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Thank you all for the responses we've received from people along the west coast of SA and Namibia, and even from the other coast and from inland! It's encouraging to know that you are interested and that the films won't be showing only in Cape Town! I have to say that we had amazing responses from many film directors and distributors here in South Africa and worldwide, who were only happy to send us their DVDs for our festivals!
So Earthnotes - Environmental Documentaries from around the Earth is coming soon!....
Earthnotes in Cape Town will run at the Labia Cinema from 27 July to 8 August, as well at the newly launched Environmental Resource Centre (ERC) at CPUT - Bellville Campus from 30 July to 8 August. Thereafter, local screenings in other towns can take place! Once everything for Cape Town is on track, we will start planning the local screenings -- so we will be in touch!
Until then, please keep an eye on DLIST -- we will be giving regular updates on Earthnotes on the Discussion Forum and on a dedicated page (coming soon). But ideas, suggestions and questions are always welcome at any time!
The DLIST Team |
I had the opportunity to attend the environmental film festival organised by DLIST, in Cape Town. The films being shown are not only informative but are also suitable for everyone, information sharing through films is surely a good idea. Also interesting are the question and answer sessions after the films, were you get involved in discussions on environmental issues.
Yesterdays 05/08/07, after the film Crude Impact, was interesting, it was lead by Peter Willis the Southern African Director of the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry. How often has one ever asked themselves about their carbon footprint, your contribution to global warming? Think of the following scenario, you go to your nearest clothing shop be it Pep or Woolies, to buy that nylon jersey you like. The nylon has been made from crude oil. You used a taxi or your car to get to the shop, burning some fossil fuels (petrol). So what can one to reduce their carbon footprint, replace your regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs, drive less, recycle and reuse more, use less hot water, plant a tree?
We tend to think that environmental problems are a result of population growth, rather than our wasteful consumption patterns.
SASOL is the biggest emitter of CO2, from their coal-to-liquid plant in Secunda in RSA. A need to look at other sources of energy, was brought to the picture, especially the development of environmentally sound energy sources. Opportunities for carbon sequestration in the soil were also discussed,especially the need for most cattle ranchers to consider,cattle ranching that promote carbonn storage in the soil. A market for such practices also needs to be developed.
Make sure not to miss out on the film festival when it hits your area.
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The second meeting for the Earthnotes Environmental Documentaries Festival organizers in Toamasina Madagascar will held the coming week-end. I hope, the DVDs will be there already that time. The process is very well started for the University of Toamasina Madagascar. 15 university students from different sciences have replayed positively my call for the festival organization. They will work with me to make an event the festival here in Tamatave.
The first meeting was more that successful. They want also to know all about the Earthnotes, the DLIST and more. So we set up already a new appointment, the coming Saturday at 08:00 AM Madagascar time. We will get online and log in to the DLIST. I will show them both the Earthnotes and the different activities and discussions on DLIST.
I simply think that it can only be successful in a traditional French Speaking Area. The English United Club at the University of Toamasina and some students from other countries in the Western Indian Ocean are in the group. I will report to you the DLIST readers the result.
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Earthnotes: The Traveling Environmental Documentaries Films Festival got more than the expected result in Toamasina Madagascar. For a common interest and objective, we have converged to one focal point all social environmental actors of the University of Toamasina for the Earthnotes. The students, professors and officials replay positively the invitation to learn, to enjoy and to share ideas about the environmental issues though the 10 key documentaries provided by the DLIST Team. Mainly, we got double result: the English learning stimulated, in this traditional French speaking space and various environmental problems learned and discussed.
The United English Club, grouping students from different social sciences, practicing and promoting the English language at the University of Toamasina was the main partner of the Espace Francophone (a French Speaking Cultural Center) during the 10 days of the Earthnotes Documentaries Festival in Toamasina Madagascar, since the Nov 3.
The English Club was playing the role of understanding and communication facilitator and the Espace Francophone center provided all logistic facilities including screening room and accommodations, office, sound amplifier system, DVD player and screen etc. and FM Radio Station for the public information and advertising spot.
The Earthnotes festival was succeed to group professors and students to enjoy and learn different environmental experiences in other places in the world and also ask many questions about the Madagascar current situation. The pertinence of some documentaries was exceptional with the Malagasy reality, especially in the eastern region of the country. The “Getting our Land Back” shared to us an important messages because we are actually moving a whole village to another place by the implementation of a mining industry. That experience is the first in Madagascar where the land issues are extremely sophisticated by the concept of the “land of the ancestors”. We are ever never owner of the land because it belongs to the ancestor… “A World without Water” also gives for us other experience and the discussion after the film was mainly about 1-The water sources become rare in some places and 2-the available sources are often polluted, which is basically the case of many humid tropical countries.
For the opening ceremony, we screened the “The World’s Large Marine Ecosystems” and the “A hell of Fishing”. The Director of the Environmental Sciences Department of the University of Toamasina was there and clarified actively many specific points for the hundred students following the documentaries. We recognize the producers of the documentaries. The films are excellent and the screening occasion was a profitable opportunity for the environmentally awaked people to share and discuss freely their point of view.
Some ideas developed by documentaries are too pertinent for the actually event in the East of Madagascar. I personally think; here, that communication can create eventually enemies because of the context. Some of people here are very enthusiastic for the coming mining exploitation and the dollars brought by these international companies, spent just to get the heart and supports from the local people, at the beginning of the process. For the next, we don’t want to think about yet but the Earthnotes ring the alarm…
The University Students in Toamasina suggested that it can be largely better if, we can organize the screening at the beginning of the school year. “Near and in the exam period, people are not mentally available, they are more stressed”. That is true !
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