By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
TRIBECA — The staff at DCTV in TriBeCa celebrated Tuesday morning after hearing that one of their instructors, Jennifer Redfearn, is up for an Oscar next month.
Redfearn’s film about climate change forcing South Pacific islanders from their homes, called "Sun Come Up," was nominated in the documentary short subject category.
"It’s fabulous," said Dara Messinger, director of training and resources at DCTV. "We’re really excited for her."
Redfearn has been teaching producing workshops at DCTV, a nonprofit media arts center, since 2006, though she recently took time off to focus on the film, Messinger said.
Redfearn also found the editor for "Sun Come Up," David Teague, through an event at DCTV, and Jeffrey Sterrenberg, another instructor at DCTV, served as the film’s assistant editor, Messinger said.
The 38-minute film, co-produced by Tim Metzger, traces the story of the Carteret Islanders, who are some of the first people in the world to flee their homes because of rising sea levels. Redfearn followed the islanders’ search for a new place to live and the conflicts that followed.
The title for "Sun Come Up" comes from the pidgin "San Kamap," which is a way of saying "sunrise" and is meant to evoke the hope of starting over.
The film is up against four other documentaries: "Killing in the Name" by Jed Rothstein, "Poster Girl" by Sara Nesson, "Strangers No More" by Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon and "The Warriors of Qiugang" by Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon.
92YTribeca will screen "Sun Come Up" Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 and include a post-film discussion with Redfearn and Cynthia Rosenzweig, co-chair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change.
