The best environmental cinema reaches the faculties of Law and Information and Audiovisual Media
PThis is the eighth year in a row for the University of Barcelona as one of the official headquarters of the International Environmental Film Festival, the oldest in this genreʼs field, which reaches its 26th edition this year. From November 6 to 14, the festival -known as FICMA but from now on called SUNCINE- will transform Barcelona in the world capital of environmental awareness with the screening of a hundred films, documentaries and fictions, which can be seen in several parts of the city.
PThis is the eighth year in a row for the University of Barcelona as one of the official headquarters of the International Environmental Film Festival, the oldest in this genreʼs field, which reaches its 26th edition this year. From November 6 to 14, the festival -known as FICMA but from now on called SUNCINE- will transform Barcelona in the world capital of environmental awareness with the screening of a hundred films, documentaries and fictions, which can be seen in several parts of the city.
Some of the best short-films on environmental topics from last year can be seen for free at the UB -provided by SUNCINE. Every year, the screenings take place at the Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media, but this year the Faculty of Law joins the festival. A total of seven screenings (with debates afterwards) and a masterclass on sustainable cinema are the activities offered by these two centers. They will take place on November 7, 11 and 12 and the entrance is free for everyone.
Apart from free screenings offered by the festival at the University of Barcelona, all the members from the UB community will have discounts in the sessions organized by Cinemes Girona. Please visit this link for more information.
Faculty of Law
The screenings at the UB will start on Thursday, November 7, at the Faculty of Law (av. Diagonal, 684), where there will be a triple session. From 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., the Saló de Graus will hold the premiere of three short-films from Planeta section, with its focus on the role of citizens and groups defending the environment. Also, visitors can watch The New Environmentalists - From Hanoi to Paris (United States, 2018), narrated by Robert Redford, and where John Antonelli, Will Parrinello and Matt Yamashita show six activists from different areas of the world, awarded with the Goldman Environmental Prize. In Lʼeau Est La Vie: From Standing Rock to the Swamp (United States, 2019), Sam Vinal puts the action in Louisiana, where native women fight to protect Mother Earth from the predatory fossil fuel companies. Also, 7 Hectares Back (Poland, 2019), tells the story of Omar Tello, who restored a rainforest in his natal country, Ecuador. After the film screenings, there will be a debate with Alexandre Peñalver i Cabré, lecturer of Administrative Law and coordinator of the Legal Environmental Clinic of the Faculty of Law at the UB, and the ecologist groups SOS Delta, DEPANA, Environmental Defense Fund and Water is Life Platform.
Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media
On November 11 and 12, the screenings will take place in the boardroom of the Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media (c. Melcior de Palau, 140). There will be a total of four short-films from Planeta section, distributed in two sessions, with a debate with their directors. On Monday, November 11, at 1 noon, they will screen Love Flows (United States, 2019), by Francisco Campos-López, on the challenges for the rivers and fish, and The Ocean Inside Us (United Kingdom, 2019), by Sabine Probst, on the link between the human being and the ocean and its problems. Last, on Tuesday, November 12, at 1 noon, visitors can watch Lawqa (Lauca), letʼs make the park a park again (Chile, 2018), by Raimundo Gómez, who joins the activist Gabriel “Gabo” Benoit in a journey by bike through forgotten routes in the Lauca park, MAB Biosphere Reserve, and Mana (Singapur, Germany and India, 2019), where Bhavna Shivayogimath travels the world to find how indigenous cultures are transforming and are being moved to a growing social inequality in which children are the most vulnerable ones.
Apart from the screenings, the Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media will hold the workshop “Producing films sustainably”, by Ana Galán, film and television producer, journalist and expert on sustainable development. This will take place on November 11, at 8.30 a.m. The workshop, exclusively aimed at the students of this faculty, will treat -with real and practical examples- how cinema production can be made in a more sustainable way. It will analyze the shooting in a global and specific way to identify areas which can be improved, it will present the figure of the eco-assistant, and will explain how to calculate the environmental impact in a shooting. The objective is for the participants to see and interiorize different resources to make sustainable audiovisual productions and develop a critical attitude towards the current ways of shooting cinema, which have a high environmental impact.
Through its collaboration with SUNCINE, the UB guarantees its commitment to the environment and sustainability and supports the pedagogical values of cinema to disseminate and raise environmental awareness.
The complete program is available in the SUNCINE website.
Espot del SUNCINE 2019: