His appropriately titled Isle
de Jean Charles, featured in SIFF's "Ripped from the Headlines"
package, asks just that question of the denizens of the titular island, deep in
the Louisiana
His interviewees describe what it's like to live in a
changing climate without ever saying the words "climate change."
Instead, the phenomenon is implied and only its adverse effect is made
explicit. Even better, Isle de Jean Charles
is a platform for the people who know the island best tell its story themselves
in their own words. In a way that places blame nowhere and retains focus on the
islanders, we learn how they will soon be displaced by climate change.
Vaughan-Lee's silent question is important for its silence.
Instead of creating an expose like An
Inconvenient Truth, Vaughan-Lee is able to simultaneously side-step a
hot-button political issue and address it dead on. By humanizing a politicized
event, he is able to appeal to our senses of empathy and compassion, rather
than to our senses of rage and righteous indignation. Isle de Jean Charles is quietly powerful.
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