Once again, Dr. Terry was able to present videos at the UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021 that were created by young filmmakers participating in The 2021 Planetary Health Film Lab. Films made by four Canadian Indigenous illustrate issues in their community relating to climate change and the environment. The youth gathered still and motion photography and interviews with local elders, residents, researchers, planetary health experts, profiles of Indigenous perspectives, impacts, and solutions to planetary health issues in their communities are examined from different approaches. Click here to View the Four Short Films which run between three and seven minutes in length.
All touch on water as a common theme, from Christopher Akiwenzie’s film, Adikameg and Ice, which speaks of declining fish populations around Georgian Bay, Ontario, due to warming water temperatures, to Emily McCallum’s film, Will There Be Another Rainy Day?, which examines the impacts of drought experienced in and around Barrie, Ontario, to Jessie Yakeleya’s film, In the Future, That’s What’s Going to Happen, I Think, which describes the impact of climate change on indigenous culture in Tulita, NWT, to Serra Black’s film, The Price of Gold, which focuses on the amount and careless storage of arsenic, created as a by-product of mining around the Mackenzie River in Yellowknife, NWT. During the screening question and answer period, Dr. Terry was able to discuss the worldwide issue of arsenic being released during the mining process, a fact not widely known by those in the audience.
Indigenous Filmmakers participating in the 2021 Planetary Health Film Lab:
Pictured below is Dr. Terry discussing films made by indigenous youth through the Planetary Health Film Lab in 2019 which were added to the over 600 films that comprise the UNFCCC’s Youth Climate Report GIS map, which enables youth around the world to share information with global leaders, policymakers, and those following climate and environmental issues.
The Planetary Health Film Lab is hosted by the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research located in Toronto, Canada.