. Recommended by educators as a valuable teaching companion for courses in:
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"This emotionally charged documentary had audiences in tears... It will completely change your outlook on life." Raindance Film Festival.
There Once Was an Island powerfully depicts the islanders' struggle to come to grips with their changing world. I anticipate using this film for introductory classes in cultural anthropology, Pacific ethnography, and social and environmental change." Richard Feinberg, Professor of Anthropology, Kent State University.
"It is one thing to sit in a classroom and be taught about climate change, but it's another thing to be completely enraptured by the true reality of climate change taking its course. The movie explores many different teaching possibilities and can be used across numerous contexts..." Kapisha Patal, Social Sciences, High School Teacher, One Truee Hill College, New Zealand
The sinking of an island can signify the end of the world to a village elder, a logistical problem to an engineer, or merely an afterthought to a government official. The film eloquently tries to reconcile these opposing perspectives by gradually convincing us of the weight of small things." Sean Gilbert, Film Reviewer, London
The situation is presented through the islanders' eyes, with their complete cooperation, for the viewer to consider. Kudos to the filmmakers for telling their story as the islanders want it to be told and as the world needs to hear it." Dr IIan Kelman, Senior Research Fellow, Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, Oslo (CICERO) Norway
"...The way how the islanders act is exemplary for the democratic cooperation in the spirit of human dignity and mutual respect." Statement of the Jury for the Stiftung Friedliche Revolution at DOK Leipzig 2010, Germany
"Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth notwithstanding, the issue of climate change has never been conveyed more powerfully to laypersons than in Briar March's documentary There Once Was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho. Where Gore did show and tell, March does show, don't tell - and quietly sheets home the implications with greater force." Helene Wong, New Zealand Listener
"Unsensational, intimate and quietly passionate". March's meticulously observed examination of the crisis facing the small atoll of Takuu is an object lesson in patient documentary film-making." Four Stars, Peter Calder, New Zealand Herald
"... This film should be shown as widely as possible in schools and Universities. It should be shared, discussed and be a platform to instigate debates about individual responsibilities now, to slow down the process of climate change." Yvonne Carrillo-Huffman, Collections Officer, Pacific Collections and Community Engagement, Australian Museum, Australia.
"This film is a valuable contribution to the debate about climate change in the Pacific - it shows that, as with all aspects of climate science, the situation is complex. A heartening aspect of this complexity, and the film itself, is that the creation of climate refugees is not the only solution to the problem." John Hunter, Sea-Level Oceanographer, Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative, Research Centre, University of Tasmania, Australia
"Although not an ethnographic film, fragments of ethnographic methodology and questions of cultural survival inflect the documentary to produce a complex, layered narrative, making this a rich text for university-level documentary pedagogy." Dr. Geraldene Peters, Senior lecturer, Media Studies, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
"There Once Was an Island is a superb example of documentary in the digital age, illustrating what can be achieved on a minimal budget by an independent filmmaker with initiative and imagination. IT would amply repay study in any course on documentary film-making, and should; be a high priority acquisition for university libraries and AV collections." Russell Campbell (Dr), Adjunct Professor of Film, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
"This is an excellent film for introduction to anthropology classrooms, appropriate in particular to discussions about cultural preservation and loss, global climatic changes and expert/local knowledge". "Un excellent film pour un cours d’introduction à l’anthropologie, qui permet de discuter à la fois de la préservation et de la perte culturelles, des changements climatiques globaux et des rapports entre savoirs locaux et experts ". David Berliner, Dr, Associate Professor Editor of Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains, Université Libre de Bruxelles,
For a full list of screenings and awards visit: www.thereoncewasanisland.com/screenings.
