Driftlines Film Festival: shorts programme: Ocean Pollution and Self-Determination
About this event
Pie Dan Lo (Black Tide) (2024)
Ujjirijavut (We See Changes) (2025)
Screening and discussion with Ujjirijavut directors James Simonee and Vincent L'Hérault (joining online).
About the films
Pie Dan Lo
In 2020, the bulk carrier MV Wakashio ran aground off the east coast of Mauritius, releasing nearly 1,000 tons of oil into the Indian Ocean. Pie Dan Lo captures the devastation of this disaster with acute intensity, brought to life through the vivid, hand-painted images of director Kim Yip Tong. This animated film traces the collective response of local communities, as people across Mauritius unite to protect their island and the many human, animal, and plant lives that call it home. The film highlights the umbilical bond between coastal peoples and the sea – a bond both ruptured and renewed in the wake of this catastrophe. Pie Dan Lo is a story of solidarity and communal resilience, a short and powerful critique of systemic failures in environmental governance and the destructive reach of the global petrochemical industry.
Ujjirijavut
Ujjirijavut (We See Changes) shares the first-hand story of James Simonee, an Inuit filmmaker and hunter from Pond Inlet, as he investigates the long-term effects of an iron mine on his community. Simonee studies the layered impacts of industrial development, as new shipping routes disrupt marine life and iron ore dust contaminates fish and marine mammals – vital sources of food for Pond Inlet. The film offers a model of Indigenous-led research, integrating laboratory testing for toxins in marine species with elders’ knowledge and lived observations of environmental change. As the mining company seeks to expand operations, the people of Pond Inlet face a difficult trade-off between employment opportunities and the preservation of Inuit landscapes and lifeways for future generations. Ultimately, Ujjirijavut is a story of resistance and hope, as the community mobilizes to block the mine’s expansion and assert sovereignty over the future of their territory