Still from Grieve with me
In Grieve with me, the viewer hears a loud rainforest soundscape recorded from within Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest, in which the calling of the coquí frog is prominent. In the video, I read an article about the 4-fold collapse in insect life within El Yunque since the 1970s, which is having devastating effects on the ecologies of the forest, which includes birds and amphibians like the coquí frog. Then I put the article aside and take time to grieve. Over the course of the video, the soundscape fades to silence, and the colors dissolve to complete desaturation, reflecting the draining of life occurring in this place and several places across the globe due to the ecological devastation caused by polluting industrial economic systems and ideologies.
I consider Grieve with me a political call to action. I believe that until we take the time to feel the grievous emotions spurred by climate crisis and biodiversity loss, we often remain stymied in our attempts to act on the issue swiftly because we are so defended against the pain of loss and fear. Therefore, until we reckon with and feel the painful emotions, we will continue to waste precious time. In this way, the act of grief becomes a political action.