Small Island Big Song

Tim Cole (2019, Australia/Taiwan, 83 min.)

Refugees — we hear the term and often think of people without a home or seeking a new home. Frequently, we fail to consider what they left behind, assuming that they are fleeing war, poverty, or injustice and want to leave. But in the 21st century, more than 200 million people are forecast to become climate refugees–people forced to leave home because climate change makes their homes inhabitable. For them, home is where they want to be but will have to exist only as memories carried around in their hearts. How can home live on in exile? How has it lived on before? Often through the joys and dreams of song and dance, art and culture. Connecting a diaspora of people scattered around the globe but united culturally.

Tim Cole’s Small Island Big Song captures the joys of an existing diaspora of cultures scattered around the Pacific and increasingly at the front lines of climate change with rising sea levels. Filmed over three years on 16 island nations across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, this grassroots musical follows the ocean highways uniting ancient musical lineages, from Madagascar to Rapa Nui/Easter Island, Taiwan to Zenadth Kes/The Torres Strait. The film serves as a heartfelt plea for environmental awareness and cultural preservation from those on the frontline of the climate crisis.

(Shown in partnership with the Center for Performing Arts and Penn State Water Council)