The Swiss Pauline Julier came across a small news item rather accidentally. Tuvalu, a forgotten archipelago of nine small islands in the Pacific Ocean, sees its existence threatened by rising sea levels. It is expected that the archipelago will be engulfed by water within less than 30 years.
In this poetic essay, Julier documents the phenomenon of a people in emigration and of a landscape that will disappear. Oddly enough, the Tuvalu do not behave in a fundamentally different way from other communities in the face of their irrevocable fate. The threat of demise cannot prevent the ‘cultural genocide’ – or the destruction of tradition and standardisation of a global narrative that is unfolding around the world, not even in Tuvalu.
CH, 2014, 35 min
Directed by: Pauline Julier
Written by: Pauline Julier
Production: Le Poulpe
Producer: Pauline Julier
Cinematography: Pauline Julier
Editing: Pauline Julier
Location Sound Mix: Nicolas Chapoulier
Sound Editing: Xavier Lavorel
Rerecording Sound Mix: Xavier Lavorel