EFFA ‘21.

Catch up on Opening Night with our Watch Again screening. Toast the festival in digital style with Auntie Di Kerr, Festival Co-Directors Freyja Gillard & Charlie Macfarlane, and a magical music performance by The Weather Diaries star Lupa J.

This free event is Auslan interpreted.

On Demand | 14 Oct - 14 Nov | EFFA Festival Hub

Through understanding our ecosystems and implementation of design from nature we can create equitable systems communities can all thrive from.

Across two two-hour workshops, this Introduction to Permaculture course by PermaQueer will equip you with practical knowledge to connect with the land and undertake permaculture practices in your own home.

19:30 AEDT | Wed 20 Oct & Wed 27 Oct | via Zoom

Triple R’s Flick Ford is joined by The Weather Diaries Director, Kathy Drayton, and main protagonist, Imogen, for a livestreamed Q&A to give you an insight into the making of the film, what it’s like to have your life on tape and how we can use cinema to create change.Join us on Facebook and Youtube to ask your questions and take part in this impactful discussion.

18:00 AEDT | Sat 16 Oct | Facebook & Youtube

EFFA is delighted to partner with The New Joneses to host ‘The New Joneses Road Trip’ 10 episode series, available free and On Demand, throughout the festival.

Meeting Australians making real change via everything from food choices, ditching fossil fuels and Healing Country, this series offers accessible, fun and meaningful steps you can take to make sustainable choices.

On Demand | 15 Oct - 14 Nov | EFFA Festival Hub

Join Devon Lang Wilton as she discusses filmmaking, the environment and how creative media can cultivate change with Dr Sarah Laborde (Veins of the Country), Kelly Moneymaker (VAKA) and Tamara DiMattina (The New Joneses Road Trip).

This joyful panel discussion touches upon the challenges and opportunities of making films during COVID, the importance of Indigenous voice, and how to make environmental messages engaging and accessible.

2019 | 70’ | Latvia | Edmunds Jansons

When her local park and favourite tree come under threat from some big city construction, Mimmi joins forces with her cousin Jacob and a pack of talking dogs to protect the park; proving that anyone, no matter how small, can stand up and make a difference.

2017 | 90’ | United Kingdom | Scott Barley

Sleep Has Her House is a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience which screened as part of our 2018 festival. Shot entirely on an iPhone, the film relies on minimal formal resources, ingenious camerawork, gentle movements and the compelling flow of time. This symphonic and haunting piece of exquisite slow cinema is not to be missed.

2020 | 91’ | Italy | Danilo Caputo

21-year-old Nica drops out of university and returns to her Southern Italy home to find her father deep in debt and leading a movement to remove the area’s ancient olive trees, with the promise of financial compensation. Can Nica save the region’s beautiful ecosystem or will greed win out?

2020 | 95’ | Denmark | Illum Jacobi

The philosopher Edmund Burke has fled 18th Century London, debt collectors and a ramping midlife crisis to go on a grand tour of the Alps to rewrite his book on the Sublime. Stunning, absurd and immersive; and perfect for fans of The Favourite.

2018 | 42’ | USA | James Benning

Two Californian nights in November 2018. Distant traffic, music. Two moons are rising: one gibbous, one full. Both take up more or less half the screen time. Benning invites the viewer to look and listen and consider the consonances of space and time, on-screen and off.

2020 | 100’ | Germany, Mongolia | Byambasuren Davaa

Eleven-year-old Amra divides his time by fancifully dreaming of performing in Mongolia’s Got Talent and grappling with the harsh realities of helping his nomad family resist the destruction of their steppe from encroaching mining companies. Find out more...

2020 | 77’ | USA | Lisa Marie Malloy, J.P Sniadecki

Social distancing takes on a disquieting new meaning in A Shape Of Things To Come, an ethnographic documentary and borderlands Western that follows Sundog, who lives off the land in the Sonoran Desert, content to be far removed from society. Disquietening, immersive, compulsively watchable.

2020 | 90’ | Switzerland | Stéphane Goël

This charming documentary gives rise to your new favourite eco-warrior: Jacques Dubochet, 78-year old Nobel Prize winning scientist. Join Jacques as he navigates his newly forged celebrity status and discovers how he can make a positive difference to the mounting climate movement. This is the activism story you never knew you needed.

2020 | 63’ | USA | Michiel Thomas

Three teenagers from Atlanta sign up to the after school Wilderness Works program and attempt to traverse the mountains in the heart of Colorado.

An ode to the unique healing powers of the outdoors, and a moving human story of discovering self-worth.

2019 | 118’ | Germany, Switzerland | Marcus Vetter

Amidst escalating populism and a growing mistrust of the elite, The Forum accompanies World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab as he strives to achieve his noble mission, all the while grappling with the possibility that his creation may ultimately serve as an elitist echo chamber only affirming the status quo. The political thriller of the decade.

2020 | 83’ | Spain | Adán Aliaga, Àlex Lora

Strikingly artful and profoundly human, The Fourth Kingdom documents the day-to-day lives of a group of illegal immigrants in a New York recycling centre, offering a powerful deep-dive into a very unique and particular type of environment and existence. A portrait of human life, both understated and essential.

2020 | 91’ | Australia | Kathy Drayton

Following the director’s child Imogen as they become a young adult in a world increasingly affected by global warming, this contemplative home-grown documentary muses on motherhood, climate anxiety, bat conservation, and what it means to be growing up and finding creative success in a world quite literally on fire.

2019 | 70’ | France | Florence Lazar

While pruning, chopping and harvesting, local farmers on the French Island of Martinique explain the long-lasting impact of slavery & colonisation on their lives and their island’s biodiversity. Lively interviews alternate with tranquil scenes of lush greenery and beautiful dangling bunches of bananas… wrapped in plastic.

2019 | 49’ | Australia | Rob Innes

The global School Strike 4 Climate movement in March 2019 saw more than 150,000 students in Australia alone strike to demand climate action. Youth on Strike takes us behind the scenes of the lead-up to the event, using vlog footage recorded by the organisers themselves.

This collection of shorts encourages us to turn inward, inspiring with stories from our homeland and around our local region. Showcasing homegrown filmmaking talent, our Australian and Local Neighbours shorts show the possibilities of creativity and connection as our world changes.

A specially curated program of shorts celebrating the power of First Nations voices, presented to you by Bank Australia. Shining a spotlight on some of the world’s unsung and most inspiring defenders of the environment, EFFA’s Elders & the Earth package offers a celebration of First Nations champions from Australia, The Pacific, North America and South America.

Showcases individuals and communities defying environmental destruction across land and sea, this selection of films perceive global efforts of connecting, mourning, and protecting nature, with the promise to incite the same veracity within audiences’ own relationship with the environment. And amidst all this, a humble poet tries everything he can to keep his pot plants alive.

Honing in on a selection of the First Nations leaders fighting head-on the threats of colonialism and greed which terrorise their land, this showcase of inspiring and urgent stories of vulnerability and great strength alike offers an essential look at some of the world’s most essential, unsung heroes.

Thoughtful, playful, and important - these shorts for the young (and young at heart) guarantee to inform and wow in equal measure. With joyful animations, insightful real stories, and awe-inspiring visuals, these films offer a whimsical glimpse into the enduring wonder of our world and our relationship with it; a beautiful collection that the whole family will love!