Environmental Justice Reel Camp for Girls #2 June 28-July 3, 2021
filmmaking mentors
documentarian
writer
day-by-day
Facilitators
Bloom into art as resistance - EJ#2 day one
The first day of the second Environmental Justice Reel Camp started off with the usual introductions and a bit of a switch-up in our prompt. We usually say our name, pronouns, and one piece of media we’ve liked recently. This time we shared the reason we find ourselves in this space and at this camp.
For a few of us who are a part of the staff, we had memories of being affiliated with and working for HWF for a while now, as well as the years we have known and loved Vera as friend and chosen kin this whole time we’ve been doing this work. We shared how we are here because we believe in the work, we love being inspired, and being creatives involved with a program dedicated to creation is the best thing in the world. Other folks shared how the need for environmental justice, educating people on its importance, and storytelling as a form of activism and education is a big reason they are in the space. The one reason we all agreed on, however, is that we all find something powerful in a medium like film and we are here to explore just how much can be said with a camera. A mic. A storyboard. We are in this space to take the knowledge we acquire this week and watch it bloom into art as resistance.
After community agreements and settling on basic tenets for how we’ll conduct ourselves in the space and towards each other, we go into Lauren’s presentation on EJ. Lauren guides us brilliantly through the work that Sierra Club Hawaiʻi does as an organization in regards to environmental justice versus environmentalism and the importance difference between the two. She also walks us through not only larger environmental issues that people pay attention to globally but also local, more concentrated issues that directly impact the people of ka pae ʻāina, especially Kānaka Maoli.
After this presentation, the participants did some hands-on camera work and learned about how to safely and efficiently handle the equipment when in the space.
The day ended with a creative exercise by Lauren called Tree of Life in which participants created a genealogy of sorts about their lives and what enables them to be who they are in the world today.
Excited to see what this camp brings us.
Things are going swimmingly - EJ#2 day two
Day two had us starting off with a reflection on the Tree of Life exercise from the previous day.
As we sat around the table, participants and mentors shared their feelings about the exercise, what parts felt easier to fill out, what parts were the hardest, and overall what the exercise made them think a little more about. The beauty of exercises like these and the practice of sharing them with each other is that we get to learn a bit more about who we are building community with and what stories they are bringing with them to this work we’re doing together. It all means something at the end of the day and it all informs how we move about in the world, even if we are only catching glimpses of it in occasional exercises like Tree of Life.
Afterward, Lauren lead us once again into a presentation on EJ and local initiatives that are focused on EJ efforts directly in Hawaiʻi. She reminded us once again of the importance of recognizing that capitalism= extractive and destructive ways of living whereas decolonization and Indigenous ways of living= abundant and growth centered ways of living: that Indigenous ways of relating to the earth enable us to see it as a relative that we live in concert with as opposed to something that should be conquered and taken from.
Small & mighty team - EJ#2 day three and four
It’s full swing on day three. After a short coming together at the beginning of the session, we go straight into hands-on work again and a (re)introduction to editing. This camp is a small one, with only two participants, so it enables mentors to teach folks one-on-one. In bigger camps, mentors can be helping out a particular group mostly but they ultimately will find themselves going back and forth between groups to help with editing, filming, hands on tutorials, being in the films themselves, etc. So this is a definite switch up in that kind of busyness.
The one thing that’s stayed the same: gotta make a film in a week. Gotta learn the basics, storyboard, plan the shots, film, edit, and show it to your friends and family by Saturday. So we put on the Spotify and let them get to it. Stick around in case they need help. Watch as they pick up new storytelling skills everyday with the help of incredible mentors.
It’s a small but mighty team at this camp. We’re stoked to see what they create.
The sun is going back and forth between the clouds today. For the first time in what feels like forever, the wind also comes to greet us and offer us some breathing room in the midst of all the wela: the only problem is that the team has to now film with it as the backdrop.
As I was sitting in the assembly room, I was told the team needed extras for their film and so I walked out there to help. When given the piece of paper I need for the scene, the paper just continued to fly up, fold in on itself, and would really only stay if I flattened it against my stomach. It had me wondering why, of all times this summer, cool air decides to show up now? At this moment?
It’s also a testament, though, to how complex filmmaking is. That there is so much involved in getting a single shot and that something the audience only sees for about ten seconds could be something that took an hour or two to get perfect.
The participants have to consider weather, lighting both natural and artificial, what sounds are in the background, whether a part of a story can be carried out or if it has to be abandoned, the sequencing of scenes and the scheduling behind that, etc. This is hard work. It is obviously also fun otherwise participants wouldn’t continue to return to camps. But it’s important that we acknowledge the labor and care that participants, as well as the mentors, our documentarian, and our executive director all put into the craft that is filmmaking.
I am in awe of the ethic and commitment to making that they all have. It’s something I saw up close while as an extra and afterward when walking in from the wind and seeing the team huddled around a table working on their editing. I can’t wait to see what they have to show us in the final session.
Nothing deters the artist - EJ#2 day five
In a strange turn of events, we find ourselves with wind AND rain in the second to last session.
In this part of the program, it’s mostly about continuing to get footage and edit before the showcase on Saturday. So as soon as participants enter the space they go straight into the work and today was no exception. Even with the weather worse than the day before, they found a way.
Sitting at my desk in the back, I watched them find shelter underneath a building across the lawn and set up for filming there. Less than ideal conditions but nothing deters the artist.
The rest of the day was spent deep in the craft. Editing, drawing and coloring on more paper, discussing shots, the progression of the storyboard, and other logistics that need ironing out before showing a film.
The participants and mentors as architects. Continuing to build these awesome, potential worlds.
So excited for the showcase and the film to come!
