Climate Change Awareness on the Big Screen

SALT's screening program Is This Our Last Chance?, designed to draw attention to the impacts of climate change on humans and the world, brings together ten documentaries from its 2021 selection from South Africa, Norway, France, Canada, Bolivia and the Balkans to audiences. Held in its seventh year with support from Garanti BBVA, the program began on 26 April at saltonline.org with a week-long screening of the 2019 film One Table Two Elephants with Turkish subtitles. Our planet is warming, oceans are acidifying, sea levels are rising; as ecosystems suffer damage due to climate change, biodiversity is rapidly declining. Ongoing issues related to the climate crisis and efforts toward solutions reach wide audiences through documentaries as well as news coverage. In this year's Is This Our Last Chance? selection, films seek to answer the question of how humans, animals, nature and cities can coexist in harmony. A youth group works to protect the ecological structure of their city through dance and music, while a community from a completely different region builds the future by holding onto its roots. The climate struggle of a small island nation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean finds resonance on the other side of the world. Whether individual, community or institutional, awareness is growing that the choices we make today will determine our tomorrow.

Through the Is This Our Last Chance? program, SALT and Garanti BBVA are making available free of charge from across Turkey films that pose questions about climate, focus on urgent matters, explore possible solutions for our future, and raise public awareness.

Each film will be presented with subtitles on saltonline.org for one week. The program is planned to continue with a conversation series that encourages reflection and discussion on climate and ecological crisis. Efforts are underway to hold these discussions, which will bring together scientists, academics, researchers and civil society organization representatives, simultaneously with the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) to be held in Glasgow, Scotland in November.

The 2021 Is This Our Last Chance? program was curated by Fatma Çolakoğlu from SALT. The program will run from 26 April to 4 July, with films remaining on saltonline.org for one week each. All films will be screened in their original language with Turkish and English subtitles.

SALT announced in September 2015 that it would not accept support from oil, coal or gas companies. Garanti BBVA has implemented pioneering practices in combating climate change and transitioning to a low-carbon economy. In recent months it announced that it will not finance coal and coal-related activities. As one of the largest supporters of renewable energy, it became a carbon-neutral bank by reducing carbon emissions and purchasing carbon credits for remaining emissions.   SALT's Is This Our Last Chance? program is supported by its founder Garanti BBVA. Is This Our Last Chance? Screening Program 26 April - 4 July saltonline.org

26 April - 2 May

Jacob von Heland and Henrik Ernstson, One Table Two Elephants, 2019

3-9 May

Miha Avguštin, Rožle Bregar and Matic Oblak, The Undamaged, 2018

10-16 May

Alexander Glustrom, Mossville: When Great Trees Fall, 2019

17-23 May

Pieter Van Eecke, Samuel in the Clouds, 2016

24-30 May

Matthieu Rytz, Anote's Ark, 2018

31 May - 6 June

Jörg Adolph and Jan Haft, Das geheime Leben der Bäume, 2020

7-13 June

Manuel Deiller and Nina Ardoin, Longyearbyen, a Bipolar City, 2016

14-20 June

Meng Han, Smog Town, 2019

21-27 June

François-Xavier Drouet, Le temps des forêts, 2019

28 June - 4 July

Clement Guerra and Sophie Guerra, The Condor and the Eagle, 2019

IS THIS OUR LAST CHANCE? One Table Two Elephants (2019) 26 April - 2 May   Directors: Jacob von Heland and Henrik Ernstson 84 minutes Afrikaans, English, Xhosa; Turkish subtitles Starting from contemporary questions about race and nature, One Table Two Elephants examines opportunities for knowledge acquisition in the city, addressing how resources are managed in Cape Town, South Africa in its social, cultural and political dimensions. The film presents several different stories from the area around Table Mountain, which in the Khoi language of southwest Africa means "the place where clouds gather." The viewer follows on one hand hip-hop and break dancers who attempt to combine local culture with modern dance techniques, and on the other hand city residents engaged in efforts to protect nature.   Focusing on Cape Town's distinctive vegetation and wetlands, biologists, hip-hoppers and activists seek ways to produce symbols of unity and commitment around the mountain, while the city's multilayered, painful and liberating history is brought to light. Swedish researcher and directors Jacob von Heland and Henrik Ernstson make visible the city's colonial and apartheid past and tell how indigenous peoples struggle with challenges in resource management.