Maldivians are to get the chance to see The Island President, an award-winning documentary film about their president’s efforts to divert the attention of world leaders to climate change. Directed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Jon Shenk, The Island President captures President Nasheed's battle against global warming, culminating in his trip to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009 where the film provides “a rare and unprecedented glimpse at his electrifying and passionate behind the scenes exchanges with the heads of state attending the top-level global assembly”. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award for Best Documentary, and has been screened only at four major international film festivals. Just a day before the Maldives premiere of the film on Wednesday, Producer Richard Berge speaks to Haveeru’s Ali Naafiz about what inspired him to make the film, and his experience working with President Nasheed and in the Maldives. Ali Naafiz: How did you come up with the idea of making The Island President? Richard Berge: My colleague, the director Jon Shenk first read about the Maldives in the New York Times. I think it was in 2008. He had read an article about the election and was kind of intrigued by the story, the democracy movement, the election and this person, Mohamed Nasheed. I think it was fairly soon after the election the President announced the search for a new homeland which kind of got a lot of press in the west. It made us more intrigued and we started following the Maldives. The Maldives is not country well known in the United States. So this story kind of caught our attention and we followed it and in December 2009 we decided to try to pursue making a movie. AN: What is the thing that caught your interest in President Nasheed? RB: We were intrigued by this story, the story we had read in the New York Times; somebody who had worked so long to try to get democratic elections in the Maldives and personally kind of sacrificed his freedom in his youth and that he had the audacity to take on this climate issue upon being elected. The climate issue is an important issue for us and the problem with the whole climate change issue is that it is kind of hampered by the scientific complexity and people can’t put their hands on kind of tangible manifestations of climate change right now. So when we saw this and when we heard about President Nasheed and the Maldives, we saw that it is a chance to tell a human story and the best kind of film that would reach the hearts and minds of the people around the world. And I think we succeeded. You can go see the movie and tell that we did or not. AN: Can you talk about how the film went into production? RB: We spoke with the press office here and contacted them in early 2009 and we knew that it was a good chance because President Nasheed was going to go to Copenhagen Climate Conference. It was going to be a big event for the world and that the Maldives might have a role to play. We thought that might be a good way to organise the film by following the President during the first year of his presidency into Copenhagen. It was a risk on our part. We did not know if anything would happen; if he decided he was not going to go we wouldn’t have a proper ending possibly. Richard Berge speaks about The Island President. We talked with the press office and they said, ‘look we can’t make a decision. You have to come here and propose your idea to us and the President in person’. So Jon and I flew here I think in May of 2009 and we had a very brief meeting with the President and we proposed what we intended to do. But we don’t think he understood what we had in mind. I think he thought it was kind of a long news piece and didn’t really know what he was getting into. But lucky for us that he said, ‘yes, I guess I have to trust you guys’. He did trust us because we filmed with him over the course of that year and we never showed him any footage. He never saw any footage until he watched the movie for the first time in Toronto, which is a remarkable thing for a head of a state. I can’t imagine any other head of state or president in the world who would go before an audience without having seen a film. AN: How would you describe the experience? RB: The experience for me personally, was an experience of a lifetime. To come here and meet the Maldivian people, I would never probably have a reason to come here so far away of time zones from San Francisco. To come here, meet and work with the Maldivian people and the chance to follow a head of state who made a real difference in the debate about climate change is quite a privilege. A scene from the The Island President. Jon and I, when we left the first time after coming here and filming for the first time, we were on Emirates, going back and I said to Jon, ‘we have to make this movie. This is going to be a fabulous movie and we are going to have a really interesting time doing it’. AN: Can you highlight the challenges you and your crew faced in filming the documentary? RB: Well… The biggest challenges were kind of diplomatic and political hurdles. We wanted to make a film that would be special, that has never been made. We wanted to film meetings, be behind the scenes and meetings with the President and his staff, the President and other