EFFM ‘13.

World Premiere | 23 min, Jessie Boylan, Australia

The Hidden Valley gold and silver mine in Papua New Guinea is devastating communities living along the Watut River, a long and fast-flowing river in the lush mountains of the Morobe Province. In this evocative and beautifully shot, short documentary we hear how indigenous models of development are clashing with those imposed by mining companies and government.

Screening on Thursday 5 September

World Premiere | 32 min | Emma Mezzatesta | Australia

In Mining the Truth we take a roadtrip with 60 young and inspiring Australians to visit mining communities on Australia’s east coast and hear their stories about living with the environmental and social impacts of coal and gas mining.

A world cinematic premiere, this beautifully shot and profoundly human documentary digs up some simple truths about the highly politicised and complex issue of mining in Australia.

Screening on Thursday 5 September

84 min | Ben Kalina | United States

Shored Up asks tough questions, close to the heart of beach lovers  (and developers) everywhere, about our coastal communities and our relationship to the land. What effect will sea level rise have on our homes, our businesses, our future? 

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, surfers, politicians, scientists and residents look at the impacts of climate change on Long Beach Island, New Jersey and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and consider the future of coastal development. 

With wry humour, Shored Up explores the practice of beach engineering and sand replenishment as a solution to rising sea levels, and begs the question – can we afford to pile enough sand on our shores to keep the ocean at bay?

Screening on Friday 6 September

93min | Peter Brosens & Jessica Woodworth | Belgium, Netherlands, France

What would happen if spring never arrived? 

A small, close-knit village, deep in the Ardennes forest waits for spring to come but as time goes on, the villagers’ hopes begin to vanish and life takes unexpected turns, as they try to survive on a newly dormant earth. 

A visceral and stunning environmental drama and the festival’s first ever narrative feature film, The Fifth Season, offers a dramatic glimpse of nature in revolt against mankind.

Screening on Friday 6 September

Australian Premiere | 95 min | Don Argott & Sheena M. Joyce | United States

The Atomic States of America journeys to nuclear reactor communities across the US to provide a candid exploration of the history and impacts of nuclear power, debunking myths and uncovering truths about this controversial energy source.

The film introduces people who have been on the frontlines of this issue for decades; community advocates, investigative journalists, renowned physicists, engineers, industry regulators, and former government leaders. It inspires informed discussion on the safety, viability and future of nuclear power.

Screening on Saturday 7 September

95min | Yung Chang| Canada

A divine product of two years trailing fruit-obsessed horticulturalists, pomologists, and backyard enthusiasts, director Yung Chang takes us on a global journey in search of rare and forgotten fruits, that reminds us of the limitless imagination of nature. 

We search for white-fleshed mangoes in Bali, go hunting in Borneo for the rare kura kura durian, join an Italian fruit detective sleuthing amongst Renaissance paintings for long-forgotten figs and even follow Bill Pullman pursuing his dream of creating a community orchard in Hollywood. 

Through Chang’s lens we explore our symbiotic relationship with fruit through culture, history, and ecology and glean a sense of our infinite biodiversity so clearly under threat by an all-consuming monoculture.

Screening on Saturday 7 September

86min | Michal Marczak | Poland

A divine product of two years trailing fruit-obsessed horticulturalists, pomologists, and backyard enthusiasts, director Yung Chang takes us on a global journey in search of rare and forgotten fruits, that reminds us of the limitless imagination of nature. 

We search for white-fleshed mangoes in Bali, go hunting in Borneo for the rare kura kura durian, join an Italian fruit detective sleuthing amongst Renaissance paintings for long-forgotten figs and even follow Bill Pullman pursuing his dream of creating a community orchard in Hollywood. 

Through Chang’s lens we explore our symbiotic relationship with fruit through culture, history, and ecology and glean a sense of our infinite biodiversity so clearly under threat by an all-consuming monoculture.

Screening on Saturday 7 September

Australian Premiere | 72 min | Caroline Bacle | Canada

Once upon a time countless rivers flowed. Why did they disappear? How? And can we bring them back? 

Lost Rivers takes us on an adventure across the globe and into the entrails of our cities, retracing rivers swallowed years ago by urbanisation. We hear from visionary thinkers, activists and artists united in their quest to reconnect with the natural world and reclaim our disappeared waterways. 

A gentle, inquisitive film that traverses the relationship between humans and their natural environments.

Screening on Sunday 8 September

26min | Produced by the Wadi Wadi Indigenous Nation and Directed by Michael O’Dwyer and Anna Helme | Australia

An innovative community film project that explores Indigenous Australian’s connections to the rivers and waterways in their country. 

In this film, Traditional Owners from the Wadi Wadi Nation, present a compelling case for ‘cultural flows’ - allocations of water that are owned and managed by Indigenous people.

Screening on Sunday 8 September

95min | Markus Imhoof | Germany, Switzerland

Oscar-nominated director Markus Imhoof, tackles the vexing issue of why vast colonies of bees worldwide are disappearing. 

