Sun Come Up

Sun Come Up (2011)

*** (out of 4)

Oscar-nominated documentary short about people living on the Carteret Islands who find themselves coming under attack of global warming. Their island is slowly being covered by water and the salt from that water has killed the majority of their plants, which means food is hard to come by. Director Jennifer Redfearn does a pretty good job at showing the difficulties these people are going to be facing over the upcoming decades. The majority of the documentary covers the people trying to find land on other islands and the difficulties this causes. Not only do some people not want to give them land but there are those Carteret islanders who do not want to leave the place they grew up. For the most part this is a very interesting documentary and there's no question that it's well worth watching. However, I really would have liked to know some more information including hearing from some experts on what's going on. Yes, the global warming thing is talked about constantly and I did wonder how many of these people actually knew what that was. I'll admit, and maybe I'm dead wrong, but it just felt like this film was pushing the message a bit too hard because there's so many things not discussed. Including, if this island is going under water then what about the islands around them. At the end it says it could take decades to move everyone so is it going to take even longer for the entire island to be underwater? If so, can these people move more in-land? A lot of questions are unanswered but perhaps there can be a follow up at some point.

Today is the day the Oscars are announced and it's also one of the days that the Documentary Short nominees are being shown in theaters across the country. This is the first year such a show was shown and I must say that all the nominees were exceptional...though generally rather depressing as well. I didn't mind that, as the films were intended to point out societal problems--and that is not what I'd consider 'fun'.

This film is about a small and sad group of people from the Carteret Islands--near Bougainville (islands to the east of Papua New Guinea). I say sad because the sea is encroaching on their land and the salinity is destroying the islanders' ability to feed themselves. As a result, a small group is leaving their land in search of new land--and hoping to gain permission from villagers in nearby Bougainville to move there--no easy task as you learn from the film. Your heart really goes out to them and you can't deny their predicament--so it's a very compelling film.

One aspect of the film that will either annoy you or confirm your beliefs is the film stating several times that this incursion of the sea is THE direct result of global warming due to mankind's effect on the planet. While this connection is debatable (there are many on both sides of this debate), you can't deny that the sea IS taking away the Carteret peoples' land. But I wonder if some of the voters from AMPAS (the Oscar people) might tend to vote for it since the it smacks of a politically correct theme, whereas others might deliberately NOT vote for it as in recent months there have been more and more who have publicly voiced doubt about the global warming phenomenon. I really hope people don't vote for or against it because of this but vote purely based on its merits as a film--which are many. You can't help but feel for these folks and be affected by their plight. Well worth seeing and a fascinating look at a seldom talked about part of the globe.

UPDATE: The Oscar winner was "Strangers No More". I wouldn't have picked it since it was a rather tame and non-controversial film but it was uplifting and nice.