By Daniel de la Calle
Today we want to briefly share with you our plans for A Sea Change during the upcoming months. During the last few months last year, we had been discussing our possible presence during the RIO+20 summit this coming June. We kept receiving mixed signals: encouraging, hopeful news together with worried comments about the role given to the oceans at the summit, the sudden change of schedule (it was initially going to coincide with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth’s crowning anniversary…), about the official agenda and the way things were being organized. In the end both Barbara and Sven thought it might be important for Niijii Films to travel back to Brazil with the hope of creating more focused buzz around ocean acidification. It was their view that with credentials, we could enter the conference itself and share an ocean acidification media package that would contribute information to ongoing discussion about ocean health in Rio de Janeiro. We are still working on the specific plan for the days of Rio+20, so your suggestions and ideas are more than welcome. Should we organize our own event during the summit? Of what type? Would it make an impact to distribute copies of the documentary amongst the delegations? Do we need to be present at all the major meetings? Which are a most critical? Should I pack my own lunch or buy it there? Please email me at [email protected] if you plan to attend the conference and would like to meet, or if you have some words of advice or experience for me, I will be delighted and grateful.
We have also begun to schedule some work both in Peru and Chile for late April and early May. We are aiming for a couple of screenings in Peru followed by three in Chile and hope to do as many interviews as possible, get the media interested and willing to inform Chileans and Peruvians; the same type of effort we displayed in Brazil and Colombia during 2010 and 2011. Again, if you have any recommendations of universities or institutions we should contact for the screenings, or know which are the most crucial newspapers and television channels to deliver our message about Ocean Acidification through, please write us at [email protected].
It has been over three years since the film premiered in the States, five since we began filming, but the story continues to resonate with force. Maybe because A Sea Change came out before most people had heard about Ocean Acidification, because the scientific community keeps revealing the detrimental consequences of higher acidity in the ocean or because of the film’s deeper message about our legacy for future generations, the truth is that A Sea Change will be very much alive in 2012.
An already nostalgic look at our shooting in Alaska in 2007. The baby tooth test scene