‘Songs of the Earth’, directed by Soumik Dutta, is an animation film, an eight-track album responding to climate change.
UK-based Indian-origin artist and musician Soumik Dutta will make his directorial debut at the COP-26 summit in Glasgow next week when his climate action-focused “Songs of the Earth” premieres.
The London-based multi-disciplinary artist won the British Council Climate Change Creative Commission in February to develop a film and music project in partnership with the Earth Day Network.
The result is ‘Songs of the Earth’, an animation film, an eight-track album responding to climate change, ranging from climate migration, extreme weather to ocean pollution, deforestation, and original narrative, with songs and immersive visuals. weaves through sustainable fashion issues.
It was previewed this week here at 10 Downing Street, set to premiere on November 2.
“At the heart of the film and the album is one question – is our behavior as a people sustainable,” says Dutta.
“As consumers, many of us are part of a cycle of buying and giving up – and somehow pictures of polluted oceans, landfill mountains and toxic rivers don’t always tie back to us. I want young people to be ‘earth’. songs’ and think about how they can make small changes to their surroundings and begin to evaluate this behavior as a measure of good citizenship – as a badge of humanity,” he Said said.
The 24-minute-long film is animated by Indian painters Sachin Bhatt and Anjali Kamat and follows Asha, a young climate refugee from West Bengal, as she makes her disappearance through the floodplains, burning forests and polar ice caps of the Sundarbans delta. Searches for father. .
Dutta says: “This will be the first short film that I have written, produced and directed. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do – use different aspects of my creativity within a project.
“But I am most proud of my colleagues Sachin Bhatt and Anjali Kamat, who watched the story from page to screen and helped me reveal my main character, the hope and climate emergency that spirals around him.” Contained in conversation with a panel of climate advisors and collaborators from environmental organization Earth Day Network, the film is a collaboration between artists from the UK and India and will release in the United Nations (UN) managed Blue Zones of COP-26. 2 November, where the climate action talks take place.
Featuring a suite of original climate anthems written and composed by Dutta, including ‘Oceans Rising’ and ‘Fields of Hope’, the songs carry deep environmental messages that are the epitome of conscious activism.
The album blends vocals, saxophone, pulsing drums, sarod, cello and meditative samples of nature such as leaves, wind and waves. It will be released through Bucks Records and will feature a diverse band of musicians including British-Sri Lankan rising star Aashna Sashikaran, contemporary cellist Matthew Jou, Indo-Egyptian pianist Rosabella Gregory, British-Tanzanian saxophonist Yasmin Ogilvy and Jake Long .
Apart from the animated film and album, the project will also be available in the form of an e-book as an educational resource for schools.
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