GFDD & FUNGLODE present III DR Environmental Film Festival

Santo Domingo, August 5, 2013

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The third edition of the DR Environmental Film Festival (DREFF) will be held on September 4-8 in eight cities: Santo Domingo, Santiago de los Caballeros, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, San Francisco de Macorís, Baní, San Juan de la Maguana and Sosúa and a total of 19 venues and an inviting lineup for schools, universities and communities.

This year’s 5 themes - oceans, biodiversity, green economy, sustainable agriculture and climate change, will be covered in a selection of 30 films:

5 Dominican films: (Valle Nuevo: Mother of the Waters; Cordillera Central Dominicana; Reserva de la Biosfera: Jaragua, Bahoruco, Enriquillo; Between Islands: A Lifeline of Survival; Death by a Thousand Cuts)

16 feature films: (Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey; Planet Ocean; Sacred Science; Mother: Caring for 7 Billion; Trashed; Voices of Transition; A Thirsty World; Money and Life; Otter 501; The Lorax; Harmony; Uranium Drive In; Minds in the Water; Sharkwater; Keep on Rolling: The Dream of the Automobile; The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea )

6 short films: The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom; What Would Darwin Think? Man vs. Nature in the Galapagos; The Windmill Farmer; A Sea Turtle Story; Hanging Around; Papiroflexia)

3 retrospective films: (In Organic We Trust; Terra and Bag it!)

All 55+ screenings are free of charge and open to the public; foreign films have Spanish subtitles. Talks, panels, workshops and activities will give audiences the opportunity to  interact with filmmakers, scientists, and experts.

INAUGURATION OF THE FESTIVAL
Mother: Caring for 7 Billion, a revealing film about the earth’s exploding population, will open the Festival on Sept. 4 in Santo Domingo at Palacio del Cine in Agora Mall at 5:00 pm. Get your tickets early – theater capacity is 318. World renowned, award-winning director Chris Fauchere and producer Joyce Johnson will be there to discuss this compelling film. September 5th inaugurations held in the other venues around the country.

WHAT TO EXPECT
A sneak preview of four films...

Mother: Caring for 7 Billion -- Why are some critics calling this film a “controversial topic”? Isn’t it just a documentary on the long-term effects of human population growth on humanity’s ability to sustain itself on the Earth’s rapidly depleting natural resources? Ah yes…but the scope delves into family planning, feminism, agriculture, religion, international development and empowering women. Not just your average population growth film. Get ready to debate some hard issues.

 

A Thirsty World -- Leonardo da Vinci said, “Water is the driving force of all nature,” believing that water is to the world what blood is to our bodies. A Thirsty World shows the most extraordinary and rarely seen water sources on the planet. Aerial views of 20 different countries, from Southern Sudan and Northern Congo to farms in Cambodia or Western USA, are as dramatic and gripping as the stories told by the people who desperately struggle to confront issues of water quality and quantity. From water scarcity to watery cataclysms – this film opens your eyes to both and everything in between.

Trashed -- Academy award winning Jeremy Irons is no stranger to center stage, but his role in Trashed could be his most important. Jeremy travels the world to beautiful places tainted by horrible trash: landscapes in China covered in tons of rubbish; a river in Indonesia barely visible under a tide of plastic; children swimming in filthy lakes; mothers doing laundry in sewage-filled rivers. Yearly, we produce billions of tons of plasti, household waste, toxic waste and more. This film will open your eyes – we cannot hide from our trash any longer.

Between Islands: A Lifeline of Survival -- “Some end up in wheelchairs, some end up like me,” says a Dominican fisherman who drags his legs between two sticks that serve as crutches in this documentary about the dangers facing fishermen who use tubes from compressors to breathe underwater. The divers can go down as deep as 30 meters though risking the lethal bends that can cause serious decompression diseases, permanent physical damage or even death. Exquisite shots of the Dominican Republic’s marine life beg the audience to preserve and conserve a natural heritage like none other.

ACTIVITIES, WORKSHOPS, PANELS 
Festivalgoers meet and speak with invited participants - producers, directors, researchers and explorers through series of 15 panels, 4 workshops and 3 network development events. The more than 50 national and international environmental panelists include:

Jon Bowermaster- Writer, filmmaker, adventurer with National Geographic. Has sea kayaked around the world to all 7 continents and dogsledded in Antarctica!

Chris Fauchere looks at over-population as a symptom of a domination system - move beyond domination of women and humanity can move beyond the domination of nature.

Jaume Gil i Llopart - director for 19 years of International Environmental Film Festival in Barcelona. Collaborators include Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, Cousteau Foundation.

Stuart Sender- Oscar nominated (Prisoner of Paradise) director of Harmony; produced first exclusive interview with Nelson Mandela after prison release. Media consultant for outside-the-box messaging; documentaries on Stevie Wonder, Helen Hunt and more.

Casey Nay- Producer Uranium Drive In. A proposed uranium mill in a poor Colorado town pits environmentalists against pro-mill advocates in this dramatic documentary.

Nils Aguilar- director of Voices in Transition, looks at Mayan-based agriculture to promote agro-ecology as response to climate change, fossil fuel depletion, etc.

SCHOOL PROGRAM 
The Festival is offering a school program in collaboration with Listín Diario’s Plan Lea, the Children and Youth Library of the Dominican Republic, the Perelló Cultural Center, Siempre Mas Foundation and Tourism Cluster of Puerto Plata. Seventeen screenings for children; 3 community activities (beach cleanup, cleaning marathon, reforestation day); 2 workshops on making art from recycled material with Bertha Santana.

SECOND EDITION OF THE GLOBO VERDE DOMINICANO AWARD
This Short Film and Public Service Announcement Competition provides an opportunity for filmmakers, students and professionals to take part in a relatively unexplored discipline in the DR: production of audiovisual material on environment issues. Winners of the Second Edition will be announced during special shorts program celebrated at FUNGLODE on Saturday, September 8th. Visit us at www.globoverdedominicano.org.

ABOUT DREFF
The DR Environmental Film Festival is an initiative of the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) and its sister organization in the United States, the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD), in collaboration with the: Ágora Mall; Alianza ONG; The American School of Santo Domingo; Banco de Reservas; Bepensa; Children and Youth Library of the Dominican Republic; Centro Cuesta Nacional; Centro Cultural Monina Campora; Centro Cultural Narciso González; Centro Cultural Perelló; Centro Cultural León Jiménez; Children International; ECORED; Propagas Foundation; FUNDAZURZA; Siempre Mas Foundation; Impulsar ORG; INSAPROMA; Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources; Odebrecht; OH! Magazine; Plan Lea; Puerto Plata Tourism Cluster; Listín Diario; PUNTACANA RESORT & CLUB; UNAPEC; UNPHU; Vida Azul Foundation and Ztadium Studios.
The DR Environmental Film Festival is an initiative of the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) and its sister organization in the United States, the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD).  Since 2011, the DREFF has sought to raise awareness and deepen comprehension of environmental issues while serving as a catalyst for projects and programs that promote responsible environmental practices as the result of interaction between young people, the general public, teachers, experts, activists, filmmakers and leaders in the public & private sector.

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Visit our webpage for more information and full program: www.dreff.org or contact us at info@dreff.org.

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