Gillian Moore

On the heels of the T&T Film Fes­ti­val comes a new film fo­rum, this time with a de­cid­ed­ly eco-friend­ly theme.

Green Screen, the en­vi­ron­men­tal film se­ries, a project of Sus­tain T&T, is set to start on Oc­to­ber 7, bring­ing free films on "green" con­scious­ness to the pub­lic. Sus­tain T&T is an NGO ded­i­cat­ed to ed­u­cat­ing the pub­lic on the idea of sus­tain­able liv­ing, de­vel­op­ment and in­dus­try. The Green Screen ini­tia­tive was de­vised to pro­vide a fo­rum for dis­cus­sion, ed­u­ca­tion and en­ter­tain­ment re­lat­ed to en­vi­ron­men­tal is­sues, and to give the gen­er­al pub­lic an op­por­tu­ni­ty to learn about en­vi­ron­men­tal mat­ters on a scope that is wider than what is com­mon­ly avail­able in main­stream me­dia.

Sus­tain T&T di­rec­tor Carv­er Bac­chus says Green screen was con­ceived "to reach folks with en­vi­ron­men­tal mes­sages through en­ter­tain­ing and com­pelling films. "En­vi­ron­men­tal and con­ser­va­tion is­sues are of­ten viewed as com­plex and bor­ing, but these movies re­al­ly dis­pel that with in­ter­est­ing in­ter­na­tion­al sto­ries that af­fect us all." He said the films were se­lect­ed to "ap­peal to a wide au­di­ence with the con­tent and al­so to touch on mul­ti­ple top­ic ar­eas". They are "eclec­tic in their con­tent and ap­proach," deal­ing with di­verse top­ics in­clud­ing "how the food we eat to­day af­fects our bod­ies and en­vi­ron­ments," and "how a small is­land na­tion stood up to larg­er pow­ers clam­our­ing for its min­er­al wealth".

Green Screen will be launched at the head­quar­ters of the T&T Film Fes­ti­val, on Bel­mont Cir­cu­lar Road.

The movie The Co­conut Rev­o­lu­tion, will be shown at 7 pm, fol­lowed by a dis­cus­sion and lime. The film tells how New Guinea's in­dige­nous peo­ple de­fend­ed their land from min­ing and fought against the army, with their protest fu­eled by co­conut oil. Pho­tog­ra­ph­er Alex Smailes, who worked as a still pho­tog­ra­ph­er on the film, will be part of the dis­cus­sion. The fes­ti­val con­tin­ues at 4.30 pm on Oc­to­ber 9 at Daa­ga Au­di­to­ri­um at UWI, St Au­gus­tine, with a screen­ing of Home by di­rec­tor Yann Arthus Bertrand.

Oth­er Green Screen venues will in­clude Al­ice Yard, Wood­brook; Trevor's Edge, St Au­gus­tine; Ma­yaro Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre; and, Al­liance Fran­caise, Wood­brook. Those in­ter­est­ed in at­tend­ing the launch or oth­er screen­ings may e-mail sus­taintt@gmail.com to RSVP.

• For more in­for­ma­tion on Sus­tain T&T or the Green Screen en­vi­ron­men­tal film se­ries, vis­it sus­taintt.word­press.com

To view the full Green Screen sched­ule, vis­it sus­taintt.word­press.com/green-screen-en­vi­ron­men­tal-film-se­ries-of­fi­cial-sched­ule

Green Screen Films:

• Home, 2009

(Di­rec­tor: Yann Arthus Bertrand)

With aer­i­al footage from 54 coun­tries, Home is a de­pic­tion of how the Earth's prob­lems are all in­ter­linked.

• There Once Was an Is­land - Te Hen­ua e No­ho, 2010

(Di­rec­tor: Bri­ar March and Lyn Col­lie)

Three peo­ple in a unique Pa­cif­ic Is­land com­mu­ni­ty face the first dev­as­tat­ing ef­fects of cli­mate change, in­clud­ing a ter­ri­fy­ing flood.

• Food Mat­ters, 2008

(Di­rec­tor: James Colquhoun and Lau­ren­tine ten Bosch)

With nu­tri­tion­al­ly-de­plet­ed foods, chem­i­cal ad­di­tives and our ten­den­cy to re­ly up­on phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal drugs to treat what's wrong with our mal­nour­ished bod­ies, it's no won­der that mod­ern so­ci­ety is get­ting sick­er.

• The Co­conut Rev­o­lu­tion, 2001

(Di­rec­tor: Dom Rotheroe)

The film tells the true sto­ry of the suc­cess­ful up­ris­ing of the in­dige­nous peo­ples of Bougainville Is­land against the Papua New Guinea army and the min­ing plans of the RTZ com­pa­ny to ex­ploit their nat­ur­al re­sources.

• The Cove, 2009

(Di­rec­tor: Louie Psi­hoyos)

Acad­e­my Award® Win­ner for Best Doc­u­men­tary of 2009, The Cove fol­lows an elite team of ac­tivists, film­mak­ers and free-divers as they em­bark on a covert mis­sion to pen­e­trate a re­mote and hid­den cove in Tai­ji, Japan, shin­ing a light on a dark and dead­ly se­cret.

• The Age Of Stu­pid, 2009

(Di­rec­tor: Fran­ny Arm­strong)

A fic­tion­al archivist from the fu­ture looks at old footage from the year 2008 to un­der­stand why hu­mankind failed to ad­dress cli­mate change.

• In­to Eter­ni­ty, 2010

(Di­rec­tor: Michael Mad­sen)

The film tells the sto­ry of Onka­lo, a colos­sal un­der­ground tomb be­ing built in Fin­land, 500 me­tres be­low the earth to per­ma­nent­ly house nu­clear waste, from the per­spec­tive of those re­spon­si­ble for build­ing it and faced with many philo­soph­i­cal and eth­i­cal ques­tions.

• Ala­mar, 2009 (pre­sent­ed cour­tesy of the ttff)

(Di­rec­tor: Pe­dro Gon­za­les-Ru­bio)

Ban­co Chin­chor­ro, on the Yu­cat&aa­cute;n penin­su­la, is one of the rich­est coral reefs in Mex­i­co. The na­tive peo­ple, de­scen­dants of the Mayas, live on the wa­ter, in huts propped up on stilts-the reef is a na­ture re­serve, and no build­ing is al­lowed on the is­lands. One day a fish­er­man who lives in one of these huts re­ceives some vis­i­tors: his son, Jorge, and his five-year-old grand­son, Natan, who is on a vis­it from Rome, where he lives with his Ital­ian moth­er.