We are excited to announce the Our Shared Futures: Climate & Migration Community Film Festival 2025, curated by Counterpoints Arts in partnership with Earth Refuge, CMJ (Climate & Migrant Justice Organising Group), and City of Sanctuary.

Taking place 21-30 November 2025, during COP30 in Brazil and marking Climate & Migrant Justice Day (22 Nov), this free, community-powered film festival shares powerful stories at the intersection of climate and migration.

The festival features a curated selection of feature-length and short films from around the world. These films explore themes of climate crisis, displacement, colonialism, resilience, and hope – creating accessible entry points into urgent conversations that affect us all.

How it works

Anyone in the UK can take part by hosting a screening—whether in a community centre, library, cinema, school, workplace, outdoors, or even at home.

• Films are available free of charge via UK online streaming during the festival dates (21–30 November).

• You don’t need to worry about rights or licensing – we’ve arranged these for everyone.

• Each screening comes with resources and discussion prompts to help spark reflection, dialogue, and action – strengthening solidarity across communities and movements.

So all you need to do is pick a film, invite people, and press play.

The Films

FEATURE FILMS

Utama (2022) dir. Alejandro Loayza Grisi

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9Hv7HFDIOc
Run time: 1hr 27 mins
Where available to screen: UK
Age Certification: 12A (PG)

Synopsis: An elderly Quechua couple live a tranquil life in the arid Bolivian highlands. While Virginio takes their small herd of llamas out to graze, Sisa keeps house and walks for miles with other local women to fetch precious water. When an uncommonly long drought threatens everything they know, they must decide whether to stay and maintain their traditional way of life or admit defeat and move in with family members in the city.

Thank You For The Rain (2017) dir. Julia Dahr

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO1-Z7kEyzo
Where available to screen: UK
Category: Feature documentary
Age Guidance: 12A (PG)
Run time: 1hr 27 mins

Synopsis: Over the last five years Kisilu, a smallholder farmer in Kenya has used his camera to capture the life of his family, his village and the impacts of climate change. He has filmed floods, droughts and storms but also the more human costs – his kids are sent home from school when he can’t pay the fees; men are moving to towns in search for jobs; and family tensions rise. Following a storm that destroys his house Kisilu starts building a community movement of farmers fighting the impacts of extreme weather and he takes this message of hope all the way to the UN Climate Talks, in Paris, COP21. Here, amid the murky cut and thrust of politics at the biggest environmental show on earth, Kisilu and Norwegian filmmaker Julia Dahr’s relationship takes on a remarkable twist, shedding a powerful light on the climate justice movement and the vastly different worlds they represent.

SHORT FILMS

And Still, It Remains (2023) dir. Arwa Aburawa & Turab Shah

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EEgh08ch1I
Where available to screen: UK
Category: Short documentary
Age Guidance: 12A (PG)
Run time: 28 mins 

Synopsis: A powerful meditation on the afterlives of French nuclear toxicity in Southern Algeria, And still, it remains offers a captivating and compelling picture of a community shaped but not circumscribed by its history. In Mertoutek, a village nestled in the Hoggar Mountains of Algeria’s Southern Sahara, we spend time with the Escamaran community as they narrate their accounts and understanding of what it means to live with colonial toxicity. Summoning the landscape as a witness and protagonist, Directors Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah delicately explore this forgotten history, which continues to live in the ecology and bodies of Mertoutek’s residents. Inverting the French narrative of technological triumph, the film returns to the site of the detonations to explore time, justice, decolonisation, and resilience in the face of enduring toxic colonialism.

Dead As A Dodo (2022) dir. Leena Habiballa

Trailer: no trailer available
Where available to screen: UK
Category: Short experimental
Run time: 5 mins 9 seconds

Synopsis: Dead As A Dodo (2022) lays bare the settler colonial mythology at the heart of the popular narrative of the Dodo’s extinction. By drawing on archival material and the Dodo’s apparition the film performs a sensory haunting, reviving the spaces between life and death that have been shaped by settler violence into a value-forming exercise. This work is inspired by and is in conversation with a book of poems titled A Theory of Birds by the Palestinian-American poet Zaina Alsous.

Until The Last Drop (2020) dir. Tim Webster & Ernesto Cabellos

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQpIsQAnOU
Where available to screen: UK
Category: Short documentary
Run time: 20 mins 20 seconds

Synopsis: In an occupied land where water is a privilege, two farmers working the same land face increasingly unequal opportunities. Until the last drop is an intimate documentary from Reelmedia Film that shows the different realities faced by Palestinian and Israeli farmers in accessing water in the West Bank. Shot in Area C of the West Bank, we follow Abu and Eli as they struggle and prosper in one of the most contested lands in the world.

Interested in Watching or Hosting a Screening?

Register here.

• Individuals: Watch at home, by yourself or with friends and family.

• Organisers: Host a community screening in your chosen venue.

• Cost: Free. All rights and licenses have been secured.

Register to receive access to the films and resources ahead of the festival.

FAQs

How do I take part?

1. Complete this short google form here
2. Sign up to this online gathering information sharing plus Q&A 22nd October 1pm-2pm (UK time)

Do I need to pay for rights or licensing?
No. All rights and licenses have been secured by Counterpoints Arts and partners.

Can I charge tickets to my events?
You cannot charge for tickets, but optional donations are fine.

Can I host in a cinema, community venue, or outdoors?

Yes! Screenings can take place in cinemas, community centres, schools, libraries, churches, faith spaces, pubs, outdoor spaces etc.

Can I download the films?
No. The films are only available via a secure online streaming platform during the festival dates only.

How do I promote my event?
We will be sharing a marketing folder with registered organisers soon.

How do I access the free resources & discussion prompts?
We will be sharing a film pack and free resources soon

Are there subtitles?
Where provided by the filmmakers, English subtitles will be available.

I’m not based in the UK, can I take part?
No, this year the films are only available in the UK.

I’m not available 21-30 Nov, can I watch the films before or after?
No, we only have rights & licenses for the films 21st-30th November 2025.

Any other questions please email hello@counterpoints.org.uk