VRW film series launched

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi 

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

As part of preparations for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, a film series Voices from the Roof of the World (VRW) has been launched on TV and online. 

A joint initiative by the Aga Khan Development Network agencies, Aga Khan University, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, Aga Khan Foundation and University of Central Asia, the 10-episode first season has been produced by filmmakers from Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and India. 

The series focuses on the climate crisis in the earth’s highest mountain region from the Pamirs to the Himalayan Mountains. Home to 240 million people and countless rare and endangered species, these mountains are also the largest depository of ice outside the polar ice caps, providing water to a quarter of the world's population.

“With VRW support and tutelage, these filmmakers have captured poignant personal stories of people and cultures threatened by both deluges and desiccation of their environment. They have ventured downstream to document how the melting of the Himalayan glaciers will affect 1.5 billion people living in the threatened fishing and farming communities of South and Central Asia. Others will show how deforestation, air pollution and killer heat waves will make the world’s most densely packed cities unlivable,” Andrew Tkach, Executive Producer of the series, observed. 

The UN scientists have announced that current greenhouse gas emissions will lead to an increase of 2.7 degree centigrade in this century, not the target of 1.5 degrees that delegates gathering in Glasgow will be trying so hard to achieve. 

“There are many culprits to share the blame for the predicament humanity finds itself in, but with every target we miss to control CO2 emissions, we are squarely painting a target on our own back. It is time to show that even in a world beset by intractable conflicts it is possible to work across borders and social strata to save our common home. People living in some of the world’s most extreme conditions are fighting this battle every day, it is time we listen and learn from them,” Tkach stressed. 

The first episode, Bears on the Brink, produced by Pakistani filmmaker Abdullah Khan, features the impact of climate change and drought on the endangered Himalayan brown bears and golden marmots found in the Deosai National Park in Gilgit Baltistan, the impact on local communities in the buffer zone, human-wildlife conflict and eco-tourism. 

“I chose to take part in the series because I had been covering a lot of stories related to climate change and its impacts in Pakistan, but I observed that there weren't any films being made on climate change and its impact on people's mental health,” Haya Fatima Iqbal, a filmmaker, added. 

The VRW series, which will run for at least two seasons, seeks to amplify the voices of those who have borne the greatest burden of climate change.