The Island President

The Island President is a 2011 documentary film about the efforts of then-President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed to tackle rising sea levels resulting from climate change. Produced by Actual Films, an Oscar- and Emmy-winning American documentary film company based in San Francisco, and directed by Jon Shenk, the film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. The film was funded by groups including the Ford Foundation, the American Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies and the Sundance Institute. At the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, The Island President won the Cadillac People's Choice Documentary Award.US rights to The Island President were acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films. The film opened in New York City on March 28, 2012, followed by releases in other US cities, like Los Angeles and San Francisco. After Nasheed stepped down as President in February 2012, Shenk said that he hoped his film could help convince the world that Nasheed was deposed in a coup that was orchestrated by loyalists to the former dictator, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. “That might be the single most important thing that the movie can do. It’s now clear that this new government is not democratic, that the people who run the ministries are the same people who were there under the dictator.”