beach clean up

my first ever documentary that i edited and produced as part of OceanFest 2021, a student-initiated educational event cum fundraiser that raise awareness, generate interest in, and raise funds in support of marine wildlife conservation.

When I set out to film this video with my Media Team for OceanFest 2021, I didn't just want to capture a day of picking up trash. I wanted to understand why it matters. So before heading down to East Coast Park, together with the team we planned out interview questions designed to peel back the surface: not just "why did you join the cleanup?" but questions that got beach-goers thinking about where all this waste actually ends up, and what happens to it once it's out of sight.

That direction led me to a conversation with Yasser from Stridy, who helped connect the dots between the plastic bottle you see on the sand and the microplastics you can't see at all — the ones already breaking down into our water, our fish, and eventually, our own bodies. It's a strange thing to sit with: something as small as a fragment of plastic, invisible to the eye, quietly working its way up the food chain.

Filming this made me want the video to do more than document a cleanup, I wanted this video to make us pause and reflect about our relationship with our shores and waters.