Dreams of the Ravaged is a short documentary film about three young survivors of super-typhoon Odette (also known as Rai), a tropical cyclone that hit the Philippines in 2021 and killed over 400 people. The film, directed by Breech Asher Harani, recently won the New Scientist Editors Award at the Earth Photo 2024 competition, alongside Taylor Roades’s images of a river in north-west Alaska that had turned orange because of global warming.
Harani’s film imaginatively captures the lived experience of a natural disaster through interviews, news reports and animation, exploring life on a frontline of climate change, how this affects the psyche of those living there and how that might shape people’s views of the future.
“The concept of this film was inspired by my own personal experience as a survivor of super-typhoon Bopha,” says Harani of the 2012 event, also known as Pablo, that levelled his hometown in Davao De Oro.
Working with the Californian government’s mental health services oversight and accountability commission (MHSOAC), the goal of the film was to educate the public about the impacts of climate change on the mental health of those affected and tackle social, cultural and environmental issues in the southern Philippines. “I love highlighting people and communities who were never given a seat on the table when leaders and policy-makers create decisions regarding our local environment and ecosystem,” says Harani.
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The winners and runners up of Earth Photo 2024 are on show at the Royal Geographical Society in London until 21 August.
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