Fernando Meirelles, RZA, Seu Jorge & Jayda G Among Team Behind Eco Doc ‘Blue Carbon’ From Producers Make Waves & Tangled Bank
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EXCLUSIVE: UK outfit Make Waves (The Great Green Wall) and science-focused U.S. producer HHMI Tangled Bank Studios (All That Breathes) are teaming on feature-length documentary Blue Carbon (working title), an environmentally-focused musical piece fronted by Grammy-nominated producer and DJ Jayda G with music from Wu-Tang leader RZA and Brazilian artist Seu Jorge.
Nicolas Brown (The Serengeti Rules) is directing and executive producer is City Of God and The Two Popes filmmaker Fernando Meirelles. A North American pre-sale is being finalized.
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Pic is being co-produced with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and supported by Conservation International alongside a number of European broadcasters, including NDR which has pre-bought German rights.
Blue Carbon is the term given to three coastal ecosystems – seagrass meadows, mangroves and tidal marshes – that fringe most continents. Some of these ecosystems can sequester from the atmosphere up to four times more carbon per hectare than tropical forests.
The feature will be fronted by producer, DJ and marine biologist Jayda G as she explores how we are losing these unsung ecosystems at an alarming rate, how Blue Carbon can help mitigate the effects of climate change, and how we can protect the fragile ecosystems from further destruction. The project will take in shorelines from Senegal and Vietnam to France, Miami, Brazil and Colombia.
In a similar vein to Make Waves’ 2019 Venice Film Festival title The Great Green Wall, Blue Carbon will combine music and science, dance-culture and art.
Due to be completed in spring 2023, producers are lining up an education and outreach campaign that will generate grassroot activism around blue carbon ecosystems and they plan to engage policymakers about how to harness nature-based solutions to help conserve blue carbon.
Director Nicholas Brown explained: “In this film we are bringing together opposites — dance music and nature, or clubbing and conservation — with the aim of bringing new hope to new audiences. Crucially, the film raises the voices of people — as well as the ecosystems — that sit on the front lines of the climate and biodiversity crisis. It is time to listen to what they say.”
RZA said of the project: “The air we breathe and the water we drink are the two most important things for our survival. Yet we consistently continue to abuse them with frivolous products. I’m joining the Blue Carbon team of creators to help bring the needed awareness to these issues. Hopefully the film will inspire us to do better.”
“Blue Carbon is so important but people know so little about it — I want it to be as well known as the Amazon rainforest. It has such potential to help us combat climate change, as long as we listen to and learn from the stories of people working to protect Blue Carbon. It’s made me hopeful about our future and has helped me feel more connected with mother nature. I hope that when people watch this film they feel the same way,” added Jayda G.
HHMI Tangled Bank Studios has worked on films including The Serengeti Rules, The Farthest – Voyager In Space, Nature’s Fear Factor, My Garden of a Thousand Bees, Inventing Tomorrow, and All That Breathes, which recently won prizes at Sundance and Cannes.
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