MIDWAY
The MIDWAY media project is a powerful visual journey into the heart of an astonishingly symbolic environmental tragedy. On one of the remotest islands on our planet, tens of thousands of baby albatrosses lie dead on the ground, their bodies filled with plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch. Returning to the island over several years, our team is witnessing the cycles of life and death of these birds as a multi-layered metaphor for our times. With photographer Chris Jordan as our guide, we walk through the fire of horror and grief, facing the immensity of this tragedy—and our own complicity—head on. And in this process, we find an unexpected route to a transformational experience of beauty, acceptance, and understanding.
We frame our story in the vividly gorgeous language of state-of-the-art high-resolution digital cinematography, surrounded by millions of live birds in one of the world’s most beautiful natural sanctuaries. The viewer will experience stunning juxtapositions of beauty and horror, destruction and renewal, grief and joy, birth and death, coming out the other side with their heart broken open and their worldview shifted. Stepping outside the stylistic templates of traditional environmental or documentary films, MIDWAY will take viewers on a guided tour into the depths of their own spirits, delivering a profound message of reverence and love that is already reaching an audience of tens of millions of people around the world.
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Film and Media
“I envision our project not as being a bunch of us tramping around the island with cameras; instead I hope it will be an emotional and spiritual journey by a deeply connected group of artists, to honor the issues that Midway represents. Maybe it is not too ambitious to hope—if we can fully rise to the occasion—that we might be able to co-create a multi-media work of art that tenderly witnesses this middle point that humanity finds itself at right now. And in the eye of the storm —the apex of the Gyre—perhaps our collaborative efforts can create a container for healing that might have some small effect on the collective choice that is to come.”
- Photographer and artist Chris Jordan
Film
Following Chris Jordan’s expeditions to Midway and the lifecycle of the Albatross, “Midway” is more than just a documentary or a film about wildlife at risk. “Midway” brings us an opportunity for us to look at our world in close-up, to see how our lives are impacting the planet, and to find new approaches to moving forward. Production of the feature film “Midway” continues through 2011.
Transmedia Release
Numerous short videos and back stories will continue to be made available, both on the Midway Journey YouTube site, and disseminated through social networks. The goal of the team at Midway Journey is to continue to spread the word about this project, and that means continually expanding our audience. Images, stories and videos will be periodically released online and through mainstream media outlets as the film is shot and in the run-up to its release.
Images
Chris Jordan’s stunning images of the tragedy unfolding on Midway have been seen around the world.
On March 17th 2011, Chris won the prestigious Prix Pictet Commission in Paris for the series “Midway: Message from the gyre”: www.prixpictet.com/commission
In awarding the third Prix Pictet Commission, Jacques de Saussure, Senior Partner of Pictet & Cie, said, “His haunting images from the Midway atoll have exactly the qualities we are seeking for the Commission.”
These images can also be seen on the photographers website: www.chrisjordan.com
Book
Chris Jordan and his wife, poet Victoria Sloan Jordan, plan a 2012 release of a collaborative book that illuminates the multi-layered metaphoric landscape of Midway through photographs and poetry.
4 Comments
Thank you for opening my mind and eyes a little wider
Today I read how plastic is killing sea birds 600kms off the Australian mainland on Lord Howe Island.
www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/deadly-diet-of-marine-plastic-kills-seabirds-20110513-1emff.html
I was moved when I found out about Chris Jordan’s project to awaken all of us to the awful reality unfolding in the Pacific.
To contemplate that these sublimely majestic creatures are cruelly suffering in order for our species to enjoy our profligacy at their expense is a burden, I for one find unbearable and unconscionable.
I am not sure yet how all this will turn around, but ultimately I want to make choices so that the way I live now does not imperil any marine ( or other) species.
I await Chris’s film with anticipation and a readiness to take some responsibility. We all have a stake in acting to sustain the future of our living planet.
Mike Robertson, Sydney, Australia
Help! Hell! I feel so sick! and so miderable… but seriously, so what now? Dig my plastic lighter in the garden may be a silly starting point, but besides committing suicide what can we do? what do you do? Thank you soooo much for sharing these fotos and tracks; yes, there are things which I and I can do, and I shall do some of them, definitely. Could we use your photos for a campaign?
eu porsol e devo ajuda mais não so eu que tenho que ajuda .As pessoa tem obrigação de ajuda na corleta de lixo.
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