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Environmental Destruction Paired With Beauty: Chris Jordan’s Feature Film on Midway

Chris Jordan is an inspiring individual. Last year at Mountainfilm I got to meet him in person. After sending Q&A questions to someone via email, and having an online exchange, it’s sometimes hard to know what to say in person. Especially when that someone spends his days documenting social and environmental issues and getting people to really think about their impact on the world around them. In my book, Jordan is an environmental celebrity, and that makes me a little nervous when chatting in person.

But I thanked him. Thanked him for producing the kind of work that really does force people to think. The kind of work that makes us uncomfortable; that we don’t want to see but know that we have to.

That’s exactly what Jordan’s work on Midway has become. By now you’ve probably seen the stomachs of dead albatross overflowing with bits of plastic pollution, from bottle caps to used toothbrushes. Spend a few minutes looking at them and your heart falls. You think about how much plastic you have around you, and how much of it is single-use. How our everyday habits are having longterm effects that will, and already do, go far beyond our own lives.

Jordan and his team are turning the Midway Journey into a full length feature film, working on its production all of this year. But this film isn’t just about heat stopping images. It’s also about the inherent beauty that exists on this remote island. The diversity that still exists. The blue skies and white sand and lively birds that dot the island and make it an exotic wonderland. Because it’s in reminding us of the beauty of a place that we’re reminded of the reasons that we should work to protect it.

It’s an emotional journey, but a necessary one.

You can follow along on the Midway Journey website.