PANAJI: The first edition of the Goa Environmental Film Festival will be held from 3rd to 5th June at Maquinez Palace here, on the sidelines of the G20 meetings.
As 5th June is also World Environment Day, the festival is based on themes including environment, sustainable living, community life, biodiversity, solutions to plastic pollution, water conservation, and more which is in line with the G20 theme of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ – One Earth, One Family, One Future.
The festival is open to the public and registration is free at http://www.goaeff.in
Over 50 films from around the world will be screened in the 3-day event, which will be a unique opportunity to explore films that reveal the interdependence of our planet, addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, ocean pollution, and sustainable living, igniting awareness and action.
The festival will be inaugurated on Saturday, 3rd June at 10.30 a.m. by Nilesh Cabral, Minister for Environment and Climate Change. ‘The Elephant Whisperers,’ the film that won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short, will be the opening film at the festival.
Several directors will be participating in the festival where their films will be screened followed by a Q&A with the audience. Some of the film-makers include Shridhar Sudhir who made Moving Upstream Ganga and covered the Ganga for over 3000 kilometres, Janantik Shukla who won accolades for Mulsotan – The Rooted, Shishir Jha (Tortoise Under The Earth, the feature film about mining that has traveled around the globe at various festivals), Sohil Vaidya (Murmurs of the Jungle which has won several awards and nominations) and Aditi Bhande (Did you do it?).
Jalal Ud Din Baba (an award-winning filmmaker from Kashmir who has made Global Warning: Kashmir Chapter), Giridhar Nayak (Dhīvaraḥ: A Way Of Life), Dheeraj Aithal and Pradeep Hegde (The Last Hop(e), about frog conservation) along with other film-makers, will also be present at the festival.
Films from various countries like Ireland (Between Land and Sea, and Bog Graffiti), Canada (Metamorphosis, and Hadwin’s Judgement), and Finland (Tale of Sleeping Giants) will be represented by their respective embassies along with other nations like Spain (Alcarraz), Bulgaria (Antarctica), Russia (To See a Snow Leopard), Republic of Croatia (Extracurricular), Portugal (Un Mar de lixo, and Malcota: The tale of a lonely mountain range) along with a package of environmental films from Oman.
The line-up has award-winning films, from renowned directors to emerging talents, as we transform perceptions and ignite action through powerful environmental storytelling like the film The Burning Fields, which is about the world’s biggest e-waste dump, Plastic Bag Store, which is a series of stories, or Manta Ray, about illegal fishing.
Other ancillary activities like discussions and workshops are also planned for the festival. The festival will conclude on 5th June, World Environment Day, with the screening of the Spanish film Alcarràs which won the Golden Bear at Berlin and was Spain’s entry at the Oscars earlier this year.
