Waves of Change Festival 2022: Film Screenings

Ocean Souls (2020)

58 minutes | PG
Dir. Philip Hamilton
English

Showtimes
12 – 18 Sep
Mon – Fri | 1.45pm
Sat | 1.45pm*
Sun | 5 pm*
*Special dual film screening with The Blue Forest

Ocean Souls is an emotive documentary about cetaceans. Cetaceans, despite looking so different to us, are possibly our closest relatives in terms of cognitive abilities and family ties. The film focuses on the concept of family, something every human can relate to, including chapters on emotions, language, social organisation, intelligence and human interaction. The film highlights new science and discovers that there is an intelligence beneath the waves that closely mirrors our own. The Live Aid of the Oceans, the film is an unprecedented collaboration, uniting over 100 filmmakers, the best scientists & cetacean experts. Join us as we explore the remarkable lives of these magnificent ocean souls.

Watson (2019)

99 minutes | PG13 (Brief Coarse Language)
Dir. Lesley Chilcott
English

Showtimes
12 – 18 Sep
Mon – Sat | 5pm
Sun | 1.45pm

Sea Shepherd founder Capt. Paul Watson has sailed the globe to keep the oceans and their inhabitants safe, and he is a portrait of a man willing to put his own life at risk in a relentless quest to protect the oceans and the marine life within.

The Blue Forest (2021)

30 minutes| PG
Dir. Philip Hamilton
English

Showtimes
17, 18 Sep
Sat | 1.45pm*
Sun | 5pm*
*Special dual film screening with Ocean Souls

27 – 29 Sep
Tue – Thu | 6pm

The Blue Forest is the first comprehensive film focusing on the important topics of kelp and seaweed around the world and explores how we can preserve one of the world’s most productive habitats.They are crucial to the health and survival of our planet, but sadly we are at risk of losing them. The Blue Forest exposes the vulnerability of these forests and how environmental conditions as well as the direct threat of human action, is severely challenging the resilience of these coastal ecosystems.

Ghost Fleet (2019)

90 minutes | PG (Some Disturbing Scenes)
Dir. Shannon Service
Thai with English Subtitles

Showtimes
19 – 25 Sep
Mon – Fri | 1.45pm
Sat | 5pm
Sun | 1.45pm

Ghost Fleet follows a small group of activists who risk their lives on remote Indonesian islands to find justice and freedom for the enslaved fishermen who feed the world's insatiable appetite for seafood.

Envoy: Shark Cull (2021)

104 minutes | PG13 (Some Coarse Language and Disturbing Scenes)
Dir. Andre Borell|
English

Showtimes
19 – 25 Sep
Mon – Fri | 5pm
Sat | 1.45pm
Sun | 5pm

9 Oct
Sun | 1.00pm*
*Special screening with meet the director dialogue session. Pre-book this special screening here

The Queensland and New South Wales Governments are running the longest marine cull in history. Not only is it destroying our marine ecosystem, it’s putting swimmers at risk. Claiming that the current programs are successful is both deceptive and dangerous.

During the shooting of Envoy: Shark Cull the Government implemented a 20-meter exclusion zone around nets and drumlines – in an attempt to stop footage of what’s really going on… they failed.

Envoy: Shark Cull will expose it all.

Sanctuary (2019)

74 minutes | PG
Dir. Álvaro Longoria
Spanish with English subtitles

Showtimes
26 Sep – 2 Oct
Mon – Fri | 1.45pm
Sat, Sun | 5.30pm

This is the story of a cause to create the world’s largest marine sanctuary in the Antarctic Ocean. On this journey, we follow brothers Javier and Carlos Bardem, spokespersons for the Antarctic Sanctuary campaign, in their endeavour to raise the necessary awareness and support to make this initiative a reality. Gaining every inch of ground in this struggle to save the eco-system of the last untouched wilderness on the planet is no easy task. We will accompany our protagonists on their voyage aboard the Arctic Sunrise and see first-hand how science, politics and social media have joined forces to bring together almost 3 million people in support of this cause, that ultimately rests in the hands of an international governing body.

The Odyssey (2016)

122 minutes | PG
Dir. Jérôme Salle
French with English subtitles

Showtimes
26 Sep
Mon | 4.30pm

2 Oct
Sun | 1.45pm

Summer, 1946. The Cousteau family - Jacques, his wife Simone and their two children Philippe and Jean-Michel - live in their beautiful house by the Mediterranean sea. By day they dive, by night they watch the stars. It's paradise on earth. But Jacques is never content. He lives and breathes adventure and believes absolutely in the virtues of progress. With his invention, the aqualung, his recently acquired vessel the Calypso, and a crew of free-spirited adventurers he is ready to cross the world's oceans.

Ten years later, back from boarding school, Philippe finds his father greatly altered – an international celebrity with megalomaniac dreams of grafting gills to humans and creating underwater cities. Jacques cannot see it yet, but Philippe already understands that progress and pollution have begun to lay waste to the marine world. Despite their mutual love and admiration, conflict between these two passionate men is inevitable.

The Smog of the Sea (2017)

30 minutes | PG
Dir. Ian Cheney
English with no subtitles

Showtimes
27 – 29 Sep
Tue – Thu | 4.30pm

The Smog of the Sea chronicles a 1-week journey through the remote waters of the Sargasso Sea. Marine scientist Marcus Eriksen invited onboard an unusual crew to help him study the sea: renowned surfers Keith & Dan Malloy, musician Jack Johnson, spearfisher woman Kimi Werner, and bodysurfer Mark Cunningham become citizen scientists on a mission to assess the fate of plastics in the world’s oceans. After years of hearing about the famous “garbage patches” in the ocean’s gyres, the crew is stunned to learn that the patches are a myth: the waters stretching to the horizon are clear blue, with no islands of trash in sight. But as the crew sieves the water and sorts through their haul, a more disturbing reality sets in: a fog of microplastics permeates the world’s oceans, trillions of nearly invisible plastic shards making their way up the marine food chain. You can clean up a garbage patch, but how do you stop a fog? Using nostalgic super-8 footage, sparkling underwater cinematography, an original score by Jack Johnson and shipmate Simon Beins, and live action footage of the crew’s research, The Smog of the Sea provides a new perspective on the once pristine oceans, and makes an artful call to action for rethinking the scourge of the sea — single-use plastic.

