Environmental Justice Reel Camp for Girls - June 14-19, 2021
day-by-day
filmmaking mentors
documentarian
writer
facilitator
Waiwai - Environmental Justice Camp Day #1
On the first day, we started with a social distanced welcoming circle. We introduced ourselves with our names, pronouns, favorite piece of media we have at the moment. After this, we all collectively decided on the rules we have for interacting with each other while within the space and how we can ensure our relationships with each other are as respectful as possible.
We then had Lauren Ballesteros-Watanabe from Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi give us a presentation for the next half hour or so on the important difference between racist Euro-Western environmentalism versus environmental actions based in Indigenous and decolonial knowledge and ways of relating to the earth, as well as how climate change, fossil fuels, redlining, and the great sickness that is capitalism effects Indigenous peoples and communities of colors here in Hawai’i specifically. We discussed the intense but necessary journey from a capitalist mindset focused on individualism and extraction to the desired outcome of collective liberation through decolonization.
In between were breaks in which participants got to know the space and each other. We had a brainstorming exercise and presentation by Vera on what a production team is comprised of and the different roles that people typically hold on a film crew. We then had camera tutorials with the film mentors. The mentors walked the participants through the basics of camera operation and equipped everyone with the knowledge needed regardless of the ultimate role they will hold.
Afterwards, we had Lala Nuss from Conscious Concepts give us a breakdown on the the specific ways people engage in environmental justice initiatives in a Ka Pae ‘Āina context. We spoke about aloha ‘āina and the people and places that embody that in Hawai’i. Lala reminded us of this ʻōlelo term during our first session for the Environmental Justice Reel Camp. Waiwai can be translated into English as wealth but Lala was quick to clarify that it was wealth we acquire through and for generative/redistributive means, as opposed to the extractive/selfish forms that were used to.
Waiwai stuck with me from the moment I heard it during the session. While it was a little later in the session and we only had a few minutes left before wrapping up for the day, I think it described perfectly what we are attempting to do in this space. We are learning about deep rooted issues on a global and intensely local scale. Issues that affect all of us but perhaps not all in the same way. And those of us sitting in the room with the means to tell these stories and highlight these issues have a responsibility to.
At the end, we concluded with one word on how we felt about the day, with “inspiring/inspired” being the most prevalent one. And so the questions we have before us from this first session and certainly as we carry on through the week are: How do we take what we’ve gained as artists, knowledge seekers, fellow architects in this decolonial world building, and share it with our communities? What will these films contribute to larger conversations? Movements? What will become the waiwai that we share?
Jelo Media, Boba Team, and Mint Chip Media good to go! EJ day #2
The second day of the Environmental Justice reel camp was kicked off by Clara and Lucy from the Hawaiʻi Youth Climate Coalition giving a presentation on the work they do as part of the coalition. They emphasized the importance of young people becoming active in the climate movement and offered ways participants can get involved in the fight for environmental justice.
After this presentation, the participants went straight back into camera work with the film mentors. In addition to reviewing what was learned yesterday, Vera gave a short lecture on audio and participants were able to practice both filming and recording audio. With ample time set aside for each team to practice these different parts of filmmaking, participants had the opportunity to engage in mock setups where they used the slate, filmed each other, recorded short bursts of audio, and how to handle each piece of equipment properly.
After these mock setups, Vera gave an even more in-depth presentation on the specificity involved in each role that makes up a production crew. This allowed for some time after the presentation to sort out who would be in what role on each film crew and the name of their group. And so, Jelo Media, Boba Team, and Mint Chip Media were born!
Everyone seemed to take to their roles super fast and each table represented a full team waiting to get to work. After a short introduction to the significance of the story in a film, the day concluded with the teams working on the skeletons of their stories and what will eventually become their films by the end of this camp.
Environmental themes coming through - EJ day #3
After going over the agenda of the day, Vera had the teams launch into camera setup and recording right away. The day’s focus was on editing and becoming familiar with editing software so naturally, we learn best with things like this through actively doing them.
As usual, everyone is taking to their roles quickly and taking turns being in front of the camera and practicing with the slate. The sound of the slate snapping into place and different groups announcing “sound! mark it! action!” resound throughout the assembly room.
