Gala opening for Green Screen

TWENTY shortlisted films in the Very Short Shorts Mobile Film Competition will have their world premiere at the opening night gala of TT’s eighth Environmental Film Festival, Green Screen.

The opening night on October 31 at Digicel IMAX, One Woodbrook Place, will also include the announcement of Best Short, Overall Winner Award; Best Short, 18-25 years Youth Award. With a focus on Stories of our Rivers and Seas in 2018, this year marks the inaugural year for this new festival platform, supported by SWMCOL, FilmTT and Niherst.

The Caribbean premiere of the fascinating documentary Anote’s Ark will also be screened on opening night. Compelling and visually sumptuous, the film is set in Kiribati, a small Pacific island country with a miniscule carbon footprint. Nevertheless, Kiribati is facing the most feared modern existential threat to small islands – complete destruction by rising sea levels.

The festival is the only one of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean, bringing local, regional and international films to audiences since 2011.

Green Screen founder and director Carver Bacchus said in a media release, “With Perspective as our theme this year we’ve really taken the time to reflect on our festival over the last seven years. We’ve made significant strides and we hope, through new projects like the Very Short Shorts Mobile Film Competition, to get more people and communities excited about making short-form content.

"Film can be a very emotive tool for changing behaviour so we hope that, in time, this work will make our society more self-reflective and action oriented on environmental issues.”

Tickets are available from Paper Based Bookshop at the Normandie Hotel in St Ann’s and Drink Bistro in Woodbrook and via Green Screen’s website at greenscreentt.com under the Opening Night Film section.

For more info: greenscreentt.com for a full list of the Very Short Shorts submissions, finalists and more information about the opening-night gala.

About Anote’s Ark

What if your country were swallowed by the sea? Kiribati is a remote place on earth and yet one of the first countries facing annihilation from sea-level rise.

The filmmakers follow Kiribati’s president, Anote Tong, as he races to find a way to protect his nation’s people and preserve their heritage and dignity. Many Kiribati take their survival into their own hands and seek refuge overseas and the filmmakers are able to juxtapose the challenges Tong faces with those of Tiemeri, a young mother of six, fighting to migrate with her family to New Zealand.

About the Very Short Shorts Mobile Film Competition

Over 40 entries were submitted since its launch on World Environment Day, June 5. Films must have been shot entirely on a mobile device (smartphone, tablet, go-pro or any combination of these) in HD video. Submissions were limited to a length of 60 seconds, excluding credits.

The competition is in keeping with Green Screen’s commitment to raising environmental awareness through film. The initiative will become an annual staple of Green Screen’s platform, and will also be open to the public and students for viewing throughout the festival.