TITLE: Anote’s Ark
DIRECTOR: Matthieu Rytz
YEAR OF PRODUCTION: 2018
COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: Canada
DURATION: 77 min.
What happens when your nation is swallowed by the sea? With the harsh realities of climate change looming, the low-lying Pacific nation Kiribati must find a new solution for the survival of its people. With sweeping cinematography, Anote’s Ark interweaves two poignant stories. Anote Tong, endearing president of the island, races to find options-advocating in international climate negotiations and even investigating building underwater cities. At the same time, warm and sharp-witted Sermery, a young mother of six, tackles every struggle with humour. She must decide whether to leave the only culture she knows on the island and migrate to a new life in New Zealand.
Matthieu Rytz is a producer, curator, photographer and director. A vis
ual anthropologist by training, his passion for photography and ethnology has led him across the globe to photograph cultural and human diversity over the past ten years. His photographs, as well as those he has commissioned, have been exhibited internationally.
He strives to bear witness to complex human stories and focus especially on the relationship between Man and Nature. He specializes in photographic installation and is currently wor
king on a multidisciplinary project using film, still images and virtual reality – whatever best serves the story. He recently produced, filmed and directed his first feature film, Anote’s Ark, a documentary dealing with the realities of climate justice and migration. It premiered at Sundance 2018. Matthieu was born in Switzerland and is now a digital nomad and can be followed at rytz.co