Editors and directors are hanging back to learn editing software while the rest of the team goes off into the courtyard and surrounding buildings to practice shooting and recording. Ideas are already taking on fuller forms as participants discuss certain shots, what rooms work best for what kind of setting they’re trying to create, and the mentors are working alongside them to ensure they have the tools to capture it all.
One can already see the environmental themes coming through, with practice shots including scenes focusing on littering and teams talking with Lauren from Sierra Club about the deep politics of pollution and environmentalism/environmental justice. With two teams doing more PSA focused films attempting to bring attention to pressing environmental concerns and the final team steering more towards a fictional imagining of life in the present versus life in a world where fossil fuels have made the world and daily life entirely unrecognizable, the participants are moving fast with shot lists, scriptwriting, and research.
As we concluded with a quick closing circle, we ended the day’s session looking forward to seeing what the participants come up with in the next few days leading up to the final product.
Accelerated production - EJ Day #4
We started the fourth session off today thinking about our most memorable moments so far since the camp started. Lessons on recording, camera placement, and other film-related moments came up: filming appears to be the only thing on participants’ minds today and with good reason.
Reel camp is accelerated production and when they get a chance to get to work, it’s best to seize it. Much of today, though, is going to be dedicated to getting the details of the story as hammered out as possible and to complete whatever filming can be squeezed into the afternoon.
When they’re not shooting, they’re diligently planning things out and discussing the particulars of their film. One team is in a room they’ve sectioned off for filming and I can hear them trying to figure out exactly what they’re trying to capture. Every little thing matters and every second counts at this stage. A ‘lofi hip hop radio beats to study/relax to’ playlist plays softly in the background as slowly, one by one, the teams make their way outside to start filming. Soon the room is empty save for a few of the staff and one editor.
The rest of the day is spent in silence and catching occasional glimpses of the participants as they run inside to get props or equipment and run back out again. As the 4:00 pm sun beats down onto the courtyard during our closing circle, we prepare for the fifth session soon to follow and another busy day ahead for our participants.
Quiet before the storm - EJ day #5
It’s definitely quiet before the storm in our second to last session. The day before we watch the final product and wrap up another successful camp.
Finding B-roll, music, finishing recording, filming and editing are the most common items on the collective To-Do list Vera has created for everyone at the front of the room, ultimately ending with wrapping everything up nice and neatly in a press kit. The room is mostly empty throughout the day with everyone being outside or in the other room filming whatever they can while we have the space.
How privileged we are to bear witness to all this mana-making/world-building. Footsteps, keiki laughing at the preschool out front, slates snapping into place, an ‘action!’ here and there. All against the backdrop of the steady hum of heatwaves and a hotter than usual Hawai’i summer.
Everything is still and moving at the same time it feels like. A feeling one can get when creating or when one is around people in the midst of creating; the rush of making everything and (when it’s going well) the calm of knowing it will all eventually come together. As we can expect to see with this camp and whatever these teams have planned for us in the final session.
That we deserve the future of choice - EJ day #6
It’s incredible what a week will do to folks.
Hawaiian music softly fills the room. I get there an hour before the showcase is supposed to start and take my usual seat in the back. Each table has a team and they’re all doing their best to finish up editing, final watches before exporting films, checking their phones to see if their relatives have already arrived. Mentors are working right alongside them and helping every step of the way, a few of them having been in their shoes just a few years before as former participants in HWF programs. It’s mostly quiet at the tables but there’s still energy buzzing throughout the space; five days of crash course film knowledge and production have all converged upon this moment. It’s both concentration and excitement to see how everything has turned out. But once 4:00 pm hits, everyone is moving just a little bit faster than they were a minute ago. Exporting, setting up chairs, welcoming parents and relatives into the space. We’re shifting now. From artists at their workbenches to seeing it all with new eyes on opening night, we’ve finally made it.
I think it’s important to acknowledge that this evening was a historic one. Every film made by participants is a huge thing to be celebrated in itself, as all of the films are both individual and collective contributions to the fight against white, cis-gendered-heterosexual men straining to maintain their once-firm grip on the film industry and media at large.
