Lands
Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1
- MARSHALL ISLANDS, USA / 2012 / English / Color / Digital File / 87 min
Director, Script, Producer: Adam Jonas Horowitz
Photography: Adam Jonas Horowitz, Peter Blystone
Editing: Adam Jonas Horowitz, David Leach
Music: Richard Einhorn
Production Companies: Pacific Islanders in Communications, The Kindle Project, Equatorial Films, Primordial Soup
Source: Adam Jonas Horowitz
Between June 1946 and July 1958, the northern atolls of the Marshall Islands were exposed to sixty-seven nuclear tests equivalent to one Hiroshima bomb a day. Adam Horowitz examines the effects of the Castle Bravo test, the strongest US nuclear detonation in history which also received publicity in Japan due to the Daigo Fukuryumaru fishing boat’s exposure to it. While examining Project 4.1, a US study of the effects of nuclear fallout on humans, this film centers not only on survivor testimony and activism but also on American denialism surrounding the allegedly “accidental” damage caused to Marshallese lands and bodies in Rongelap Atoll, a place that was exposed to dangerous amounts of radioactive fallout.
Shorts by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Marshall Islander poet, artist, and activist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner is a brave and visionary young leader whose work has empowered Pacific Islander youth and helped the world recognize the challenges faced by the people of the contemporary Pacific region. When chosen to address the United Nations Climate Summit in 2014, Kathy’s performance earned her a standing ovation from world leaders and helped to launch her career. Fearlessly outspoken in her fight to prevent climate change, raise awareness about nuclear legacies, and to achieve justice and healing for Marshallese and other Pacific Islanders, she continues to make video poems, art, and performances all over the world.
Dear Matafele Peinam
- MARSHALL ISLANDS, HAWAI‘I [USA], USA / 2014 / English / Color / Digital File / 3 min
Directors: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Natalia Vega-Berry
Poem, Performance: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Executive Producers: Michael Tracy, Elizabeth Krajewski
Producer: Natalia Vega-Berry
Source: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Islands Dropped from a Basket
- MARSHALL ISLANDS, USA / 2017 / English / Color / Digital File / 5 min
Directors: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Russell Thoulag, Yu Suenaga
Poem, Performance: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Source: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Anointed
- MARSHALL ISLANDS, USA / 2018 / English / Color / Digital File / 6 min
Directors: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Dan Lin
Editing: Nick Stone
Music: Marmoset
Poem: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Executive Producer: Pam Omidyar
Production Company: Pacific Resources for Education & Learning
Source: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Rise: From One Island to Another
- MARSHALL ISLANDS, KALAALIT NUNAAT (GREENLAND) [DENMARK], USA / 2018 / English / Color / Digital File / 7 min
Directors: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Dan Lin
Editing: Nick Stone
Sound Engineer: Frederik K. Elsner
Poem: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Aka Niviâna
Producer: Oz Go
Production Company: 350.org
Supported by: Pacific Resources for Education & Learning
Source: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner is a Marshall Islander poet, performance artist and an educator. She received Master’s in Pacific Island Studies from the University of Hawai‘i at Mnoa, and has won international acclaim through her poetry performance at the opening of the United Nations Climate Summit in New York in 2014. Her writing and performances have been featured by CNN, NBC News, National Geographic, and more. Besides writing and performance, Kathy co-founded the youth environmentalist non-profit organization Jo-Jikum, dedicated to empowering Marshallese youth to seek solutions to climate change and other environmental impacts threatening their home islands. She has also been selected as one of 13 Climate Warriors by Vogue in 2015, the Impact Hero of the Year by Earth Company in 2016, and was selected as an MIT Media Lab Fellow and Obama Foundation Asia Pacific Leadership Fellow in 2019.
Anote’s Ark
- KIRIBATI, CANADA / 2018 / English, Kiribati, Japanese / Color / Digital File / 77 min
Director, Photography, Producer: Matthieu Rytz
Editing: Oana Suteu Khintirian, Mila Aung-Thwin
Sound Design: Sylvain Bellemare
Music: Patrick Watson
Executive Producers: Bob Moore, Mila Aung-Thwin, Daniel Cross, Shari Sant Plummer, Shannon O’Leary Joy
Production Company, Source: Eye Steel Film
With the rise in sea levels due to global warming, the Republic of Kiribati continues to lose land area. In this film, former President Anote Tong, much loved by Kiribati’s people, is forced into action by the critical situation. As he appeals to the international community to recognize the calamity, he explores options to move his people. Also portrayed is the struggle of Sermary, a young mother of six, who has just won the right to immigrate to New Zealand. Quietly, powerfully, the relevance to us of the crisis faced by this nation in the vast Pacific is revealed.