Sun Come Up

An Academy Award nominated film about an island community being displaced by climate change

2011

39 mins

Sun Come Up is an Academy Award® nominated film that shows the human face of climate change.

Sun Come Up is a lovely, moving, and valuable report on the environmental and social consequences of the global warming. People in America who still doubt the reality, let alone the cost, of global warming should be required to watch this film, and all students, teachers, and members of the public would be benefit from seeing it.

Anthropology Review Database- David Eller

Synopsis

Sun Come Up is an Academy Award® nominated film that shows the human face of climate change. The film follows the relocation of the Carteret Islanders, a community living on a remote island chain in the South Pacific Ocean, and now, some of the world’s first environmental refugees.

When climate change threatens their survival, the islanders face a painful decision. They must leave their ancestral land in search of a new place to call home. Sun Come Up follows a group of young islanders as they search for land in war-torn Bougainville, 50 miles across the open ocean. Sun Come Up provokes discussion about climate change, displacement, and the rights of vulnerable communities around the globe.

Reviews

Sun Come Up gives a human face to the global crisis of climate change. This moving account of climate refugees' search for a new home is a powerful way to introduce students to the most urgent issue of our time.

Professor of English and Environmental Studies

University of Wisconsin- Rob Nixon

Sun Come Up offers a thought-provoking and inspiring glimpse into how one community is adapting to climate change.

Assistant Professor

Environmental Studies Program, Wellesley College- Jay Turner

Sun Come Up was a stunning and engaging opening to my Environmental Ethics class. It has resonated with students throughout the semester.

Professor of Humanities

Aims Community College- Anne M. Machin

This debut doc captures a poignant historical transition as the Carteret Islanders search for a new home in the South Pacific, their tiny piece of paradise doomed to the rising oceans of climate change.

LA Times

The film opens up gnawing questions of belonging, identity, and planetary consequence.

The Boston Globe

The locations are stunning, and director Jennifer Redfearn captures the moral complexity of the situation.as well as the incredible sadness of the islanders trying to protect their culture as their ancestral home slips into the sea.

The Capital Times

An intensely human story with global underpinnings.

The Kansas City Star

Quietly engrossing.

The Village Voice

Excellent.

NY Daily News