We are fortunate to have an organization like HWF that actively provides the space and resources needed to make that action possible. This showcase in particular, however, is a momentous one as it is the first one we’ve had in person in a year. We’ve gone from sharing links in Zoom chats and syncing our watch times together to picking a chair six feet apart from our friends and watching the same screen in the same room. No sound or wifi cutting out. No delays. And this time we have families, friends, parents, and caregivers.
For the first time in a year, we have an in-person community once again. And we have come together to witness the ultimate community act: world-building.
Because that’s really what these films are, especially at this moment in time. We were privileged enough on day one to learn about the long and storied history of climate justice, environmental racism, the calculated placement of toxic chemical output and pollutive processes near or directly in marginalized communities, as well as the ways in which we can help to combat these systemic and deeply rooted issues. By learning about and listening to communities most affected and (re)establishing a connection with the earth as a relative and a relative to be contributed to as opposed to extracted from are the ways in which we can carve out a different world. And I mean that as literally as I can mean it.
In the PSA “Middleground,” we learn about the impacts of a landfill that has been placed in Nanakuli, a predominantly Kānaka Maoli community, and how the toxic materials have engendered adverse physical and mental health effects for the mostly Indigenous population there.
In a similar vein to “Middleground” in the way of a PSA-like format, “The Impact of a Boba Cup” we learn about the disastrous environmental outcomes wrought on our marine ecosystems and the massive, often life-threatening branching effect that littering a single piece of plastic will have on our planet as a whole.
A departure from the more informative medium, “Global Warming” allows us a glimpse into a possible world where pollution and climate disaster have made living conditions that we’re used to a thing of the very distant past by providing comparisons between the way one girl lives in the suffering, but the still breathable world of today versus her descendent in the year 3029 who now cowers inside from the dark and toxic waste-filled air outside her room.
Each film took on a different issue that has been plaguing our planet and the most marginalized in our communities and ecosystems and made us look at it without filters. Even with the experimental film, all of these films force us to confront the possibility of living in a reality where chewing on plastic and Black and Indigenous communities becoming accustomed to comorbidities birthed by environmental racism are no longer just tragedies we sometimes hear about or know of being a thing that can happen, they become the norm.
This is a world we are in the process of creating every day that we remain in colonial and racist systems dedicated to the literal pulverization and conquering of our oldest relative Earth, our animal and more-than-human relatives, and the most marginalized in our earth’s communities. This is world-building at its worst and it is the one we all are used to.
There is another type of world-building possible, however, and these films show us that. They don’t just show us, they actively do it. The PSAs showing a discussion taking place between community members/partners about the impacts of landfills and toxic waste, someone standing up to a careless person who throws their boba cup on the ground and educating them on the harms of plastic on the ocean and the world as a whole, and the indirect conversation taking place between the two girls in “Global Warming” in regards to the importance of taking a look at the way the world is going and deciding to do what we can as individuals and communities to rally pushback and turn the tide are all proof of this. They are acting, creating, dreaming these things on film and during production but they are still having conversations, researching the facts, sharing the knowledge they’ve acquired during this camp with each other and audiences. In making these things they are doing the work and achieving it in all of its massive, decolonial glory.
Engaging in artistic work that highlights the problems but also magnifies the solutions is the ultimate kind of world-building because it is the active creating of a future where choices still exist. It is not relegating oneself to what extractive systems, industry, and colonization have told us are the only ways; it is the insistence that we actually always have the ability to live in a world where better living is possible. That we have the ability to live in a world where choice is still available and not a thing of the past. Is the road easy and the journey short? Nope. Not with all that’s against us.
But films like this, generations like theirs, and messages like the ones given to us on Saturday remind me that we have the love, the care, and the mana needed to come together and try. That we owe it to the earth, our animal and more-than-human relatives, and each other to pick up the tools we’ve created and build with them. That we deserve the future of choice. The possible future where we can choose not to survive, but to thrive.
films
The Environmental Justice Reel Camp for Girls organized by Hawai‘i Women in Filmmaking in collaboration with Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, HI Youth Climate Coalition, and City and County Resilient Oʻahu, and made possible thanks to the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the NoVo Foundation and Gerbode Foundation.