Energy and Energy Industries Minister Stuart Young and Mark Loquan president of the National Gas Company were two public figures featured in an energy transition documentary written and produced by energy company Touchstone Explorations' board member Dr Harrie Vredenburg.
Touchstone Explorations president and CEO Paul Baay along with his board (Trinidad) hosted the premiere of the documentary, "Without Leaving Anyone Behind: Exploring Our Way to an Energy Future" on Wednesday night at Mille Fleurs, Queen's Park Savannah.
Baay in his opening remarks, recalled that when Vredenburg first brought the film to his attention, the aspect he found fascinating was the balanced approach to the issue "which we don't hear a lot of as it is usually black and white."
Baay also appeared in the film and described the experience as "fun."
"Thanks for leaving in the boat pictures (footage) of me dancing. He promised me those would be on there," he added to the laughter of the audience.
The film was directed by Sylvester Ndumbi, an award-winning film-maker with over ten years of industry experience producing documentaries, short films, and TV shows.
A 40-minute clip of the 80-minute film was shown, followed by a question-and-answer session.
Ndumbi told the audience the documentary was filmed during a period of a little over two years and in locations all over the world including the UK, Canada, Hawaii, Kenya and TT.
Many Realities
Asked why this country was chosen to be featured, Ndumbi joked that he always finds an excuse to come back because he loves doubles.
"It's like a small island that has many realities at once. You have the Port of Spain and the energy industry here, and you have Icacos where you can see the sea level rising and what's going on there. So, you have many realities in a very compact place," he said.
During the film there was an interview with a resident of Icacos who spoke about his childhood home disappearing underwater.
The film also touched on the shutdown of the Petrotrin refinery and how many workers lost their jobs, visited the Caroni Bird Sanctuary with Nanan's Tours and also featured Touchstone general manager operations Christopher George and exploration manager Xavier Moonan.
[caption id="attachment_1036246" align="alignnone" width="600"] Award-winning filmmaker Sylvester Ndumbi.Photo courtesy Julien Neaves -[/caption]
Vredenburg, a University of Calgary professor and one of the world’s leading experts on energy, climate change, and economics, said while he is Canadian and Dutch, he came to the Caribbean from a young age and before becoming an academic worked in the tourism industry.
He added that he has been throughout the region and also Latin America. He noted he was a Touchstone board member and previously taught at TT Institute of Technology, the precursor to the University of TT.
"So, I had a real sense of the developing countries of the global south. So, when I look at the news and read the stuff about climate change it is always a global north perspective and th