2 Degrees of Separation

Client

Personal Project

role

Co_Director/ Environment Artist/ CG Generalist

Collaborator(S)

Kristoff Fink & Martin Eichler

year

2022

In a climate-ravaged world, the LUNG project, a colossal mangrove-wall, is humanity’s last hope against environmental catastrophe. 2 Degrees of Separation follows Aida, a LUNG caretaker, and Lamine, a local gardener, as they navigate a world in climactic turmoil, revealing human resilience in the face of extinction.

DESCRIPTION

A global initiative by the UN to offset global warming and carbon emission led to the implementation of a large-scale project known as LUNG throughout a diverse set of tropical coastlines across the globe.

2 Degrees of Separation begins generations after the implementation of these walls in the Saloum Delta region of Senegal, where Senegalese migrants have constructed a dense stilt city against one of these massive infrastructural modules. These modules house a vertical array of mangrove forest that line the shoreline of many degraded wetlands and estuary ecosystems, sequestering gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere. As the last line of defense from climactic collapse, the LUNG is protected by a culmination of governmental and local factions that fear the potential degradation and adverse release of sequestered carbon back into the atmosphere.

Subsequently, this film follows the story of two individuals, Lamine and Aida, who represent two distinct lives within this post- LUNG settlement. Aida is a member of a local faction of LUNG caretakers, known as the Tuteurs, who has access and works within the mangrove forest. Lamine is a local gardener, who despite the immense scarcity and famine caused by global warming, dedicates his life to growing produce to feed his community. Although distinctly separate, both individuals represent complex global and individual needs that arise with climate change as well as highlight our ability to unite and in the face of these existential crises.