Time traveling through peatlands

See the world through a different lens with The Comma, our monthly editorial takeover featuring social and environmental perspectives from inspiring filmmakers, journalists, experts and activists from our community.

Each year we run the ReScript the Future competition and award two young and aspiring filmmakers the chance to turn their documentary idea into reality. As our annual competition comes to a close, we caught up with this year's winners Swantje Furtak and Frankie Turk. This duo not only impressed us for their creativity but also for their commitment in educating people about the importance of wetlands through their activist work at RE-PEAT, a youth-led collective that pushes for a future where peatlands are protected.

Words by: S. Furtak, F.Turk Images by: Tilly Compton?

A lesson on time from the peatlands

How nature can stop time

To me it feels like time is always running, it slips between my fingers and at the end of the day what I did was never enough. But there is one place where I can go where time flows differently. Standing in a peatland slows me down. During the shoot of In Death is Life I asked Tommy Minnick, one of our protagonists: “Does the peatland slow you down?”

He replied:?“If you allow the peatland to do so, then yes. A peatland can change time.”

Peatlands are some of our oldest living ecosystems, forming and surviving?for tens of thousands of years. Many have existed?back when our human ancestors were only toying with early agriculture, when we first started forming towns and cities, and - more recently - when we started radically altering our global climate and ecology. Composed of semi-decomposed plant matter (peat) preserved in water, peatlands are like capsules of deep time.

In Death Is Life is a short documentary about a community in rural Ireland with a long history tied to their peatland ecosystems. For generations draining and cutting the peatland was part of their local culture. Traditionally, the peat (or “turf”) was cut in the early summer, dried outside and burned as fuel in the cold winter months. This cheap and accessible material also powered their struggle for Independence during Ireland’s colonial rule. However, starting in the 1700s, through a rapid industrialisation process turf cutting became mechanised and happened at a much larger scale. This has left half of Ireland's ancient peat bogs now either partially or fully degraded.

The documentary features Bernie Henry and Tommy Minnock who have a somewhat paradoxical relationship to the bog. Despite burning turf at home, they deeply value the bog - seen in their commitment to preserving their local bog named “Clara”. Caitlin Baggot, feels like she has a different connection to the bog than the older generation and has her own vision of the future.

In a healthy state, peatlands are the planet’s largest terrestrial carbon store (holding twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests), they are hotspots of biodiversity, and have the capability to slow us down.

These unique traits drove us, Swantje Furtak (24) and Frankie Turk (27) to tell the story of the peatlands in Ireland. Coming from different paths, we have both sunken deeply into the topic of peatlands. In a long call in 2021, we started dreaming of the idea to create a documentary series. We started to collect stories of peatland communities across the world - Ireland, the Congo, Latvia, Germany and Indonesia.

When we won WaterBear’s annual film competition ReScript the Future, it gave us the opportunity to produce a pilot episode in Ireland. It was beyond exciting. What a rich, collaborative and magical journey it has been. From Bernie calling us up and introducing us to her community, to when the crew got a flat tire on day one of the shoot but happened to be right next to a mechanic, to the level of care, support and commitment the WaterBear team devoted throughout, and finally Bernie asking us?“how many years have you been?working already together”. “Three days” we answered laughingly.

In Death Is Life is for the runners, the hustlers and the clock watchers who want to sink into the peatland, and experience their gift of “timefullness”. Nearly every country on the globe has peatlands, in different shapes, colours and histories. You probably have a peatland near you! And it is like Tommy said: If you allow the peatland to slow you down, it can change your time.

Impact Spotlight

Get involved in safeguarding wetlands around the world by exploring the work of Wetlands International. Or, if you want to know more about the youth-led collective RE-PEAT, check out their website below:

?? Watch the latest WB Original In Death Is Life https://www.waterbear.com/watch/in-death-is-life