If you’ve seen our movie, you’ll know that there are hundreds of thousands of baby albatross dying on Midway Island each year filled up with our plastic; plastic that is floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The gorgeous footage of the albatross in our film was shot by Jan Vozenilek. He, Chris Jordan, and a team of passionate people have been documenting the lifecycle of the albatross on Midway as part of Journey to Midway. They are about to embark on another leg of their project and plan to be on Midway Atoll when hundreds of thousands of fluffy baby albatrosses are nesting with their parents. In addition to Chris Jordan’s ongoing photographic work on the island, the team is collaborating in the creation of a documentary film about their experience, that that they “hope will bring a message of beauty and renewal to an audience of millions of people around the world”.
In their own words, their film “will be a powerful visual journey into the heart of Midway’s astonishingly symbolic environmental tragedy. Through our journey we hope to rediscover—in the grandeur of the magnificent albatross and it’s far-reaching travels, and in the unbroken primal cycle of mating, brooding, nurturing and fledging despite the albatross colony’s encounters with plastic—that by turning toward flowing life in all its beauty and resilience, we find a path toward acceptance and inspiration. Our story will be framed in gorgeous state-of-the-art high-resolution digital cinematography, in one of the world’s most beautiful island landscapes. The viewer will enter a paradoxical world of horror and beauty, destruction and renewal, and emerge with their worldview shifted.”
I have met both Jan and Chris personally, and I know that they are humbly dedicated to preventing plastic pollution and to getting the story of Midway out there. If the images of the albatross touched you, and made you take a second look at your everyday waste, please consider supporting these guys. You could:
- Spread the word about their project and website through your blog or by emailing friends
- Like them on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/midwayjourney#!/pages/Midway-Journey/117981432917)
- Follow Jan’s blog at http://janvozenilek.wordpress.com/
- Donate to their project. Midway is very remote. It costs a lot to get there, and these guys are volunteering their time to do this very important project. They are still short of trip expense funds by a few thousand dollars. Any donations you make will cover room and board on the island which directly supports the Fish and Wildlife Service in preserving Midway’s Marine Sanctuary.
- For small donations that don’t need to be tax-deductible, the Paypal link below makes it easy and fast: http://www.chrisjordan.com/donate.php
- For larger tax-deductible donations, here is the link to their 501c3, Planetwork NGO: https://www.planetwork.net/transaction/index.html
Important: Please specify “NextNow Collaboratory/Trash Island/Midway Journey” in your inquiry and/or in the memo line of your cheque
Please join now in supporting the MIDWAY project. And check out their latest trailer below.
The Clean Bin Project Blog 