Children of the Sea (2019)

101 minutes | PG
Dir. Ayumu Watanabe
Japanese with English Subtitles

Showtimes
30 Sep
Fri | 4.30pm

1 Oct
Sat | 1.45pm

Ruka befriends two boys, Umi and Sora, who were raised in the sea by dugongs. In the process, she learns about the various secrets of the sky, the universe and her connection with the sea.

The Map to Paradise (2018)

95 minutes | PG (Some Disturbing Scenes)
Dir. Danielle Ryan & James Sherwood
English

Showtimes
3 – 7 Oct
Mon – Fri | 1.45pm

From Executive Producer Martin Sheen, The Map to Paradise is an adventure-filled and spectacularly gorgeous tale about the birth of the global movement to protect the sea. From underwater worlds of ice to glistening coral sanctuaries, discover what it takes to build a movement and to create positive change.

Filmed across six continents, the filmmakers have set out to challenge the mainstream narrative of hard-hitting environmental documentaries with a "doom and gloom" message, and replace it with one of hope and courage. Along the way, we meet a prince, a president, a pirate, and also an island chief — among others — who are all playing a role in the quest to save the planet.

Mixing colorful character-driven stories and hand-rendered animations, The Map to Paradise is a rare, urgent environmental wake-up call that retains a sense of awe and wonder for the kind of beauty that is still possible.

I am Greta (2020)

97 minutes | PG13 (Some Coarse Language)
Dir. Nathan Grossman
English with English subtitles in foreign language scenes

Showtimes
3 – 8 Oct
Mon – Fri | 5pm
Sat | 1.45pm

I am Greta follows Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg during the period in which she came to international prominence. The film combines home videos with intimate footage of Greta, often accompanied by her father, as her one-person school strike quickly grows into a global phenomenon.

Bigger than Us (2021)

97 minutes | NC16 (Some Nudity and Coarse Language)
Dir. Flore Vasseur
English with English subtitles in foreign language scenes

Showtimes
8 Oct
Sat | 5pm

Bigger than Us tells us the story of Melati and fellow activists across the globe, a new generation rising up to fix the world. The film touches on topics of human rights, the climate, freedom of expression, social justice as well as access to education and food. At a time when everything seems to be or has been falling apart, these young people show us how to live and what it means to be in the world today.

Whales in a Changing Ocean (2021)

20 minutes
Dir. Richard Sidey
English with no subtitles

In Antarctica, nothing is stationary. The only constant is change. One noticeable and increasingly evident change is the recovery of the humpback whales that feed in the waters off the Antarctic Peninsula, after industrial whaling almost wiped them out. In February 2020, wildlife filmmaker Richard Sidey was invited to join a team of scientists undertaking humpback whale research in Antarctica with Conservation International. Whales in a Changing Ocean Ocean follows the team as they observe humpback whale behavior and gather information vital to protecting the Antarctic continent into the future.

Sea People of Singapore (2021)

16 minutes | PG
Dir. Bernard Lau and Elton Tan
English with English subtitles

Explore the waters around SG with the Sea People of Singapore.

From watersports to marine conservation, they'll share their hopes, dreams and love for the sea, all while overcoming challenges through strength, resilience and unity.

The Kodiak Queen (2018)

17 minutes | PG
Dir. Rob Sorrenti
English with no Subtitles

The Kodiak Queen is about the ground-breaking transformation of a decorated WWII warship that survived Pearl Harbour, into an artificial reef and dive site by Richard Branson in the British Virgin Islands. The essence of the project was to inspire a generation of ocean lovers.

Birthplace by Novo Amor (2018)

5 minutes | PG
Dir. Sil van der Woerd & Jorik Dozy
English with no subtitles

Music video Birthplace for Novo Amor tells the symbolic story of a man arriving on a perfect earth, who encounters his nemesis in the form of ocean trash.

With this video we raise awareness for the plastic pollution emergency in the oceans, and hope to inspire others to become a part of the change.

0 to 101.8mm

8 minutes
Created by Yingyi Feng

0 to 101.8mm is an artistic representation of how the sea levels have risen insidiously from 1993 to 2022, as recorded by NASA. The numbers are still rising, as reflected real-time, on its website. Using the process of data sonification, the collection of data in sea level rises are presented sonically and aesthetically in moving images and composition. In experiencing data as sound, viewers immerse themselves in the presentation of these numbers and receive the impact of these numbers physiologically and psychologically. If we are not spurred into action by the onslaught of climate change figures that are presented to us visually in the news, we hope the visceral sonic experience of scientific data will.

Produced by Yingyi Feng

Blind Diving Audio Adventures

9 minutes
Produced by Artwave Studio

Originally created for individuals with vision loss in mind, Blind Diving is a celebration of the ocean and aims to immerse listeners of all ages in thrilling ocean adventures. Inspired by true accounts, explore dive sites around the region and join us in encountering wonderful marine life. In this episode of Blind Diving, explore the local waters of Singapore and experience what it feels like to be in the middle of a magical coral spawning event. This series is created by Artwave Studio, in collaboration with the Coastal Natives community.

Voiced by Sabrina Sng and Kathlyn Tan