 Good afternoon, and welcome to another episode of Pacific Partnerships in Education here on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm your host, Ethan Allen. Pacific Partnerships in Education is all, just as its name says, about the different kinds of partnerships, the different people who are partnering, the groups that are partnering, the collaborations, the alliances, all to the betterment of education across the Pacific. And we're stretching our bounds today. We're going to look at a program that involves not just the South Pacific here that we usually look at, but it goes all the way around to the other side of the globe and looks at Greenland. And here I have Dan Lin, my colleague here at Perel. Welcome, Dan. Thank you. Thanks for having me again. Dan Lin's an amazing photographer, video director now. You may have seen his earlier film, Anointed. It's made quite the splash. So tell us just a little bit here, Dan, about what the genesis of this project was. Sure. This project, we called it Project Rise for obvious reasons. But the genesis was how can we show the connections between communities that are beyond the Pacific to the Pacific itself. And it actually came during the filming of the last film, Anointed, where we were, Kathy and I were spitballing ideas like, what is, how can we do something bigger and better than the previous film? And what would that platform be? And she had mentioned that a conversation with her and Bill McKibben, who's the founder of 350.org, Climate Change Organization, campaigning organization, she said that he wanted to see a person from an atoll island on a glacier, on an ice sheet, to see the source of the rising seas for themselves. Much of the sea level rise is the melting of above ground glaciers. Right. So this led to this odd collaboration with the Pacific islands, the Marshall Islands, and more specifically where Kathy comes from and Greenland. Right. And it's, you know, in a lot of ways, they're so disparate, there's not a lot of people from either of the communities that have been to each other's places. But in a much, in another sense, they are hugely interconnected. They're both actually very similar in population size, roughly 55,000 people. Yet one island, Greenland is also an island, the biggest island in the world. It has 12,000 times more land mass than the Marshall Islands, roughly. And so, you know, the same amount of people, huge, different disparities in land mass, but like a similar story, right? Rapidly changing climate and environment. Again, small communities quite isolated from one another often. Yes. Yeah, exactly. Large distances. So yeah, surprising similarities. There are no roads that connect most of these cities in Greenland, so all of these towns. Just as there are no roads across them. Exactly, yeah. There's only ocean pathways. The only way to get there is either through air or by boat or by sled dog, which is a common motor transportation. But they are, like the Marshalls, they're being impacted by the changing climate in sort of a different way. I mean, their oceans are rising, but that's not the most immediate concern, maybe. Whole landforms are changing under them, right? Right, right, right. I mean, the melt of the Greenland ice sheet is incredibly rapid at a rate that I think surprises even scientists, but people, you know, they feel it. Their lifestyles are changing, the habit, you know, the, they need to hunt in the winter, in the summertime to feed themselves in the winter and the, and that process is changing as well. You know, the animal herds are thinning out, they're harder to get to, and then the summer months and the winter months are changing as well. Interesting. Well, let's just go ahead and jump into it then, if we might. Yeah. Rise. Yeah. Sister of ice and snow, I'm coming to you from the land of my ancestors, from atolls, sunken volcanoes, undersea descent of sleeping giants. Sister of ocean and sand, I welcome you to the land of my ancestors, to the land where they sacrifice their lives, to make mine possible, to the land of survivors. I'm coming to you from the land my ancestors chose, Ailongkainan, Marshall Islands, a country more sea than land. I welcome you to Gadashitnonath, Greenland, the biggest island on earth. With me, I bring these shells that I picked from the shores of Beginni Atoll and Runeddon. In my hand to hold these rocks picked from the shores of New York, the foundation of the land I call my home. With these shells I bring with me a story of long ago, two sisters frozen in time on the island of Uyai, one magically turned to stone, the other who chose that life to be rooted by her sister's side. To this day the two sisters can be seen by the edge of the reef, a lesson in permanence. With these rocks I bring a story told countless times, a story about Sissuma'umna, mother of the sea, who lives in a cave at the bottom of the ocean. This is a story about the guardian of the sea. She sees the greed in our hearts, the disrespect in our eyes, every whale, every stream, every iceberg of her children. When we disrespect them, she gives us what we deserve, a lesson in respect. Do we deserve the melting ice, the hungry polar bears coming to our islands, or the colossal icebergs hitting these waters with rage? From one island to another, I ask for solutions, from one island to another, I ask for your problems. Let me show you the time, coming for us faster than we'd like to admit. Let me show you airports underwater, bulldozed reefs, blasted sands, and plans to build new atolls, forcing land from an ancient rising sea, forcing us to imagine turning ourselves to stone. Can you see a glaciers grown