With tenacity, he travels from California to Switzerland, China and Australia to investigate this troubling phenomenon. Exquisite macrophotography of bees reveals a fascinating, complex world in crisis. A startling and moving film that raises questions about the survival of a species in cosmic as well as apiary terms.

Screening on Sunday 8 September

Australian Premiere | 74 min | Denis Delestrac | France, Canada

The sand wars have begun. Every house, skyscraper and glass building, every bridge, airport and sidewalk in our modern society depends on sand. And, Australia is one of the biggest exporters of this lucrative commodity. 

Based on encounters with sand smugglers, barefoot millionaires, corrupt politicians, unscrupulous real estate developers and environmentalists, this investigation takes us around the globe to unveil a new and unprecedented gold rush. 

But is sand an infinite resource? What are the consequences of this unusual mining boom?

Screening on Monday 9 September

7 min | Michael Lutman | Australia

Three greedy siblings bicker over a family inheritance thinking they have won the favour of their environmentally conscious father.

Screening on Monday 9 September

90 min | Jeremy Seifert | United States, Norway, Haiti 

GMO OMG explores the systematic corporate takeover and potential loss of humanity’s most precious and ancient inheritance: seeds.

Director Jeremy Seifert investigates how the loss of seed diversity and the genetic alteration of food, affects his young children, the health of our planet, and freedom of choice everywhere. GMO OMG follows one family’s struggle to live and eat without participating in an unhealthy, unjust, and destructive food system.

Screening on Tuesday 10 September

88 min | Peter Young | New Zealand

The Ross Sea, Antarctica, is the most pristine stretch of ocean on Earth. But an international fishing fleet has recently found its way there, targeting the lucrative Patagonian toothfish. Scientists, nature photographers and filmmakers who share a deep passion for this remote corner of the world, rally together to save it.

Screening on Tuesday 10 September

73 min | Beth & George Gage | United States 

Bidder 70 centres on an extraordinary, ingenious and effective act of civil disobedience carried out in the name of climate justice. 

It’s the story of a young man fed up with corporate control of his government; of the power of individual choices and their consequences; and of a principled young man and his undying commitment to a liveable world. 

Bidder 70 questions whether peaceful civil disobedience is justified in a time of climate chaos and government inaction. 

Winner of countless awards, this highly-charged, extraordinary documentary challenges our ideas of justice and ignites a spirit of civil disobedience in us all.

Screening on Wednesday 11 September

92 min | Gayatri Roshan | United States

Exquisitely shot, Elemental tells the story of three individuals, on three separate continents, united by their deep connection to nature and their drive to protect it. 

In India, Rajendra Singh, a government official gone rogue, takes a pilgrimage to cleanse the polluted Ganges River; Eriel Deranger mounts her own struggle against the Canadian Tar Sands and Australian inventor Jay Harman searches for investors willing to risk millions on a device that he believes can slow down global warming.

Screening on Wednesday 11 September

Australian Premiere | 84 min | J.T. Haines, Tommy Haines & Andrew Sherburne United States, Canada, Guatemalan

Gold Fever witnesses the arrival of Goldcorp Inc to a remote Guatemalan village. Still reeling from decades of US-backed repression, local women Diadora, Crisanta and Gregoria are caught in the crossfire of another global frenzy for gold. 

These brave women firmly resist the threat to their ancestral lands in the face of grave consequences and see their community divided and their land destroyed by the Marlin Gold Mine.

Screening on Thursday 12 September

Australian Premiere | 52 min | Jordie Montevecchi and Gabriel Manrique | United Kingdom, Cape Verde, Belgium

After a long absence, José Fortes returns home to Cape Verde to find his community transformed. 

The fish that have provided income and food for generations are disappearing from the sea, and people are being forced to sell the sand from their beaches just to survive. The cause of this transformation can be seen all around the archipelago – European vessels returning home with fish from Cape Verdean waters. 

Sandgrains is a documentary about the local impacts of global fishing that takes us all the way from Africa to the corridors of the EU Parliament.

Screening on Thursday 12 September

16 min | Momoko Seto | Japan

In a visually stunning, short documentary we hear five candid testimonies from survivors of the Fukushima tsunami. Terrifying yet touching, their experiences are the deeply human stories behind a global disaster.

Screening on Thursday 12 September

105 min | Eugénie Dumont | France, Australia

There are still some pristine places left on earth, untouched by industrialisation and urbanisation. But for how long? 

In the remote far north Kimberley region of Australia’s last great wilderness is James Price Point. It is here that Western Australia’s Premier, Colin Barnett, and Woodside, a multi-billiondollar mining company, have decided to build the second largest liquefied natural gas plant in the world. 

Faced with the threat of mass industrialisation, the Traditional Owners, residents of Broome and environmentalists, are determined to fight to protect this last corner of untouched wilderness. A confronting and passionate film that documents one of Australia’s biggest environmental fights.

Screening on Friday 13 September