EFFA ‘19

EFFA ‘19.

24 October - 1 November 2019

Join us at Cinema Nova, Palace Westgarth, IMAX Melbourne and Kaleide Theatre, with Industry Insider Sessions held at State Library Victoria.

What’s happening.

The environment is set to take centre stage at cinemas around Melbourne in October 2019, with the Environmental Film Festival Australia (EFFA) announcing its 2019 program, with a record total of 44 feature, short, experimental and, for the first time, kids’ and youth films selected from 18 countries, including Australia.

This year’s festival shines a light on reluctant heroes fighting for justice and action. MÁXIMA sees a Peruvian grandmother’s fight to save her land from the world’s largest gold producer, taking her all the way to Washington, while INTO THE JUNGLE sees a Melbourne conservation couple move to remote Papua New Guinea to save the critically endangered Tenkile tree kangaroo from extinction.

The impact of climate change on people’s health and mental health also features prominently in this year’s films. MOSSVILLE: WHEN GREAT TREES FALL sees US man Stacey Ryan battle severe illness and depression as the real estate around his home becomes a toxic wasteland, snapped up by petrochemical companies, as he literally becomes the last man standing. While THE HOTTEST AUGUST, billed as the ‘Humans of New York’ approach to environmental filmmaking, exposes the many ways ‘everyday’ New Yorkers are responding to the changes around us – from the optimists, to the deniers, to the futurists.

The brutality of industry on local communities – and on the environment – is pervasive in this year’s festival. GRIT traces the impact of a catastrophic mud tsunami in East Java which continues to flow 13 years on, believed to be caused by drilling for gas. French film, THE TIME OF FORESTS (LE TEMPS DES FORÊTS), highlights the impacts of maintaining 80 per cent of rural forests for factories rather than as countryside.

The stories of Indigenous peoples from around the world feature heavily in this year’s festival, with a third of all films including Indigenous perspectives.

TITIXE – an intimate portrait of a Mexican family who lose their beloved patriarch, and with him, generations of agricultural knowledge – questions what we all stand to lose when Indigenous peoples’ connections to country are lost. This question will be explored in a special panel discussion with local Indigenous Elders and leaders, including Wurundjeri Elder, Uncle Bill Nicholson.

EFFA also celebrates the beauty of the world around us. THIS MOUNTAIN LIFE delves into the spiritual connection between people and place, humans and nature. It follows the first female duo to trek 2300 kilometres through the Coast Mountains in British Columbia to Alaska. This documentary was made by Canadian filmmaker, Grant Baldwin, who will attend this screening for a ‘Meet the Maker’ Q&A.

Baldwin will also appear as part of EFFA’s Industry Insider sessions – connecting screen practitioners and documentary lovers alike to the filmmakers behind top international and Australian environmental, natural history and impact-driven documentaries.

Baldwin will deliver ‘Shoot, Edit and Score with Impact’, discussing his multidisciplinary approach to filmmaking, and sharing insider information behind his work, including the award-winning THE CLEAN BIN PROJECT, JUST EAT IT: A FOOD WASTE STORY, BBC’s PLANET EARTH and THIS MOUNTAIN LIFE.

EFFA’s other Industry Insider Session, ‘Women With Impact: Sparking Environmental Action Via Documentaries,’ features three preeminent women producers, writers and directors behind some of Australia’s most iconic environmental, nature and impact-driven documentaries and campaigns. Sally Ingleton (ACID OCEAN), Anna Kaplan (2040) and Tosca Looby (MAGICAL LAND OF OZ) will discuss the role that documentaries play in changing our attitudes, thinking and behaviour concerning the environmental challenges we face. This panel will be hosted by Monash University’s Belinda Smaill.

Inspired by children and young people demanding climate action and justice around the world, EFFA is this year offering its first dedicated kids’ sessions. A KIDS’ SHORTS + SEED PLANTING WORKSHOP will be delivered with CERES, discussing the themes of waste, pollution and land conservation, and a magical screening of BACKYARD WILDERNESS 3D at IMAX Melbourne will be introduced by wildlife educator, Mike Alexander.

EFFA is also screening youth activist film YOUTH UNSTOPPABLE with a Youth Forum led by an organiser of the Melbourne arm of the global schools strike, empowering young people to have their say and demand action for the future.

The impact of climate change is explored at home and abroad through the AUSTRALASIAN SHORTS and INTERNATIONAL SHORTS collections, all the way to the Arctic, with QUEEN WITHOUT LAND highlighting the fight for survival by polar bears.

This year, EFFA is also exploring the built environment around us. CITY DREAMERS celebrates the work of pioneering women architects in North America who have changed city planning models to be more green and socially-just over the past 70 years. This film will be followed by a panel discussion with leading local women architects and city planners, including Australian Institute of Architects Immediate Past President Clare Cousins and architect and 3000acre board member, Kate Dundas.

Watch the trailer.

Note from Director.

The past 12 months have seen unprecedented rallying by people around the world demanding urgent action on climate change, including the largest global climate protest in history, held just last month.

Buoyed by this growing awareness, concern and desire to do more, we’re proud to announce that 2019 marks the Environmental Film Festival Australia’s biggest festival to date, showcasing 44 local and international feature, short, experimental and, for the first time, even kids’ films!

