“The Tree” – Joss Cooper

Author’s note: I grew up in Dubai and was always amazed at how trees, especially the ghaf tree, were able to survive in some of the harshest conditions on earth. When I heard about this competition, I remember my dad had written a poem about trees and decided to build my film around that. It is read by an Emirati girl who is an old friend. I thought that would work well with the UAE footage. I used World Land Trust’s plant a tree campaign as a call to action. We need more trees. They are the earth’s lungs.