The city of Chittagong is home to the largest riverine delta in the world. It is along these coasts that, in just 30 years, the ship dismantling industry has turned a 15 km long coastal belt into one of the most polluted and dangerous sites of the world. Huge, half-broken ships now dominate this landscape, once home to one of the most biodiverse environments of South Asia. This practice is known as shipbreaking, and each year it claims dozens of lives.

The project will be presented as a live performance documentary that will guide the audience inside the shipbreaking yards of Bangladesh. Live music data visualization and performance will be combined to provide a comprehensive overview of the issue through a unique multimedia format. Live narration, photography and reportage documentary will tell the personal stories of whom lives are at risk because of this polluting industry.

Furthermore, it will aim to evidence the scale of the environmental impact this practice is having on local communities. In fact, to make room for dissembling yards, companies have to destroy large areas of coastal vegetation. This greatly threatens regional biodiversity and increases the vulnerability of nearby communities to the impacts of climate change, especially sea-level rise, and storm surges. If the coast is not immediately destroyed from the expansion of yards, it is severely impacted by the subsequent pollution. The increased frequency and magnitude of major storms coupled with rising sea levels means more and more toxins will be washed out to sea — inevitably entering the global food web, threatening biodiversity, and crippling fisheries. 21 fish and crustaceans species have been wiped out in Bangladesh shipbreaking beaches alone.

With Bare Hands (Live) will give the web-documentary With Bare Hands, created by photojournalist Tomaso Clavarino and videomaker Isacco Chiaf in 2016, a new dimension. The project was produced in collaboration with Al Jazeera, Corriere Della Sera, and supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.