You can also hear firsthand from the award-winning filmmakers capturing the best and worst of the natural world around us – sharing an insider perspective on how impact filmmaking is sparking positive environmental action.

EFFA’s call to action this year is SEE. CHANGE. ‘See’ films which will empower you with the perspectives, facts and tools needed to help you enact ‘Change’, the change we all need to make to protect our precious planet.

We look forward to seeing you at EFFA 2019!

Brooke Daly | Director, Environmental Film Festival Australia

The Films.

| Features

Backyard Wilderness 3D | Susan Todd, Andrew Young, USA (2018)
City Dreamers | Joseph Hillel, Canada (2018) - Australian Premiere
Encounters at the End of the World | Werner Herzog, Germany, USA (2007)
Extra-Terrestrial Ecologies [Retroflectors: the astronaut, the robot, the alien] | Ralo Mayer, Austria (2018) - Australian Premiere. Screened with The Mirrored Message | Benjamin Tiven (2018)
Grit | Cynthia Wade & Sasha Friedlander, Indonesia, USA (2018) - Australian Premiere
Into the Jungle | Mark Hanlin, Australia, Papua New Guinea, UK (2018)
Le Temps des forêts (The Time of Forests) | François-Xavier Drouet, France (2018) - Australian Premiere
Ma’ohi Nui, in the heart of the ocean my country lies | Annick Ghijzelings, Belgium, Tahiti (2018) - Australian Premiere
Máxima | Claudia Sparrow, USA (2019) - Australian Premiere
Mossville: When Great Trees Fall | Alexander John Glustrom, USA, South Africa (2019) - Australian Premiere
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin | Werner Herzog, UK (2019) - Victorian Premiere
Queen Without Land | Asgeir Helgestad, Norway (2018) - Australian Premiere
Swarm Season | Sarah J. Christman, USA (2019) - Australian Premiere
The Hottest August | Brett Story, USA, Canada (2019) - Australian Premiere
This Mountain Life | Grant Baldwin Canada (2018) - Victorian Premiere
Titixe | Tania Hernandez Velasco, Mexico (2018) - Australian Premiere
Youth Unstoppable | Slater Jewell-Kemker, Canada (2018)

| Experimental shorts

Eroded Pyramid | Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, Mexico (2019)
Leaf Cutters | Catherine Chalmers, USA (2018)
Resistance | Laurence Favre, Switzerland (2019)
Tåke | Inger-Lise Hansen, Norway (2018)
The Tasmanian Tiger | Vergine Keaton, France (2018)
To Get In Touch With Crows | Rhona Mühlebach, Switzerland (2019)
Trees Down Here | Ben Rivers, USA (2018)

| Australasian shorts

.TV | G. Anthony Svatek | USA, Tuvalu (2017)
Lifetime Guarantee | Sophia Armstrong, Australia (2019) 
Mycelium Made | Emily Medbury, Australia (2019)
The Divers | Angela How, Australia (2019)
The River is Me | David Freid, New Zealand (2019)
Without Water | Rachel Chen, Australia (2019)

| Kids shorts

Baked Fish | Guillem Miró, Spain (2018)
Birthplace | Sil van der Woerd & Jorik Dozy, The Netherlands (2018)
Kuap | Nils Hedinger, Switzerland (2018)
Maybe Just a Fairytale | Geoff Spanner, Australia (2018)
Saccage | Alexandre Boesch-Brassens, Jonathan Breuer, Julie Mansuy, Nicolas Ocipski, Paul Gaulier, Samuel Ramamisoa, Sylvain Masson & William Rima, France (2017)
The Guardian Elephant Warriors of Reteti | Ami Vitale, USA (2018)

| International shorts

Bare Existence | Max Lowe, USA (2019)
Bayandalai: Lord of the Taiga, Aner Etxebarria & Pablo Vidal, Spain, Mongolia (2018)
Lotus | Mohammadreza Vatandoust, Iran (2018)
Or Else Everybody Dies | David Nast Cole, USA (2018)
Sides Of A Horn | Toby Wosskow, USA, South Africa (2018)
The Flood Is Coming | Gabriel Böhmer, UK (2018)
Uniontown | Fraser Jones, USA (2018)

Presented in partnership with Bank Australia, City of Darebin & the High Commission of Canada

EFFA Team.

EFFA is 100% volunteer-run – a remarkable achievement thanks to a remarkable group of people. We thank our team for their dedication, creativity, sleepless nights and unwavering enthusiasm.

Director: Brooke Daly

Deputy Director: Cat Black-Dinham

Programming Manager: Nathan Senn

Programming Team: Sophie Booth, Ben Buckingham, Luke Forsyth, Tahney Fosdike, Freyja Gillard, Jennifer McAuliffe, Betty Milonas, Mark Newbound, Carolin Saan, Bridie Shepherd, Bek Spies, Sam Thorn

Impact Manager: Alex Stott

Impact Team: Beau Deurwaarder, Carolin Saan

Marketing & Communications: Ruby Brown

Events and Operations: Freyja Gillard, Tess Macrae, Nadia Macaulay

Finance: Adam Kinross

Special thanks also go to: Chris Gerbing, Kim Ingles, Bessie Byrne, Tom Overton-Skinner and Caroline Lipinski.

Thanks.

A sincere thank you to our partners – those joining the EFFA journey in 2019, and those who continue to support our cause. Without our generous partners and faithful audiences, EFFA would not be possible.