Loyola Students Receive Special Recognition Award for Environmental Justice Film

Three Loyola students and Senior Professional in Residence, John Goheen, received the Special Recognition Award for Environmental Justice for their work on The Kiribati Project. The group was recognized at the 2024 Young Filmmakers Contest Award Ceremony Sept. 22 at the Gene Siskel Film Center in The Loop. 

For The Kiribati Project, Loyola students traveled to the Oceanic country Kiribati, pronounced KIRR-i-bas, over the summer and partnered with local youth to produce a film on their perspective of how climate change is impacting their country and culture, according to Goheen, who led the project’s efforts.

The three students who accompanied Goheen, a communications professor, on the trip included Michael Rogowski, a third-year criminal justice and film double major, Taylor Zielenbach, a second-year human resources management and information systems major and Robert Kennedy, a second-year interdisciplinary master’s student. There are a handful of Loyola alumni who also worked on the project, according to The Kiribati Project website.

The group — which they referred to as “The Loyola Crew” — spent two weeks in Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati, mainly on the southern part of the atoll. Each of the students, along with Goheen and Loyola alum Sanjay Numbiar partnered with a group of three to four Kiribati youth aged 18-25, according to Zielenbach. 

The goal was to equip the Kiribati youth with video production skills so they could tell their story. The Loyola crew taught the basics of filming and interviewing and helped facilitate throughout the process, according to Rogowski. It was the youth who decided what was important to include, who to interview and what clips they wanted to film. 

The group filmed entirely on Androids in order to better cross the education barrier by using devices which were more accessible and easier to understand for first time learners. Goheen said most people in the world have a smartphone, but while many in the U.S. have an iPhone, other countries mainly use Android phones. 

Rogowski said their days consisted of meeting up with their respective groups around 11:30 a.m., asking them what they wanted to film and then embarking on their adventure. 

One of the youth in Rogowski’s group, Mataela Lagafaoa, was born into a family of net fishers. Net fishing is a traditional practice in Kiribati which has been passed down through generations, according to Rogowski. He said due to climate change, the process has become more dangerous and expensive since they have to venture further from the shore to catch the fish.

Net fishing is what Rogowski’s group decided to focus their filming on. Rogowski created a short film about Lagafaoa’s experience, which was one of the clips later made into the award winning five-minute film. Rogowski’s segment is also nominated for a Crystal Pillar Award, the student equivalent of the Emmys.  

The five-minute film compiled stories from Rogowski, Zielenbach and Goheen’s groups, however, the short film isn’t the finished project. The crew is now in the post production phase and are compiling and editing all of their clips to create a full-length, hour long documentary, according to Goheen. The documentary is expected to be completed early 2025. 

Zielenbach said she didn’t go on the trip expecting or wanting to win anything, rather she was truly intrigued by the project itself. 

“It’s nice to be recognized by other people when it’s work that you hold so near and dear to your heart,” Zielenbach said. “I just felt very honored that they saw value in the work.”  

Zielenbach said the first hand reporting they did is important for the world to see, as climate impact issues are often swept under the rug. Rogowski agreed, saying he hopes the film will show people what they are doing at home has consequences far away. 

“These climate change effects are affecting third world countries and nations in the Central Pacific Islands as we speak right now, threatening them,” Zielenbach said. “And they didn’t even start any of this.”

In phase two of the trip, Goheen and Kennedy traveled away from the capital and into some of the country’s eastern atolls. Each atoll is unique in its geography, so the impacts of climate change affect various parts of the country differently, which is why Goheen said it was important to see other landscapes outside of the capital. 

The goal was to continue with the teaching initiative in some of the countries eastern atolls of Kiritimati, also known as Christmas Island, and Teraina, but Goheen said this wasn’t fully executed. 

“It’s sort of typical of island life there,” Goheen said. “Things move really slow, and it never materialized, so kind of disappointing.”

Luckily, Tiein Taebo, director of the Kiribati Youth Services Corps, was able to join the duo and continue filming throughout phase two. Taebo was Goheen’s initial communication with the country, and she worked alongside him as co-director throughout the process. 

Taebo played an important role in the filming process, and Goheen said the full-length documentary is to be told through her perspective. It will have a unique focus on nature’s ability to adapt to crisis situations, according to Goheen. 

In 2019, Goheen led a group of students on a similar trip, working with local youth to talk about the impacts of climate change in the country of Tuvalu southwest of Kiribati. He said his initial inspiration to go to Tuvalu arose for a myriad of reasons — it’s off the beaten path, not a big tourist attraction and it’s at very high risk of being eradicated due to climate change.

The documentary, “We are Tuvalu,” was broadcast in over 50 countries, aired on National PBS and won a handful of awards. Goheen said it was because of this success he wanted to start a new project. He settled on Kiribati because of the similarities it had to Tuvalu. 

The initial interest meetings in fall 2023 had 15-20 students, according to Zielenbach. From there the group became smaller as more logistics were worked out. Goheen said he was looking for students who had a high level of skill and who had the right personality to teach, saying not everyone has both. 

In the end, Zielenbach said the experience of working alongside those in Kiribati reminded her of how vast the world is compared to her daily life. 

“They have the greatest outlook on life,” Zielenbach said. “They enjoy each day for what it is. They don’t need a lot. It was nice to see that slower pace of life. It was really enlightening, and it was beautiful.”