the weight of the world's heat, land of my ancestors? It's quite heavy with a continuous thirst for solutions. As I watch this land change while the world remains silent, sister of ice and snow, I come to you now in grief, mourning landscapes that are always forced to change, first through wars inflicted on us, then through nuclear waste dumped in our waters, on our ice. Sister of ocean and sand, I offer you these rocks, the foundation of my home. May the same unshakable foundation connect us, make us stronger than these colonizing monsters that still to this day devour our lives, the very same beasts that now decide who should live, who should die. Sister of ice and snow, I offer you these shells and the story of the two sisters as testament, as decoration, that despite what we are told, we will not leave, we will choose stone, we will choose to be rooted to this reef forever. From these islands, we ask for solutions. From these islands, we ask, we demand that the world see beyond ACs, SUVs, their pre-packaged convenience, their oil-slick dreams, beyond the belief that tomorrow will never happen, that this is merely an inconvenient truth. Let me bring my home to yours. Let's watch as Miami, New York, Shanghai, Amsterdam, London, Rio de Janeiro and Osaka try to breathe underwater. You think you have decades before your home falls beneath tides? We have years, we have months, before you sacrifice us again, before you watch from TV screens, computer screens, to see if we will still be breathing while you do not. My sister, I offer you these rocks as a reminder that our lives matter more than their power. That life in all form demands the same respect we all give to money. That these issues will affect each and every one of us. None of us is immune. And that each and every one of us has to decide if we will rise. That was amazing, amazing. Thank you for doing that again. I had seen a rough cut of that, of course you showed a rough cut a while ago, but it's really nice to see it all finally polished now. Yeah, thank you. It's simply amazing to watch what they've done to realize that similarity of the threat basically that hangs over both of these groups, even though they're really on opposite sides of the planet, they're very different. There is high, cold, marshals are low and tropical, but climate change is really heavily impacting both of these extremes on our planet, more than the temperate zones. But that gives you pause, right? It sort of says if it's affecting the Arctic and affecting the tropics, can the temperate zones be far behind, right? Yeah. So just a quick out of curiosity, how did you find this poet in Greenland who co-wrote this poem with Kathy? We know Kathy, of course, has immense talent and is a brilliant poet. Well, Kathy, when we were committed to doing this, Kathy and myself, we both feel like if you're going to go into a place outside of our comfort zone and our region, it's best to, you know, if we're going to speak about a place, it's best to have somebody from that place to speak about it as well. And so I think it became less of Kathy's perspective so much as like a dialogue between two people. Right. So we found Akka, her name's Akka Niviana, and she is an indigenous Greenlandic activist. And she had done a little bit of poetry, but this was definitely a step up from what she had been used to. And we asked around, and her name came up because she had given a really powerful and beautiful speech at a climate summit in Copenhagen a few years ago. So we saw the video, we were like, hey, we reached out, and she just so happened to be available. Awesome. And for me, like visually, as a director, it was awesome that they happened to be the same height, too. So, you know, we had a lot of shots where we really wanted them to be standing next to each other. And if Akka turned up to be like 6'4", then it would have been kind of awkward. So that was really perfect. Yeah, no, it does work out very nicely in the way that they're framed so often there in the film, back-to-back or face-to-face, side-by-side. Yeah, it's just stunning. And the beautiful parallels that you get with her in the water and her lion on the shirt. Yeah, for me, like, artistically, this film is about parallels. It's about parallelism showing that despite being two very different environments, the storyline are actually very similar. And the communities they're in, I mean, the Greenlandic, Inuk community, they're incredible. I mean, they're very similar to Islanders in the sense that in Pacific Islands, what we're used to is there's just, like, you know, it's a very family-oriented community. They're very warm, hospitable, and they just, there's deep, deep-rooted legends and storylines that we kind of learn more about as we went through. So it was, you know, oddly familiar being in that environment, even though we weren't really prepared for the weather. It was just cold, and we hadn't really, we didn't have any, we didn't have the adequate clothing. So we would go there and we didn't have to buy clothes to keep layering up. Yeah, it was similar. That's amazing. It comes out very nicely in there, the beautiful, the visual parallels with the handful of stones, the handful of shells, and getting passed back and forth and the sort of sweeping vistas across the glaciers and sweeping vistas across the ocean. Yeah. Very, very nicely done. Thank you. Thank you. And very powerful, very, very moving video, too. So we're going to dig in more deeply into sort of the why's and what we're here for is this. When we come back right now, we're going to take a brief break. Dan Lin is your videographer extraordinaire, and I'm your host, Ethan Allen. We'll be back with more of Pacific Partnerships and Education in one minute. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner, inviting you to come visit with us on Cannabis Chronicles, a 10,000 year Odyssey, where we explore and examine the plant that the muse has given us. And stay with us as we explore all the facets of this planet on Wednesdays at noon. Please join us, Aloha. Hello. My name is Stephanie Mock, and I'm one of three hosts of Think Tech Hawaii's Hawaii Food and Farmer series. Our other hosts are Matt Johnson and Pamai Weigert, and we talk to those who are in the fields and behind the scenes of our local food system. We talk to farmers, chefs, restaurateurs, and more to learn more about what goes into sustainable agriculture here in Hawaii. We are on a Thursdays at 4 p.m., and we hope we'll see you next time. We're back here on Pacific Partnerships and Education with me, your host, Ethan Allen, here on Think Tech Hawaii. With me today in the Think Tech Studio is Dan Lin. We just watched Rise, that amazing six minute video that Dan just completed here that really tracks the sort of parallel challenges, parallel situations between the populations in the Marshall Islands and the populations in Greenland, which seem to have almost nothing in common when you first think about it, and yet as Dan points out and comes vividly clear through the video there, they have tremendous parallels. Both were isolated by their environment, both quite remote, both small communities isolated from one another, lots of intervening blank space, no roads. And this was really driven by the issue of climate change and wanting to raise that awareness. It sounds like you were telling me during the break you've shown this to, you've had an opening of it, the initial screening, and got some folks who were influencers, shall we say, to look at it and got good reactions from them. Yeah, when we first screened it, I guess the debut screening was in San Francisco up during the Global Climate Action Summit, and there were quite a few people, my hero Sylvia Earle was in the room and President Enote Tong, and a lot of people from the conservation space and the tech space, and I think they were all in the room and appreciated to see people outside of that world talking about these issues in a very genuine and concerned way. Yeah, that's what strikes me about it, without getting all techy and sciency about it, you've really set up a situation in that video where you're grabbing people's heartstrings, you're making them feel the depth of the issue, and the fact that it really is impacting the lives of individuals. Both these women are passionate, care deeply about their communities, care deeply about what they're seeing happening to their communities. Yeah, and I think from the very first day of planning this out, we wanted to make a climate change film that didn't have the same kind of arc of most climate change films, which is woe is us, everything's doomed, here's major typhoons, images of people stranded, polar bears. We didn't really want this looming guilt that a lot of climate change filmography ends up touching on. What I wanted to create was a film that shows two really uniquely beautiful places and people and a dialogue that touches on these themes without, I don't know, it's not as direct in your face, do something about this, it's more about making these subtle connections, melting ice, and then a rising sea, showing the streets and the Marshall Islands that are surrounded both sides by water. And I think what we want is people to watch it and view it as a beautiful work of art and then also have this lesson learned by just engaging with it. Yeah, and I think you succeed. Wonderfully, there is this very strong affective emotional component to it. It's a very deeply moving piece without sort of a lot of plot to it, as it were. And not a lot of science either. We try to remove all the facts and figures and all the kind of the longevity of time and just like the, yeah, we just wanted a piece about two people and from two places and the communities that they represent. Yeah, there's a real immediacy to it. These people are talking about things that are clearly in their faces going on each day and impacting their lives. And if there is, I mean, there is a very sort of an urgent message there sort of saying we can't just sit and wait about this. You know, sitting and waiting is not an option here. That's just more the same than worse, right? So there is a nice, I think a very powerful motivational aspect to it too. It says, hey, let's get off our docks and then do something. Right, which is like the big call to action is to actually do something without necessarily being as like doomsday-ish as some of the other films that have come out are. I think we try to avoid this huge looming guilt that comes with some climate change films but also make it pretty very obvious that there needs to be action that's on. Yeah, you do. It's nice. You avoid that. There is, with some of the Pacific Islanders who I've talked with, there's a very, an acceptance of sort of almost inevitability of like it is what it is. And we're just, we're here, we're going to suffer the consequences of this too bad. And there is, you avoided that very nicely. You left a message that, you know, we need to be moving ahead. And I think, I mean, I think it's true. I think we have to hope that our scientists, our engineers will see the urgency of this problem. We'll put our governmental time, energy, resources into the potential solutions and we can test them out and see what's going to work. Yeah, I think you're right on. I think there needs to be an