Several months ago on a drizzly London night, I received an email. It highlighted a new campaign, Action4Climate, challenging aspiring filmmakers to produce a short documentary tackling climate change. I was immediately hooked; I wanted to tell the story of my mother's home nation, Kiribati, in the Pacific Ocean.
At a glance, you would be hard pressed to locate Kiribati (pronounced Kiri-bas) on a world map. It is comprised of 32 low-lying atolls and one raised coral island. They are islands that, while not quite at the back of beyond, are seemingly located in that general area.
However, for people in the know, Kiribati's presence on the world map has recently and paradoxically taken a higher profile because of the alarming rate of rising sea levels that threaten to submerge the islands.
The nation is on the front-line of climate change and the Kiribati government has been forced into thinking about its future. With a population of over 100,000, its citizens may soon become refugees, constituting perhaps the first large-scale displacement of people due to global warming. The irony of contemplating the issue in my chilly London flat while cocooned under my duvet was not lost to me.
While Kiribati's remoteness has carved out its unique identity, it also means that the majority of the world easily overlooks the nation. When dealing with inquisitive minds I've always had to explain how one got to Kiribati: London to LA, then on to Fiji and finally Tarawa, Kiribati – just a casual hop, skip and jump away.
Due to the country's relative seclusion, it would be so easy for people to think who cares? It was this potential for apathy that motivated me to draw an audience to the issue and gave me the idea for my Action4Climate submission Tinau.
I joined more than 230 others from 70 different countries who sent in their climate stories to Action4Climate, the latest international video competition organised by Connect4Climate. The entries covered a wide range of impacts from climate change, including drought in Jamaica, disappearing equatorial glaciers in Uganda's mountains and forest depletion in Nigeria. The winning videos will be selected by a jury of renowned filmmakers led by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci.
My secret weapon in tackling the topic was my Mum (as is often the case for my life's predicaments). 'Tinau' in I-Kiribatese simply means 'my mother'. Through a mixture of one-on-one interviews, observational footage filmed by myself, and old VHS movies of Kiribati shot by my English father, the film evolved into a personal and intimate family portrait.
It presents a patchwork of my Mum's behaviours, many of them binding her back to her native homeland. Whether it is her love for dancing, singing and playing the ukulele, or her dislike of cold weather, British food, and losing out in bingo, all her idiosyncrasies share a common thread: her Kiribatese upbringing. Perhaps Mum's quirks offer an insight into Kiribati's culture and humour. Presenting her is my way of getting people to care about a string of little islands out in the middle of nowhere.
Our one-on-one interviews on climate change were 'lost in translation' conversations. For years I had quizzed her on the topic, and usually was answered with a confused "I don't know." I have always known that my Mum has had a hazy view of the subject, but only through our on-camera conversations did I finally realise that in her mind climate change and tsunamis are the same thing!
This is certainly not true. Tsunamis are created through the displacement of large bodies of water, for example, from an earthquake, and not by climate change. Climate change is the result of humans burning fossil fuels, which is warming our world, melting glaciers, raising sea levels and affecting extreme weather events and rainfall patterns. Many of these impacts are seen in the personal stories of the Action4Climate films.
I realised that if my Mum, living in the UK, is confused about climate change, imagine what it must be like for those living in the seclusion of Kiribati? The urgency to tell my Mum's story suddenly became that much more distressing.
I hope that when people watch Tinau they'll get a better sense of Kiribati, and perhaps want to learn more about the place and its threatened future. I am realistic enough to understand that tackling climate change and helping vulnerable nations like Kiribati is complicated and requires negotiation and understanding. However I truly believe that the global community has a conscience and the power to make a difference. And if enough people listen and care, then that's the first crucial step.
When I completed the film and showed it to my Mum, her only criticism was my quick edits of her singing and ukulele playing. "Victoria!" she exclaimed, "People need more time to watch and enjoy my music." My response was, "Oh Mum, that's a whole other documentary!"...
I am proud to add my story to those calling for urgent action on climate change. Like many others in the Action4Climate competition, I have shown how our homes and livelihoods are being affected by climate change.
Most of the films also show us what the solutions are. So let's act on climate change now!
This content is produced and controlled by Connect4Climate