leaders. That’s not something people like to, they are not used to that. They always want the camera to get out. So we had to continue to fight all the time. We wanted to shoot this and it took a lot of pressing the President because he did not quite understand the first we really wanted to do that. And then when we were in places like the United Nations, his counterparts, other leaders and their people were saying, ‘who are these guys? A scene from the The Island President. Why are they here wanting to film our meetings? We don’t want to film these meetings’. The President would sometimes step in and say, ‘you know we are making a film and I think it’s important that we allow them to film. So the biggest obstacle was diplomatic, political and getting people who are on camera to agree to be filmed. The other obstacle is logistically getting here. It’s not easy to move 20 cases of camera equipment around the Maldives. We would fly into the airport, put it into a Dhoni, and bring it onto the islands. We are not used to that. On the last trip we took, we took a seaplane and had to transport the gear. You know when you go to these islands, you have to off load that to boats and move it to the islands. So moving the camera equipment was like we were going to drop our camera equipment right into the middle of the Indian Ocean. The other thing is, I think you’ll see when you watch the film; we had the special opportunity to be the very first team to do helicopter aerials over the Maldives. We used the Indian Coastguard helicopter as they allowed us to use that. We brought in a special gyroscopic helicopter rig from California, which had to be made to fit the dimensions of the helicopter. The Indian pilots had never done it before but they were incredible. But to do that took a year and a half of discussions back and forth to figure out how we are going to pull it off. I think when you see it, the only way you can show the Maldives is from the air and you will get a really good idea of it and the beautiful result. AN: How do you think your documentary influenced the public perception and opinion about climate change? RB: We have just started screening and we have only released the film to a few audiences so far. In fact we wanted to bring it to the Maldives before we begin wide distribution. We wanted the Maldivian people to see it. We have only shown it Telluride, Toronto, New York and Amsterdam; just four places. There is an organisation called the 350.org and their communications people saw it in New York and the reaction to it. And I was told that this was the film they were waiting for, the film that will turn people’s hearts. It’s not just an intellectual argument about climate change but it is something humane and appeals and inspires the people. I have great hopes for it, it’s ability to move people. The challenge is to get people who are reluctant to believe that climate change is happening to get them to understand the message. If we can succeed in getting those people to at least pay attention, I think it is a success. AN: Some Maldivians are of the view that President Nasheed does not deserve the praise and publicity he is getting for his role in climate change. What is your opinion about that and on President Nasheed? RB: I find him to be an unusual political figure because on the one hand he is very charismatic, he is very intellectual, he is an articulate speaker, I think he has the idea of how to create progress in the country. But at the same time, he is very down-to-earth when I would see him with people and how he is funny, he is a very genuinely warm family person. A scene from the The Island President. I can’t say I got close to him because we tried to keep kind of a distance and be objective. But I like the man, he seems like a very courageous person who speaks his mind. He is someone who I wish our president was more like. AN: Do you plan to do anything else about the Maldives? Perhaps a documentary or a movie about the Maldives itself? RB: I would love to do 10 more documentaries about the Maldives. I would love to have any excuse to come back here but right now what we have on our hand is making sure that we get this film out to as wide and broad as an audience as we can. It’s going to be a big job. We signed a distribution deal in the United States that will take the film to theatres and cities across the country. Jon was at Amsterdam at the International Documentary Film Festival, which is the biggest film festival in the world for documentaries. He was meeting with distributors from England, Germany and some other places. We have our work cut out for us to try to get this in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Next week on Thursday, we are going to show it in India at the film festival in Goa. I think that’s going to be a great audience. It’s not a matter of keeping it in theatres; we are planning events that will use the film to agitate people about what’s happening and tell them about the Maldives. The Maldives is known across Europe, in France, England, Italy, Germany and China now. But in America that’s not very well-known. Just after three or four screenings we have had, people would come up to us and say, ‘where is this place? I have to go there’. I think you are possibly going to see some tourism increase by people seeing this movie.