Connections - EJ#2 end of camp reflection
In the brainstorming for how to begin this reflection, the one thing I couldn’t seem to get out of my mind is the weather we experienced during this camp. In the two previous camps, we either endured consistent heat and humidity at all hours or we were sheltered from the heat while also being submerged in the intense cold of air conditioning. This camp was markedly different in that we seemed to experience all forms of weather (ones we can actually have in Hawaii, that is) within a single week. The only consistency was the inconsistency: heat, chill, rain, heat followed by rain followed by heat, and so on. It had been a while since I had witnessed such massive and constant shifts in the weather since this summer started and I couldn’t help but notice how it was different in some way everyday. It became so apparent as to effect filming on some days, leaving the team to try and figure out how to manage despite the unexpected elements.
And it’s fitting, I suppose, that we have this strange display of weather shifts during the second Environmental Justice Reel Camp. When we are once again thinking about the detrimental and oftentimes lethal impact of human-made/greed-driven industry on the earth, sky, ocean, air, and spirit. When I wake up to notifications from NPR that yesterday we were still in the middle of a pandemic but today we are at the beginning of a literal global meltdown. Places like Oregon and Washington that are used to cooler temperatures are now enduring never-before-seen heat waves and temperatures. An oil pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico bursts and, like something I thought I'd only ever see in cartoons, the ocean has literally caught on fire. Black, brown, PoC, and Indigenous peoples throughout the so-called U.S. and the world are still suffering physically, mentally, and spiritually from the exploitation and degradation of their lands, homes, neighborhoods, and ways of living due to capitalism. And here we are at Church of the Crossroads. In our little slice of earth. Watching the weather change abruptly and without warning. While it's smaller than these larger events causing havoc throughout the world, these happenings are not occurring in isolation. They are connected. They are part of the chain.
This is essentially the message I got from Mango Media Productions film. The film, titled Paper Plane, opens with a person writing a positive and well-meaning message into a paper airplane before folding it up and sending it out into the world for someone to find. The intentions are good and the person clearly means to brighten someone’s day with a nice reminder but we quickly see that sending a paper airplane out to float in the air isn’t the best idea. Through animation, we follow the journey of the airplane and see how actions like this can lead to the airplane becoming lost, lost to litter, litter to an additional piece of pollution, and another problem we need to combat in the ongoing fight against environmental injustices. We see a protest taking place along the side of the road where the signs are calling for change and for passersby to pay attention to what is happening to our planet. The airplane guides us on this journey the entire time: from beginning to end, we are being shown one of the many reasons why we should care about how we carry ourselves and live in concert with this planet that we call home. Even an action as seemingly small as letting a paper airplane float out for someone to find can find its way into the most dangerous of situations. Link by link, a chain is created.
This is not to say that I believe only individual actions are to be held responsible for the current climate crisis we find ourselves in. I do not believe that climate change, redlining, environmental racism, land theft, and industrialization are maintained by the individual choices of everyday people. As Lauren reminded us on the second day of the camp, the roots of these issues can be traced all the way back to about 100 companies in the world. While I do think we can all benefit from shifting in the ways we do certain things (we can definitely stand to not litter, that should go without saying), I also recognize that sustainability and “going green” are things that have become increasingly steeped in privilege. Not everyone has access to $150 jeans made out of recycled water bottles or farm-to-table meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Most people have to make do with what is available and it is a luxury to consume things that don’t have at least one hazardous ingredient included in the mix. This is also not saying that the way “living green” is presented is healthy or rooted in good and sustainable practices either. Most things we are shown by influencers and lifestyle coaches that promote “better living” or “healthy eating” exist only because Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples labor, land, foodways, and cultures were stolen, appropriated, and twisted for these purposes. The entire way we approach our contributions to turning the tide of the climate needs to be re-directed and we need to listen to the communities who suffer from these things directly and who have already been leading the fight which is, once again, Black, brown, PoC and Indigenous communities.
What I mean when I write ‘chain,’ ‘connection,’ and ‘link,’ is that nothing in this fight is on its own. Nothing that happens within the realm of the environment finds itself lonely and without company. Everything is connected. While places and situations may feel individualized, they all share a common thread and that is environmental degradation brought on by extraction. Destruction. Capitalism. This is the message I got from the film. Just like the airplane goes on this extraordinary journey, makes all of these stops along the way, and leads to this outcome, so do all of these events we see happening around us in the environment today. What has been happening. What will continue to happen. Everything that feels like an isolated event is just another linkage in a long-running chain in this fight. We can trace it all back to the companies that run the world. That displace Indigenous peoples. That run whole communities out of their homes. That harm and maim forests, trees, and our more-than-human relatives. That literally take lives. There are many strands but they all lead back to the same source. Capitalism and greed. Lust for power. The idea that the earth and those who call it relative are things to be conquered.
And it is scary. And it can feel hopeless. And while I have essentially written what feels like albeit a more prose-like reiteration of the apocalypse, the film also shows us that connection can also go the other way. We know the source of the destruction. We know that all the cables lead back to the one Giant Machine that is these companies and these evil people who want to harm and destroy. But we have other roots that start in love and lead to kinship. We have strands of care, joy, and sharing coming from the earth and connecting to thousands of communities throughout the world. We have people who see the need for change link up with others who see the same and they create their own networks of consciousness. Connections stemming from love for each other and this planet. Intersections rooted in care and devotion to better ways of living. Intricate patterns that lead back to culture, spirit, and basic bloody decency as the source. With this as the backbone, we get things moving. We get people listening. We keep growing.
Things seem bleak. But we must remember that destruction is not the only network around. That we have connections too. And we won’t stop making them.
film
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.