Jilel: The Calling of the Shell

JILEL: THE CALLING OF THE SHELL (2014)

"...A more urgent expression of island identity could be found in Suzanne Chutaro and Jack Niedenthal’s Marshallese feature, Jilel – The Calling of the Shell. Filmed with an amateur cast and crew drawn from its Marshall Islands setting, Jilel works more as a documentary look at life in the Marshall Islands than a work of fiction, with its zero-artifice, home-movie-level aesthetic strangely lending it even more immediacy. As a work of “cinema” Jilel barely passes muster, but as an authentic expression of life it’s far more memorable than many films. It also offered one of the festival’s most moving opening images, of ocean waves lapping against unprotected graves, as a cemetery slowly gives way to the sea’s rising waters. “Scientists project that within this century the Marshall Islands, like many low-lying island nations, will be completely consumed by the rising seas,” a credit at the end reads. “Along with the land, the sea will also consume our traditional island culture.” Jilel serves as a testament of life against such annihilation, and an excellent example of the value of film (and the Hawaii International Film Festival), of using art to both document and support regional identity. “Tell them it is from the Marshall Islands,” cries a poet at the very end. “Show them on a map.”
Jason Sanders, Filmmaker Magazine, February 3, 2016

JILEL - THE CALLING OF THE SHELL frames the current climate change disaster
in a mystical, hopeful way.
-Jacqueline Froelich, National Public Radio, Arkansas, August 2015

This film's biggest success was that it enchanted people across numerous cultures.

This is the story of Molina, a young Marshallese girl who is confronted for the first time with the idea that her island—her beloved homeland—is vanishing because of the rising seas caused by world-wide global warming.

The most cherished person in Molina’s life is her grandmother, Bubu Titi. One day Bubu Titi tries to tell Molina that she is feeling weaker, that the time had come for her to pass. Though Molina refuses to believe this, a few days later she finds herself alone with her grandmother as the old woman draws her last breaths. It is then that Bubu Titi bequeaths to Molina an ancient family heirloom in the form of a shell. Bubu Titi’s last words implore the deeply saddened Molina to treasure the shell, to not be careless with it because of its immense power.

Heeding her Bubu Titi’s warning, Molina places the shell carefully in her closet. One day, her older brother, Ketowate, and his friend Samson, finding themselves in desperate need of a cigarette. Ketowate decides to search the house for spare change and comes upon the basket containing the shell in the closet. He is mesmerized by the shell and thinks it valuable enough to trade for cigarettes.

Ketowate sells the shell at a local store. But the shell immediately begins to resist being out of the rightful owner’s hands by turning off anything that draws power, and thus the shell begins its sometimes bizarre, sometimes comical journey. Though Molina repeatedly begs her brother to bring the shell back to her, he keeps insisting that the missing shell was worthless. However, as his immense misfortune continues to mount after selling the shell, he finally realizes that he must get the shell back or risk further turmoil in his life. His only hope in getting the shell returned rests with the sorceress, Lijimu, whose reputation for evil and black magic in the Marshall Islands is unparalleled…

*University of Washington Burke Museum of Natural History & Art, WORLD PREMIERE, May 2015
*Guam International Film Festival, AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD, September 2015
*Big Island Film Festival, WINNER, GRAND HONU BARBARA AWARD for FILM PROJECTS THAT CELEBRATE THE LIVES OF CHILDREN, May 2015
*Columbia Gorge International Film Festival, WINNER, INTERNATIONAL FEATURE, August 2015
*Pacific Festival of Art, OFFICIAL SELECTION, Guam, May 2016
Moondance International Film Festival, FINALIST, September 2015
*Hawaii International Film Festival, OFFICIAL SELECTION, November 2015
*Pasifika Film Festival, OFFICIAL SELECTION, Sydney, Australia, November, 2015
*Maoriland International Film Festival, OFFICIAL SELECTION, New Zealand, March 2016
*Salem Progressive Film Series, OFFICIAL SELECTION, May 2015
*Springdale Arkansas Jones Center Theatre, 3 SHOWINGS, August 2015
*Skagway Alaska Climate Change Festival, OFFICIAL SELECTION & FEATURED FILM, December 2015

In 2019 JILEL: THE CALLING OF THE SHELL was shown at the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art for the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, which featured all the works of Microwave Films.
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"JILEL - THE CALLING OF THE SHELL frames the current climate change disaster
in a mystical, hopeful way."
-Jacqueline Froelich, National Public Radio, Arkansas, August 2015
full interview link: https://www.microwavefilms.org/NPRjil...