LONDON: Indian-Origin Artist’s Film To Premiere At Climate Summit In Glasgow

LONDON: UK-based Indian-origin artist and
musician Soumik Datta will make his directorial debut at the COP-26 Summit in
Glasgow next week when his climate action focussed ‘Songs of the Earth’ will be
premiered.

The
London-based multi-disciplinary artist won a British Council Climate Change
creative commission in February to develop a film and music project in
partnership with Earth Day Network.

The
result is ‘Songs of the Earth’, an animation film accompanied by an eight-track
album responding to climate change, weaving issues from climate migration,
extreme weather to ocean pollution, deforestation and sustainable fashion
through original narrative, songs and immersive visuals.

It had a
preview at 10 Downing Street this week, with the premiere scheduled for
November 2.

“At
the heart of the film and the album is a question is our behaviour as a people
sustainable,” says Mr Datta.

“As
consumers, many of us are part of a cycle of buying and discarding and somehow
the photos of polluted oceans, landfill mountains and toxic rivers don’t always
connect back to us. I’d love for young people to respond to ‘Songs of the
Earth’ and think about how they could make small changes to the environment
around them and start valuing this behaviour as a measure of good citizenship
as a badge of humanity,” he said.

The 24
minutes long film is animated by Indian illustrators Sachin Bhatt and Anjali
Kamat and follows Asha, a young climate refugee from West Bengal, as she searches
for her missing father through the flood banks of the Sundarbans delta, burning
forests and melting polar ice caps.

Mr Datta
adds: “It will be the first short film I’ve written, scored and directed.
It’s something I’ve always wanted to do use different aspects of my creativity
within one project.

“But
I’m most proud of my collaborators Sachin Bhatt and Anjali Kamat who visualised
the story from page to screen and helped me manifest my lead character, Asha
and the climate emergency that spirals around her.”

Rooted in
conversations with a panel of climate consultants and associates from the
environmental organisation Earth Day Network, the film is a collaboration
between artists in the UK and India and will be released at the United Nations
(UN) managed Blue Zone of COP-26 on November 2, where the climate action
negotiations take place.

Featuring
a suite of original climate anthems written and composed by Mr Datta, including
‘Oceans Rising” and ‘Fields of Hope’, the lyrics carry deep environmental
messages that embody conscious activism.

The album
features a blend of vocals, saxophone, pulsing drums, sarod, cello and
meditative samples of nature, such as leaves, wind and waves. It will release
through Bucks Records and features a diverse band of musicians including
British-Sri Lankan rising star singer Ashnaa Sasikaran, contemporary cellist
Matthew Barley, Indian-Egyptian pianist Rosabella Gregory, British-Tanzanian
saxophonist Yasmin Ogilvie and Jake Long on drums.

The
project, aside from the animated film and album, will also be available as an
educational resource for schools in the shape of an e-book.