The award winning documentary, Miss South Pacific, has been selected as the Opening Night Film for the October 6 Malibu Film Festival, and it will be introduced by part time Kauai residents, actor Pierce Brosnan and his wife Keely Shaye Brosnan.
Following the Malibu screening, the film will travel to Mill Valley, California, Honolulu, Hawaii, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and Grand Bahama Island.
An award winning documentary about the cultural and environmental impacts of climate change on the South Pacific, made by Hawaii filmmakers, the film will show at the 2011 Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) on October 19, 7 PM, Dole Cannery Regal Theater.
Miss South Pacific: Beauty and the Sea was completed in May 2011. To date, the documentary has been accepted into 20 film festivals, winning 8 awards including the Film Festival of Colorado Audience and Jury Awards for Best Environmental Film, the Los Angeles Movie Awards for Excellence and Best Special Effects, and the Metropolitan Film Festival of New York Special Mention Award.
Last month, the film was first runner up in the Short Documentary Category at the Woods Hole Film Festival (Massachusetts).
Miss South Pacific: Beauty and the Sea tells the story of how increased carbon emissions from developed countries have caused sea levels to rise in low lying islands and atolls throughout the South Pacific region, contaminating drinking water, damaging food crops, and forcing the evacuation of entire villages.
Told through the voices of the Miss South Pacific Pageant contestants who represent 13 island nations, the film showcases the pageant’s sarong, talent, and native costume competitions while addressing the problems created by sea level rise in the contestants’ island homes.
Miss Tonga Paea Williams laments, “One day you are playing in your playground, and the next day it’s gone.”
Miss Fiji Merewalesi Nailatikau sounds the alarm. “In the face of a very real danger of profound loss, our failure to act aggressively on climate change generates within me a fear for the security of my island home and the island homes of my Pacific brothers and sisters.”
According to peer reviewed science articles, a combination of warming ocean water expanding and rapidly increasing melt of land and polar ice has more than doubled the rate of sea level rise during most of the 20th century.
Based on this increase in rate of change, scientists are estimating that by the end of this century, the oceans will be from 20 inches to more than three feet higher, causing entire islands in the South Pacific to disappear.
Los Angeles feature film director, Mary Lambert, directed and supervised editing of the film. Ms. Lambert is best known for directing the theatrical hit “Pet Sematary” and numerous music videos with Madonna, Janet Jackson, Chris Isaac and Mick Jagger, among other popular videos and films.
The film’s Hawaii team includes Kauai attorney Teresa Tico as producer, Honolulu resident Jeff DePonte as cinematographer, Kauai resident Lauren Calhoun as camera and co-editor, Kauai resident Rita Peeters as camera, and Kauai based, Emmy award winning Stephanie Castillo as consultant.
Vilsoni Hereniko, who wrote and directed a previous HIFF film, “The Land Has Eyes,” was cultural advisor to the film.
The Producer’s agent is Ostrow & Company of Los Angeles, California.