I've got a subscription to HBO Max / TNT Sports for the month so that I can watch as much as possible of the Tour de France.
As I had this I noticed that there was access to this film, which I'd blogged about separately so watched it this morning.
This is a documentary film by Josh Fox.The film starts with a song: ‘The Welcome Table’
This is a song which was originally written as a gospel song, sung by enslaved people who wanted to be made to feel welcome.
Alice Walker also wrote a short story with the same name.
I was particularly taken by the opening few minutes of the film, which very successfully introduced the big themes of the film which were that in the coming decades, more people than ever will have to be on the move... but that we are also all migrants...
From the script:
People have always migrated.
Always looking for that elusive home on the horizon.
What tells us we’re home?
Where is home?
Home tells us who we are
Home tells us what we’re like. It tells us who we love.
What we eat
What we say and in what language
Home is how the sun should feel on your skin.
Nobody wants to leave the ground they’re rooted to.
The sounds, the smells, the smiles.
The familiarity
The comfort of all that we know.
Of all we were made by.
Sometimes we have no choice but to move.
Here’s the hard part.
We’ve all left home.
We’ve all migrated without knowing it.
We’ve all moved to a different planet.
A climate-changed planet.
A climate that’s very unlike any that human beings have ever lived on.
And we’re all moving there now; whether we like it or not.
And that means everything’s going to change and we may never go home again.
All that’s left of the steadiness in this world is about to evaporate.
Governments know it is coming… and they are building walls. Border security and incarceration.
This side is ours, that’s yours.
When all of us have to move, where will we go?
From sea to shining sea, there is no security.
Where will we be safe? There is no geographical answer…
A series of stories are featured in the film - and the tellers of those stories join the table.
The first story was the wildfire inferno at Paradise, California. This displaced over 20 000 people, many of them are now living in an RV.
This is followed by the US Virgin Islands, which were affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
We then visit San Sebastiao, Brazil – flooding affected the favelas here.
Poorer people live in the riskier areas of such places.
The film visits the aftermath of a flood in a favela where people died, and these are becoming more common.
Earth’s atmosphere is 5% wetter than it would otherwise be as a result of climate change.
The film then moves to showing detention centres in the southern USA, where thousands of children have been separated from families.There are thousands of missing women in cities on the Mexican border.
The film then moves to the Calabrian Coast of Italy and the Mediterranean. It suggests that the EU is using the Mediterranean like a wall… thousands have drowned in the sea - the real number is unknown.
It mentions a musician called Chris Obehi, and shares some images from his "Non Siamo Pesci" video.
“We are not fish, we are humans…”
The director fo the film explains his own family story. His family had an Italian background, but his family left there… he is also a migrant. His grandma was born in Calabria – but there was no work so the family left for New York. Southern Italy’s chief export in 1900s was migrants.
Even back then there were cartoons depicting them as rats – with knives in their mouths.
It then moves on to the Mayor of a town called Riace.
He has decided to invite migrants into the empty houses hat many villages have in this area.
It then moves on to the Mayor of a town called Riace.
He has decided to invite migrants into the empty houses hat many villages have in this area.
Villagio Globale.
The mayor is called Domenico Lucano. The authorities didn't welcome his efforts.
The film outlines the importance of the Paris Agreement.
The headline was "1.5 to stay alive."
The headline was "1.5 to stay alive."
The IPCC made it clear that every fraction of a degree is dangerous, as it leads to tipping points.
That fraction of a degree means:
- Where the roof flies off instead of staying put
- A child getting a disease
- A species going extinct
- A family that abandons their home
- A war
- A genocide
- A fire starting
- A life saved
- A town still standing
- A roof keeping out the rain.
127 different types of catastrophe were mentioned in the IPCC report. These included:
- Coral bleaching
- Wildfires
- Flooding
- Food security
- Excess deaths from heat
- Social inequality
- Economic stress
- Droughts
- Criminality
- Weaponisation of water
- Gender based violence
The story then moves on to Africa and the work of an organisation called Impact Kenya.
Migration out of their home is taking place following a six year drought.
Pastoralists have left. Arot is now dependent on one water well
This is leading to food insecurity – the people who have done the least to cause the problem are suffering the most from its impacts.
The film then moves to the Amazon – and the collaborative space of the Achuar
Amazon Watch work in this area.
The community is threatened by oil drilling in the Peruvian Amazon
PetroPeru wants to drill in the territory.
They claim to operate sustainably - the film suggests otherwise.
The final person invited to the welcome table is from Australia, home to "the World’s oldest culture".
Indigenous Aboriginal Australians are “the carers of country”.
The Bundjalung people are from what is now called 'New South Wales'.
One of their number, called Bobby Bumberbin – watched the first European ships arrive.
Between 1-2 million people were killed and others enslaved by the colonisers.
The original population was moved in the 1840s onto "missions" and the Enlgish took the resources.
Only 1% of rainforests are left – they cut it down to make it look like the English countryside.
Flooding is the consequence.
Indigenous Aboriginal Australians are “the carers of country”.
The Bundjalung people are from what is now called 'New South Wales'.
One of their number, called Bobby Bumberbin – watched the first European ships arrive.
Between 1-2 million people were killed and others enslaved by the colonisers.
The original population was moved in the 1840s onto "missions" and the Enlgish took the resources.
Only 1% of rainforests are left – they cut it down to make it look like the English countryside.
Flooding is the consequence.
In Lismore, the Government built pod houses and pod villages.
These are known by residents as “The Facility”
Land was seized – including Cabbage Tree Island – home of indigenous people – this survived the flood because houses were built on stilts. They were forced to leave and their houses were deliberately trashed with appliances etc. removed.
The government forced people to pods just 5km to the north.
This reminded the director of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in August 2005
Levee failure after Katrina led to poorer areas flooding.
Climate gentrification is one result.
These are known by residents as “The Facility”
Land was seized – including Cabbage Tree Island – home of indigenous people – this survived the flood because houses were built on stilts. They were forced to leave and their houses were deliberately trashed with appliances etc. removed.
The government forced people to pods just 5km to the north.
This reminded the director of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in August 2005
Levee failure after Katrina led to poorer areas flooding.
Climate gentrification is one result.
The film finishes in the Treme neighbourhood. – he speaks to someone who wrote the most famous song about the district. Carl Lee wrote about that in my World of Music blog.
John Boutté
John Boutté
And the final link is with the actions of ICE.
Everyone comes from somewhere else.
Fascism and dehumanisation of immigrants is happening under Trump.
The group of people talked for five days on the levee and came up with solutions.
- If people are in need, you should help them.
- Listening to stories and telling our own stories are vital – respecting each other.
- A wall on its side can be table.
Please find the time to watch this film yourself...
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