element of hope or else, you know, if you throw in too much despair, people just kind of give up, right? And so I think, you know, there's a hope and there's an appreciation of the beauty that comes with people in places that often aren't really discussed at the global level. So, yeah, I think that that's what, that was the intended outcome of this film and hopefully it kind of achieves that. Yeah, absolutely. You strike some just incredible beauty and showing. I mean, the shift back and forth from the tropical seas to the ice sheets back and forth, back and forth. Sort of pointing out there's majestic, awesome, almost frightening beauty in both of them, right? Right. And it's, you know, we need to preserve them and we must do something. Right. So, let's look ahead if we might. Sort of what's next you did anointed that was a very powerful film. Looking for backwards at the nuclear legacy in the islands. And now you've done this. Where are you headed? I mean, we're off to Nepal. Yeah, I head up to Nepal tomorrow, actually. And trying to figure, you know, listen to the stories of the people in the highest villages in the world and with an amazing group of people that I think are very interested in being servants to disparate communities. But, you know, that's part of a bigger, longer-term project. And then I have a few, like, you know, we have a couple of film projects that are kind of cooking in the pot. I can't talk more about it right now, but I think we're excited to move forward with that. It looks at a little bit different, not so much poetry, but actually, like, different forms of storytelling. I still really enjoy the short-form filmmaking, so I like short films. And so it'll be in that arc. But yeah, I mean, every time we do a project, there's so much, like, that we uncover as, like, this is another angle that I want to tell a story and, you know, assembling the right team and getting people and making sure that it's fresh, not like, you know, to do the same kind of story arc every time or the same kind of film. It's a nice creative challenge for me. No, it's lovely. I mean, there was some odd parallels to anointed in that, just because Kathy is there doing poetry with them, but some very wildly different aspects, too. That was amazing. Yeah, we're trying to level up every time. Yeah, I'm sure if you go high in the mountains, you're going to see some other things there. Yeah, exactly. Wonderful, wonderful. And it's really important, too. I think this whole issue of storytelling is a great approach. You know, my background is science, as you well know, and I'm a great believer in, hey, the facts will out. If you give people, tell the right story in terms of the facts, people will see the logic and the reason, and I know perfectly well that doesn't actually work. And this emotional grabbing, grabbing of the heartstrings, really pulling at people's emotional connections with the characters there. It's really a much more effective way, probably, to engender the kind of involvement that we want, right? To get the people to start caring about it and realize they have to do something. I think there's definitely a need for balance. I think there's so much value and certainty with science and with data, and I think that there's always a place for that. But I think opening the doors through an emotional connection is hugely valuable as well. And I think if you work together in those kind of partnerships, people can feel an emotional connection and then learn more about the scientific kind of foundation of these issues. Right now, I would take issue with your claim that there's certainty in science. It's full of uncertainties. I guess the one thing you can be certain of is that you're not going to be. But science does tend to avoid the empathetic, the affective, the emotional components of things or downplays that as much as is humanly possible. And you're putting that front and center here, and as you say, it makes for, I think, a very powerful, very engaging, very compelling story, which is absolutely wonderful. And so you mentioned, I think, one thing that was critical, your team there that you worked with. Do you want to shout out to any organizations, particular people? That was, I think, you know. Sure, yeah. I'm definitely grateful for 350.org, Bill, and the vision that he put together just for supporting this idea and seeing it through all the way. Akka and Kathy really worked so well together. They're really a joy to work with. And then my producer, Oz, who came with us on the trip, Jason Box, who's the science glaciologist, and Alan Hubbard, who was another glaciologist. We just had a really great family of people that brought in science and also brought in storytelling. And then from the editing side, putting all this together was Nick Stone and Rob La, who really gelled all these disparate pieces and helped me tell this story. And then finally, just Prell, of course, for giving me and Kathy the creative liberties to express ourselves in different ways and express these issues in a more creative endeavor. Excellent. Well, it was wonderful. I'm glad we had a chance here to share it with our audiences. I think you've yet achieved another great example of a partnership in education here. That's very powerful. It goes beyond the Pacific, even. And I look forward to staying in touch with you and getting you back on again when you've got another project to share. Yeah, yeah. Stay tuned. Thank you so much, Dan Lynn. It's been a pleasure. And look forward to hearing your further adventures. Thank you. We'll join us in our next episode of Pacific Partnerships in Education here on Think Tech Hawaii. Until then.