“At the rate your island is sinking, will the island sink first or will everyone die of hunger?” As a radio interviewer asks this seemingly simple question, you might let the repercussions sink in. He’s speaking in his studio on Bougainville Island with visitors from the nearby Carteret Islands. His guests both nod with understanding at the weight of what he’s asked and one offers what, in some other context, might sound like a matter-of fact answer: “Everyone will die of hunger first.” 

This first scene in Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger’s Sun Come Up articulates the effects of global warming on the tiny Cataret Islands, off the coast of Papua New Guinea: the sea is literally engulfing the land. The scene also introduces the many problems the population faces as activists and clan leaders endeavor to find a new place for the Carterets to live. Not only must they sort out how to move from their home to the “mainland” (that is, the relatively large Bougainville Island), but they must also think about how to uproot and also preserve their culture and history. It’s no longer a question of whether to move, but instead, of how best to survive the upcoming dislocation.

The images that follow the studio interview show past storms: waves wash over beaches, demolishing homes and scattering people. Such images illustrate the fears raised by experts, who say the islands will be fully submerged by 2015. But for all the anxiety provoked by this specter, the next images suggest why it’s so hard to leave the Cataret Islands: the sky is calm and cloudless, the sea a gorgeous turquoise, and fishing boats and wind surfers appear kissed by the sunlight. “We have lived here for thousands of years,” narrates community leader Ursula Rakova. “I grew up very happy on the island. In those times, the sea wasn’t as cruel as it is today.” Clan leader John Sailik adds that now he misses “the sound of waves at night,” as chief Bernard Tunim leads the camera crew on a tour of sites that no longer sustain banana trees or sugar cane crops: “This place has turned into a small desert,” he notes.

The Papua New Guinea government first ordered an evacuation in 2003, 10 families at a time. Progress has been slow, with islanders hesitant to give up what they’ve known. As Rakova goes from home to home, speaking to parents, Tunim elucidates their reluctance: “People on the island are a bit afraid,” he says, “to send children across to the mainland, where they have been fighting.” (That is, in a decade-long civil war.)

The camera cuts to a low angle, following after small children making their way through Cataret woods, their bare legs catching the sunlight. They watch their father prepare to climb a palm tree, his ankles bound by a vine rope to bolster his ascent, as their mother waits below to gather the fruits he cuts loose. The kids emulate their parents, preserving patterns—chopping at fruits and branches—as their mother says, “I want to find a piece of land where my family will be settled.”

Settling can mean different things to different families, of course, and Sun Come Up makes clear these complications. As simple and lovely as island life looks now, the unknown future looms: tribal meetings expose tensions, distrust and fear. These discussions also display how those trying to make the change—or rather, those trying to make sense of the change that is already upon them—must find ways to express that future. 

The film, nominated for a 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short, Several of the Carterets recall their own histories, fishing and swimming as children, helping their parents grow bananas and sugar cane, where the fields are now “desert.” As Carteret representatives visit the Tinputz district, they’re anxious about a number of factors in the relocation process. Not only are inhabitants of Bougainville worried about what they own and whether they might give any of it up, but also the large island has recently been embroiled in a 10-year civil war.

Various meetings in the film showcase the interactions among individuals, efforts to describe and appreciate particulars. As Bougainville residents takes up their neighbors’ plight as that of “our brothers,” the Papua New Guinea government helps as well, sending emergency supplies of rice to the starving Carterets. The film makes clear that as the move continues, the people’s losses will become more pronounced and irrecoverable. “Most of our culture, says Rakova, “will have to live inside us.”