As rising seas swallow Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, two Indigenous teenagers - Howard and Juliette - and their uncle Chris face a heartbreaking decision: whether to leave the only home they’ve ever known.
Synopsis
As rising seas swallow Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, two Indigenous teenagers - Howard and Juliette - and their uncle Chris face a heartbreaking decision: whether to leave the only home they’ve ever known. Dubbed America’s first climate refugees, they are part of the country’s first federally-funded mass relocation project, a programme thrust upon a people whose culture is woven into the marshes they leave behind.
Filmed with striking intimacy and visual poetry, Lowland Kids follows the family as they navigate grief, resilience, and identity in the face of irreversible change. From the bayou’s haunting beauty to the sterile uncertainty of the New Isle, director Sandra Winther captures a deeply personal story that reflects a growing global crisis.
This is a powerful meditation on place, belonging, family, and the human cost of climate collapse, told through the vibrant, defiant voices of youth growing up with one foot on land and the other already in the water.
Director: Sandra Winther| Country: USA/Denmark | Year: 2025 | Running Time: 94 min | Language: English | Rating: 15 | Content guidance: contains references to addiction and death.
Distributor: Together Films
Screening Details
- Festival Screening: 13 September 2025 (Centrepiece)
- Premiere: Scottish Premiere
- Festival Guests: live online Q&A with director Sandra Winther
Trailer
About the filmmaker:
Sandra Winther is a Danish film director based in New York whose work captures vibrant youth culture and climate-driven stories with striking intimacy and lyricism. Her acclaimed documentaries include Lowland Kids (which first premieres as a short film at SXSW in 2019) and A New Wave (New York Times Op-Doc, 2024). She received the ‘Filmmaker of the Future’ Award at the Rhode Island Film Festival (2019) and the Nowness Award for Breakthrough Artist for Cultural Excellence in Film and Video (2020), recognising her bold cultural voice and cinematic vision.