On 23 September 2014, 26 year old poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, from the Marshall Islands, addressed the Opening Ceremony of the UN Secretary-General's Climate Summit. Kathy was selected from among over 500 civil society candidates in an open, global nomination process conducted by the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service. 

We had the honor and pleasure to produce and direct a film that is the visual representation of Kathy’s poem combined with footage that captures the unprecedented moments of the People’s March globally and climate actions. The poem title: 'Dear Matafele Peinem’ - a written promise to her daughter about how her and many others in the world are dedicated to fighting climate change, received standing ovation at the General Assembly during the Inaugural Ceremony of the UN Climate Summit.

More about Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner: 

Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, 26, a Marshallese poet is a co-founder of an environmental NGO and a teacher. She is also a journalist, poet and spoken-word artist. She was selected from hundreds of people to address the opening ceremony. Her selection was the culmination of weeks of effort that followed an open call from the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) in July for nominations of civil society speakers and attendees for the Summit. By the 15 August deadline, 544 people had been nominated from 115 countries.

A special thank you to all of the young filmmakers around the world who submitted footage for the Action4Climate competition and gave us permission to freely use their work in this video.