ABOVE WATER
On a small island off the coast of Alaska, a community searches for hope amidst growing climate concerns.
A lone village on a sinking island…
On the remote island of Sarichef off the Northwest coast of Alaska, 20 miles below the Arctic Circle, there’s a small village they call Shishmaref. Every year, it continues to get smaller as rising water levels erode away at its shores.
In the summer of 2021, two artists were invited to the island to paint a mural, but as they learned more about the culture and the impact of the melting permafrost, they began to appreciate the deeper history of the local Inupiaq people and their struggle to maintain their culture in the face of an impending climate disaster.
Release Date
June 6th, 2022
Runtime
27 minutes
“By 2100, at least 414 towns, villages, and cities across the United States will be flooded no matter how much humans decrease carbon emissions.”
-The Atlantic Council
The imminent threat of climate change
As a village built on ice, the melting sea ice and the thawing of the underlying permafrost puts the Shishmaref community at the forefront of the climate refugee crisis. Additionally, an increasing number of severe coastal storms continues to erode the island’s edges at an even more rapid rate than originally expected.
Government agencies consider Shishmaref to be one of four communities in immediate need of relocation, and the State of Alaska Immediate Action Workgroup included it in the six top-priority communities that were imminently threatened by the impacts of climate change. Without action, Shishmaref will inevitably become an environmental and humanitarian disaster.
Above Water shines a light on the people of Shishmaref and the rich history that surrounds this isolated community.
The Team
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Ken Honjo
DIRECTOR
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Kentaro Yoshimura
PRODUCER + MURALIST
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Paul Juno
MURALIST
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Armando Ortega Jr.
COMPOSER
Film Credits
Directed by Ken Honjo + Kentaro Yoshimura
Produced by Kentaro Yoshimura
Music by Armando Ortega Jr.
Director of Photography Ken Honjo
Editor Ken Honjo
Colorist Roy Sun | Reason Studio
Local Coordinator Shaun Milligan
Production Assistant Lucy Guyver
Featuring (in the order of appearance)
Kentaro Yoshimura
Paul Juno
George Guyver
Lucy Guyver
Shaun Milligan
Lisa Villano
Andrew Suliguk Kakoona
Austin Kokeok
Chad Geary
Amy Eningowuk
Percy Nayokpuk
With support from
Alaska Film Archives
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Bering Strait School District
“There's people that talk about the village having to move to survive...but for others, this is home.”
-Lisa Villano
Shishmaref Secondary Special Education Teacher