Lowland Kids is a story of climate change, but even more than that, it’s the story of a family. “In narrative filmmaking, we enter the story with the character, and we’re rooting for them, and we’re learning things as they’re learning it. I think that’s how I see documentary,” Denmark-born, New York-based director Sandra Winther explains to Business Doc Europe.
“There are amazing films that put the stats and science first, but I think my strengths are something else. I love hanging out with people for a long time and observing them. Maybe it’s my Danish nature but I don’t like overexplaining things or hitting people over the head. I don’t see my film as an educational film, I’m a filmmaker that likes to pose a lot of questions, and just see this for ourselves.”
World-premiering March 24 in NORDIC:DOX Competition, Winther’s feature debut tells the story of teenage brother and sister Howard and Juliette who, along with their uncle Chris, have to make tough decisions about their potential relocation away from the sinking Louisiana island of Isle de Jean Charles that they have always called home. The director started filming the family more than seven years ago.
Telling a climate change story through the eyes of teenagers was important to Winther’. “I felt like that would be such an interesting angle that isn’t already out there. Because a lot the news coverage was of the older generation talking about the life they had lived on this island…I’m drawn to coming-of-age stories, I love spending time with people that are younger than me. I feel like I learned so much from them.”
Winther had been working very successfully in commercials after moving to New York, but was also “really longing to make something meaningful” and also wanted to look at climate change through a very personal, humane story. She had met producer William Crouse through commercials, and he had learnt about this special community in Louisiana after working on the fiction film Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Isle de Jean Charles, in southern Louisiana, became the subject of national and international scrutiny in 2016 when it became the first community in the US to have a government-funded relocation programme due to climate change (rising water levels). In the heart of a Trump-voting state, these locals can’t pretend climate change isn’t real.
In 2019, Winther released the award-winning short Lowland Kids, but she knew the story and her journey with this family wasn’t over – the added years of filming meant she followed the family through a major hurricane as well as their relocation and the resulting issues. She and Crouse recruited acclaimed Danish producer Sigrid Dyekjær to join the feature team, alongside Lizzie Gillett, Lauren Avinoam and Brendan Naylor/Darren Aronofsky at Protozoa Pictures.
“Darren is such a huge, iconic voice in filmmaking,” Winther comments. “The fact that he saw the potential from the short to make this feature made me believe in the project more. He’s also been incredible just throughout the process.” Together Films handles international sales.
Howard and Juliette had a unique childhood, spending more time outdoors than staring at their phones. Winther went in with a very open mind to learn about their lifestyle, not falling into any usual tropes and cliches about people who live in rural or poorer communities. “I never want to make a film that feels like we’re smarter than the characters in the film, that we’re sort of looking down at them. It’s so important that the storytelling is with the characters.”
She continues: “It’s a different upbringing than what I had. They are growing up in a place that’s so culturally different [than my upbringing in Denmark]. The first time I saw Howard take out his gun, I’d never seen a gun before. But I think I’ve always been a good observer, I look for the beauty in people and the best in people. I loved running around with them, and spending time with them, and filming them. That’s an energy I want to be a part of. I wanted to build that trust, and that honest, genuine connection. I’m not coming in and imposing an angle and story on them.”
Isle de Jean Charles is a stunningly beautiful setting, made even more magical by the work of DoP Andrea Gavazzi (the short had been shot by Todd Martin). As the kids grew older, she wanted the camera to look a little more static. “There’s an evolution in the camera language,” says Winther. “It was always really important to me that we rendered this place with the magic it has. It’s a world of wonder isolated from the outside world. The sunsets are incredible. I also tried to capture this with the sound design – the sound can be so dense on the water. And of course we also had to capture the devastation that has already happened.” [The island formerly encompassed 22,000 acres, but is now less than 320.]
Editing was an interesting process (with editors Eva Dubovoy & Per K. Kirkegaard), not only because of six-plus years of footage, but because she wanted to represent the family honestly. “Chris, Howard and Juliette are not going to be talking about big life decisions naturally at the dinner table. There are not lots of those moments where they’re expressing things in that way. It is communicated in other ways. But we needed to build a film that has that forward momentum, where you feel change. We also have to be reminded of the beautiful, familial bond they have.”
Winther was relieved the short film had also reached conservative audiences who might have been skeptical of climate change. Chris even says in the feature that there was a time he didn’t believe in climate change (he does now). “Minds can be changed and I wanted to humanize the topic,” the director says. (The team plans a full impact campaign around Lowland Kids.) She hopes to effect change at a personal and community level. “One of the things I want to say with the film is that we cannot rely on our government to solve these things for us. Especially not now. Collectively we need to find ways to instill hope in one another.”
Winther is also developing her first fiction feature project, set in Puerto Rico “revolving around similar themes, with two siblings navigating natural disasters taking place during Hurricane Maria.”
Meanwhile, she is excited for the world to meet this Louisiana family she’s been following since 2017. “I’m extremely grateful to be able to put this film out into the world. I hope it can reach a lot of people. And inspire other filmmakers to use their voice – the world needs more of these stories and the world needs more understanding of one another, even if our realities are different.
