Documentaries on Religion and Climate Change
There is a growing body of excellent scholarship on religion and nature, with active research communities in every region of the planet. Most publications in this field, however, will be noticed only by specialists – like ISSRNC members! – but it is important that the information and ideas generated by scholars of religion, nature, and culture reach broader audiences. In this spirit, the organizers of the Religion and Climate Change in Cross Regional Comparison project have partnered with filmmakers at American University’s School of Communications and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting to produce short films that capture stories about religion in our warming world.
Documentary journalist Bill Gentile has a regularly worked with the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies to create short documentaries that translate scholarly research into accessible media content. Over the past several years, Gentile has made three films that take up issues of religion, nature, and culture in the context of contemporary Latin America. The first of these features ISSRNC alum Tod Swanson’s ethnobotanical work in the Ecuadorian Amazon, exploring the intersection between social and ecological change.
WHEN THE FOREST WEEPS from Backpack Journalist on Vimeo.
The second film, made together with Camila DeChalus, a former Pulitzer Center Student Fellow, describes the work being done by Catholic Relief Services to support Colombian farmers whose coffee crops are imperiled by climate change.
More recently, Gentile worked with Swedish Anthropologist Karsten Paregaard, a contributor to the Religion and Climate Change in Cross Regional Comparison project, to tell the story of the shifting pilgrimage practices at Huaytapallana, the highest peak in the Peruvian Andes, as the glaciers there melt.
We invite you to use these materials in your teaching and encourage ISSRNC members to share resources and media relevant to our scholarly community. If you have a resource you would like to share, please let us know.
