Thursday, May 31, 7 p.m., Orcas Center
— from Michael Riordan for Orcas Currents —
On Thursday evening, May 31, photographer and director Chris Jordan will return to Orcas Island for a showing of his new film Albatross, which he previewed here two years ago in a memorable Orcas Currents presentation, “Encountering Midway.” This Orcas Currents event will occur in Orcas Center beginning at 7 pm.
Jordan’s feature-length documentary film is a powerful visual journey into a gut-wrenching environmental tragedy occurring on remote Midway Island, which lies a thousand miles northwest of Hawaii. There tens of thousands of albatross chicks lie dead, their bodies bloated with plastic objects from surrounding Pacific Ocean waters.
Visiting the island several times during eight years, Jordan and his film crew witnessed cycles of birth, life and death of these magnificent birds, which serve as a multi-layered metaphor for our times — an era that some geologists have begun to call the “Plasticene.”
Albatross takes viewers through the immensity of this tragedy, letting us directly face our personal complicity for it. In the process, we find an unexpected route to a deeply felt experience of beauty and love for life on Earth. The film delivers a profound message of reverence and renewal that has been reaching and stimulating an audience of millions around the world.
Chris Jordan is a Seattle-based photographer and filmmaker. His work explores the collective shadow of contemporary mass culture from photographic and conceptual perspectives. In it, he walks the edge between beauty and horror, challenging us to look both inward and outward at the complex landscapes of our collective choices.
Jordan’s photographs have been exhibited and published worldwide. He has received the International Prix Pictet Commission Prize, the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography, and the 2007 Green Leaf Award of the National World Museum and United Nations Environment Programme.
This Orcas Currents event is cosponsored by Janet Alderton, Joe Cohen and Martha Farish, and Toby and Sarah Cooper. As always, admission is free but donations are welcome.
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Where can we see this film if we are off island on the 31st? We were just watching an episode of Blue Planet II that discusses this same heart wrenching issue.
Patricia, you can learn about Albatross screenings at the film website: https://www.albatrossthefilm.com/watch-albatross.
Chris has made this film available for home screenings, and it will be available on the internet starting June 8th.
Sorry to hear you’ll miss the event; Albatross has screened in 80 countries, at venues like Telluride Mountainfilm and the United Nations, and Chris is on the road constantly to present it. Orcas islanders are really lucky to share the evening with him, and to see his powerful film on the big screen.
If Chris Jordan agrees, which I’m almost sure he will, we’ll include a link to the full feature-length film on the Orcas Currents web page for this event.
Thank you everyone. I’ll check out both websites.
For more background about Chris Jordan and a look into his unique philosophy and approach, here’s an inspiring interview from 2017: https://soundcloud.com/call-to-adventure/chris-jordan-10252017