Midway V : pre-trip check-in

Dear friends,

Here we go again, schlepping a small mountain of photo/video/sound recording gear back out to remote postage-stamp-sized Midway Island that has captured our hearts and imaginations in its powerful vortex. This time, if all goes well, we will witness and film a beautiful sight: the hatching of 300,000 baby albatrosses from their eggs. The adult albatrosses lay their eggs right on the ground, and as you know, they have no fear of humans, so we will be able to watch the little silver fluff balls emerging from their eggs from super close up. We are decked out with high-resolution camera and film gear with close-focus lenses, and lots of umbrellas and warm clothes, as the weather on Midway this time of year is stormy, wet, and cold.

Funding-wise, for this leg of the journey we are grateful to Koerner Camera in Seattle, the Compton Family Foundation in California, and the Pax Natura Foundation in Salt Lake City. And as always, big love for the fab peeps at the Fish and Wildlife Service on the island, all of whom have gone far above and beyond with their kind support of our vision.

Our A-team this trip includes Midway veterans Jan Vozenilek (Director of Photography for the film), Joe Schweers (Lead Camera and wildlife cinematography specialist), Jim Hurst (sound engineer, jib-arm expert, camera tech, and MacGyver-of-all-trades), Victoria Jordan (team poet, line producer, and my indispensable companion and soul mate).

We’ll be on the island Feb 2-16, and we plan on making lots of short behind-the-scenes videos to share with you during this trip, so stay tuned. Wish us luck, and looking forward to checking in from Midway!

 

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MIDWAY IV – A dream of a dying Albatross

Here is a short clip from our most recent trip to Midway. It combines footage of a dying albatross with a scene of a baby fairy tern being fed and protected by its mother. We call it “A Dream of a Dying Albatross (Return to the Mother).” The singer is Baaba Maal, from the “One Giant Leap” album; much love to him and his peeps (and BTW that whole album is killer; check it out if you don’t have it already).

We will be returning to Midway again in February 2012 to film and witness hundreds of thousands of albatross babies hatching from their eggs, which our friends on the island say is one of the most beautiful sights on planet Earth. Our film is progressing well, with several exciting announcements coming soon. Stay tuned! ~Chris Jordan

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MIDWAY – film trailer


Our new film trailer is now live. You can also view it in high resolution on our new website: www.MidwayFilm.com

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MIDWAY JOURNEY III – Chris Jordan final day summary

Chris Jordan checks in on the eve of our last day on Midway Island before our departure.

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Midway Journey III – Poem: Courtship Medley à la Albatross

At this moment on Midway Atoll, the juvenile albatrosses are in the throes of their courtship dances. Their nonstop rave is the main source of all the buoyant motion and noise on the island as they seek a bond before flying out to sea to feed for the remainder of the summer. In this poem I’ve attempted to capture the sights and sounds of this ecstatic dancing season.

Courtship Medley à la Albatross

It begins with a prance dance,
a tiptoe head-bob waddle
and a wing fluff.  Then, fake a preen,
shake out a sideways
head-breaking shriek,
a chair-leg-floor-scrape scream,
and sidle into a crooked raga
with fast and furious tabla drums,
and applause, applause, wait –

it’s a drill-hammer fixing
a squeaky door behind the beak,
a flanking feather-grab tease
to a show of chocolate origami wings,
quick switcheroo to a bass kazoo,
throw the head up high, trumpet
to blow the clouds from the sky,
it’s a match, it’s a mate, a pact
to hatch an egg, raise a chick,

then bid adieu until next season,
dancing days forever over
in favor of a lifelong bond.

~Victoria Sloan Jordan

 

photo: kris krug

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CBC Interview: Plastic Pollution & The Oceans

I was interviewed on CBC Radio’s ‘On The Coast’ w/ Stephen Quinn this week. Here’s the audio transcript set to some of my behind-the-scenes photos of the filming of the Midway Documentary.

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MIDWAY JOURNEY III – Open Hearts, Broken Hearts

It’s the mid-point of our current journey and Chris Jordan checks in from an albatross-covered field on Midway Atoll to share the abundant sights and sounds, as well as the realization that all albatross chicks here likely have plastic in their bellies.

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MIDWAY JOURNEY III – Chris Jordan checks in

Artist Chris Jordan checks in from Midway Island  as he discovers a tiny plastic-filled albatross chick who died in his nest.

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MIDWAY

We are at a mid-way place. On a remote and isolated island in the middle of the Pacific, twelve-hundred miles northwest of Hawaii.

This is a moment in time, a chance to witness and understand our role in an astonishing environmental tragedy. This is a place that provides context. Here, reflected in the beauty of the Albatross, is an unfolding horror. Yet it is a horror in which we see our own lives, a snapshot of our impact on the planet that challenges us to consider how to move forward.

Join us, on a breathtaking and emotional journey, into the heart of the Pacific, and into the heart of ourselves.

Production of the feature film “MIDWAY” continues through 2012.

Cinematography by Jan Vozenilek and Joe Schweers

Click here to view the trailer in HD
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GudEuDTrSLU&hd=1

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MIDWAY JOURNEY – Education Outreach

Chris Jordan and Jan Vozenilek share their experiences on Midway with students at Penticton Secondary School in British Columbia – Canada, and announce that Emily Chartrand, a grade 11 student, will be joining the expedition on their next journey to Midway Atoll in March 2011.

Working with Emily, the Midway Team is expanding its education outreach program, to connect with high school students in Canada and the United States. Starting on Sunday March 20th, Emily will be providing daily reports on her blog:

http://emilysmidwayjourney.blogspot.com/

Video by: CHBC – Global TV – Kelowna, BC
Reporter: April Lawrence

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  • MIDWAY

    The MIDWAY media project is a powerful visual journey into the heart of an astonishingly symbolic environmental tragedy. On one of the remotest islands on our planet, tens of thousands of baby albatrosses lie dead on the ground, their bodies filled with plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch. Returning to the island over several years, our team is witnessing the cycles of life and death of these birds as a multi-layered metaphor for our times. With photographer Chris Jordan as our guide, we walk through the fire of horror and grief, facing the immensity of this tragedy—and our own complicity—head on. And in this process, we find an unexpected route to a transformational experience of beauty, acceptance, and understanding.

    We frame our story in the vividly gorgeous language of state-of-the-art high-resolution digital cinematography, surrounded by millions of live birds in one of the world’s most beautiful natural sanctuaries. The viewer will experience stunning juxtapositions of beauty and horror, destruction and renewal, grief and joy, birth and death, coming out the other side with their heart broken open and their worldview shifted. Stepping outside the stylistic templates of traditional environmental or documentary films, MIDWAY will take viewers on a guided tour into the depths of their own spirits, delivering a profound message of reverence and love that is already reaching an audience of tens of millions of people around the world.

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