We know what we have done to the world, and we have the technology to fix it. Do we, and our future leaders, have the motivation?
In the heart of the great Pacific, a story is taking place that may change the way you see everything. ALBATROSS is a documentary offered as a free public artwork by Chris Jordan (Director, Writer and Editor) and Manuel Maqueda (Ocean Activist, Photographer and Co-founder of the Midway Project).
Here is the breathtaking, heartbreaking trailer:
Chris Jordan's ALBATROSS film trailer from chris jordan photographic arts on Vimeo.
THE EMOTION BEHIND ACTION
On the website dedicated to the film, Jordan says it all started as the world began to wake up to the issue of plastic.
“The journey of ALBATROSS began in 2008 as a collaboration with my friend, activist/photographer Manuel Maqueda. Studying the newly-emerging issue of ocean plastic pollution, we learned of a stunning environmental tragedy taking place on a tiny atoll in the centre of the vast North Pacific Ocean.
“We immediately began planning an expedition there, and on our first trip to Midway Island in September of 2009, we and our team photographed and filmed thousands of young albatrosses that lay dead on the ground, their stomachs filled with plastic.
“The experience was devastating, not only for what it meant for the suffering of the birds, but also for what it reflected back to us about the destructive power of our culture of mass consumption, and humanity’s damaged relationship with the living world.”
It can never be underestimated how much of an impact emotional connection can have on action. This is the philosophy guiding ANiMOZ, and it is what drove Jordan to spend years learning the craft of video production on his own:
“My wish was not only to tell the factual story of the albatrosses from an observational standpoint, but to convey the intensely vivid sensual, emotional, and spiritual experience of being with them on the island. My time with these magnificent beings was an internal experience as much as an external one, infused with often-overwhelming levels of beauty, lyricism, mystery, reverence, grief, and joy.
“And both the birds and the island resonated with richly poetic layers of symbolism, archetype, metaphor, and spirit. Midway felt to me like a kind of acupuncture point on the globe, emanating a transformative healing energy that if honoured in its full depth and breadth, could reach far out into the field of human collective consciousness. I felt it was vital to integrate all of these elements as a holistic approach to the documentary art form.”
You can learn more about ALBATROSS on the website here.