Click here for showtimes for "Sun Come Up"
A riveting, effective, no frills documentary short, "Sun Come Up" is part tale of woe about a people displaced by environmental disaster, part searing indictment, and part story of hope about a people in a bad situation eager to get 0n with their lives.
"Sun" revolves around a small group of people living in a remote island near Papua New Guinea. Because of environmental changes, their island is sinking into the ocean, necessitating a migration to another area in the war-torn region. They'll soon be displaced, but will anyone care enough to lend a helping hand and a swath of land for them to settle on? Will they offer, only to turn on and destroy them? Or will another threat come in and wipe them out?
These are the questions these people, the Carterets, deal with. They're sad to be losing their homeland, and there certainly are heartbreaking images of elders looking wistfully on spots they had frequented since childhood now sitting underwater.
But the Carterets are certainly not looking for American pity; they have little use for it. Instead they just want someone with a little extra nearby land on the mainland to give them some space to settle on to reestablish their settlement.
Whether or not they find it, their tale is an inspirational one of a people who know their life is more than the land they live on.