Climate change should be treated like an emergency, according to former Wagga woman, filmmaker Kathy Drayton, whose film on the subject will soon be screened in Wagga.
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The 91-minute long feature documentary titled The Weather Diaries is Ms Drayton's opinion from a mother's point of view on what the future holds for her daughter Imogen who is a musician, also known by her artist name of Lupa J.
Ms Drayton, who spent her high school years in Wagga, said she was "worried and anxious" about what lay ahead for her daughter in relation to climate change when she hatched the idea of making the film in 2012.
"In grounding the story in the lives of my daughter and I and giving voice to my hopes, fears and sadness around the future she faces, I'm seeking to circumvent some of that resistance to enliven a heightened perception and reflection in the audience about the emotional and physical impacts climate change is already having on their own lives and will have on the lives of the children they know and love," she said.
"My filmmaking craft is as an editor, but Imogen needed me on camera to film her early music videos and that's how I started to get confidence on camera and to develop an on-camera relationship with Imogen that led to us making The Weather Diaries together.
"The message I'd like people to take from the film is that we need to face climate change and treat it like an emergency and act now,".
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Ms Drayton had to overcome barriers to create the film, but it was a disastrous event that eventually provoked Ms Drayton into creating the film with a "micro budget".
She described the film as a plea for "swift, unified and ambitious action on climate change and a re-engagement with the natural world".
"It's the biggest film I've ever made and I filmed everything myself," Ms Drayton said.
"The massive fire in the Blue Mountains triggered me that I had to do it by hook or by crook.
"Everybody I spoke to about it said there was no market for that type of film and nobody would be interested in seeing it and I'd never get funding for it.
"But, scientists who have watched it told me they found it hopeful and as I worked on it, I found it more hopeful too."
The film, which premiered at last year's Sydney Film Festival, features strongly on a colony of bats, as well as the impact of bushfires.
"A lot of the film deals with myself and my daughter, parallelled by flying foxes, but we also went out and filmed another sequence on bushfires,"Ms Drayton said.
"There was a colony near my daughter's school.
"The thing that people who have seen it are blown away with is the part about bats - a colony of flying foxes and they are incredibly threatened - the fear is irrational.
"There seems to be a real horror, but they are the most important forest pollinators, so we need these animals to protect forests, but with their loss of habitat, they're moving closer to towns."
The film is also a fundraiser for the Riverina Greens.
Riverina Greens member Virginia Gawler said it was a "real coup" to have Ms Drayton return to Wagga for the screening and a question and answer session
The screening is scheduled to take place at Forum 6 Cinema on Sunday, July 25 at 2.15pm.
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