Liberty Film 2014: There Once was an Island

Time: Thursday, 6/19/2014. 7:30PM.
Location: Patagonia Surf Bowery. 313 Bowery, New York, NY 10003

New York Outrigger is pleased to present Te Henua E Nnoho/There Once Was An Island as part of the 2014 Hawaiian Airlines Liberty Challenge. The film will be followed by a questions and answers session.

By 2050 between 50 and 200 million people will be displaced by climate change, many from the Asia-Pacific region. Small islands, especially those in the Pacific are at the fore front of the negative effects of climate change. Takuu or the Mortlock Islands are a small and unique Polynesian community in predominantly Melanesian Papua New Guinea who must make difficult decisions due to rising sea levels. Will they decide to leave their home which they have inhabited for over 1000 years?  Can they stick it out for a little while longer? Or will their home and unique culture be submerged under a rising sea?

Through three characters, Teloo, Endar and Satty, we are invited in to this community to take an intimate look at their daily life, culture, and how they must deal with this environmental crisis as an isolated community cut off from access to resources and support. Director Briar March has stated that she saw the situation of Takuu as an allegory for the whole planet, in that the Takuu response to change could be a symbol of how we in the rest of world respond to the changes that climate change brings. More profoundly perhaps is what one of the main characters, Satty says, “no matter how small you are, you are still part of the world, so if you lose something small in the world, you lose a lot.”

Trailer for There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho from On The Level Productions on Vimeo.