Albatross | The Transitions Film Festival
Albatross is a piercing, soaring, sobering, exalting artwork, tinged with the sadness of great love, radiantly brilliant. – Carl Safina, conservationist and writer
In 2009, artist Chris Jordan travelled to Midway Island and bore witness to tens of thousands of dead albatrosses lying on the ground, their stomachs filled with plastic. After 8 years of filming the life cycles of these beautiful birds, Albatross was created – a visual odyssey examining how human materiality has impacted the natural world.
The debut film of acclaimed artist Chris Jordan, Albatross transcends the normal bounds of a typical nature documentary.
Midway Island in the North Pacific Ocean is one of the most remote places on Earth. Despite this, the waste of society’s consumerism has still found its way there.
Albatrosses mistake small pieces of plastic as food and continue to consume the harmful waste, until they eventually die of starvation – all the while their stomachs full of plastic.
Chris Jordan creates a gut wrenching visual journey which creates an ultimately inspiring portrait of the families of Albatross, filled with births, love, death and plastic.
Albatross transports us to an island few people get to see, and gives us a deeper understanding of the natural world and the tragic ways we impact it.
A wonderful and insightful arts style documentary on the life of the albatross.
The festival was well organised with a comfortable venue and some relevant not for profit stalls.