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Revisiting the Environmental Film Festival:

Presenting Film to Preserve the Earth

Rick Vrouwenvelder (10367438)

vrouwenvelder.rick@gmail.com

University of Amsterdam

26-06-2017

MA Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image

Supervisor: Peter Bosma

Second reader: Floris Paalman

Words: 18737

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Table of Contents

Introduction 3

1.0 Defining the Film Festival 8

1.1 Political Origins of the Festival 8

1.2 What is a Film Festival? 9

1.3 How Can a Festival Support Films? 16

1.4 Conclusion 19

2.0 The Green Carpet: Exploring Different Takes on the “Environmental” Film Festival 21 2.1 Wild & Scenic Film Festival: Where Activism Gets Inspired! 22 2.2 International Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital 24

2.3 Princeton Environmental Film Festival 26

2.4 San Francisco Green Film Festival 27

2.5 CinemAmbiente 29

2.6 Conclusion 31

3.0 Ecocriticism for the Environmental Film Festival: Utilizing Ecocinema 33

3.1 Establishing Ecocinema Theory 34

3.2 Identification of Problems 36

3.3 Possible Solutions and Goals 40

3.4 Using Film for Cultural Change 42

3.5 Conclusion 46

Conclusion 48

References 51

Appendices 55

Appendix 1: Environmental Film Festivals 55

Appendix 2: Environmental Film Festival Fact Sheet 57

Appendix 3: Environmental Festival Programming Schedules 2016 & 2017 58 Appendix 4: Interview with festival director of the Wild & Scenic Film Festival 64 Appendix 5: Interview with festival directors of the Princeton Environmental

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Introduction

Recent decades have seen a considerable increase in film festivals, and environmental film festivals in particular, which use the power of film to advocate a needed change in our times of ecological crises. This falls in line with a worldwide social and political trend to inspire positive ecological action, aiming to stop climate change. Actions are initiated both top-down and bottom-up, as many nations and citizens similarly work towards a better environment. However, there is an opposition that contrasts these positive developments. Within two years of establishing the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, President of the United States Donald Trump already retreated the U.S.A. from the deal. Additionally, for every person participating in a People’s Climate Marche, there are probably thousands living carelessly, ignorant of their ecological footprint. Therefore, many more people need to be made aware of the causes and effects of the ecological crisis. This thesis turns towards environmental film festivals to study how such large-scale events work to have a positive effect on this planet. Organisers of these festivals believe, and it is a starting point for this work, that film can be the ultimate tool to change the hearts and minds of people.1

The purpose of this thesis is to explore one question: How can environmental film festivals be an effective platform for ecological activism? As a method for answering this question, this thesis brings together two separate academic fields - ecocriticism and film festival studies - and I close read film festivals that have an outspoken environmentalist agenda. Drawing from their own mission statements, I identify these festivals as “activist,” in the sense that they intend to cause a positive change and to mobilize people. Because my aim is to study the intentions of festivals with an ecological agenda, this thesis is limited to festivals that dedicate their entire program to this agenda, excluding events that show single films with an ecological message as part of a broader programme. Part of this work is

1 See examples: Goals and programs of the Green Film Fest: “Bring our community relevant

and compelling environmental and cultural content - film, art, discussion, action steps - as a catalyst to inspire us all to change attitudes, behaviors and take action.” (“Our Story” <http://www.greenfilmfest.org/about#IMPACT>)

Wild & Scenic Film Festival director Melinda Booth: “If you can tell really compelling stories, through film, you have the power to change people’s ideas, to educate them, to bring information to a broad audience that you would not be able to reach otherwise” (appendix 4).

Princeton Environmental Film Festival director Susan Conlon: “We hear good things, people look forward to the festival all year, it has changed the way they see things, you know, it changed my life to some extreme” (appendix 5).

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dedicated to explore what constitutes a film festival, an environmentalist agenda, or a successful platform.

I believe that film festivals can hold a key position in the environmental movement, by providing the necessary context to individual films that seek to inspire people. This idea comes from film festival theories that suggest that a key feature of film festivals is to add value to films, for this, context is considered an essential factor.2 This assumption will answer my main question through its application to both film festival presentation practices and various appropriate theories. The necessity of seeing how environmental festivals can also be activist, comes partially from an apparent consensus among ecocritics,3 who argue that “seeing is not enough.” Firstly, because just seeing beautiful nature and wildlife in film will not urge people towards a more sustainable lifestyle, and, secondly, because even after explicit messages within film, people need to be given opportunities to stay inspired and actually act. This thesis will elaborate on these various conceptions of the impact of film and film festivals, mainly to consider how compatible ecocriticism is with the practice of

environmental film presentation.

Accordingly, the initial motivation for this research is one apparent contrast between environmental film presentation practices and the theories related to ecologically themed cinema. After conducting research, I concluded that, from the 40 festivals, which are either connected to the Green Film Network,4 or are listed as “established environmental film festivals” by Salma Monani,5 a great majority only uses documentary film to advocate change. Judging from their 2016 festival programmes, only six programmed at least one fiction feature film.6 Although this fact does not stand out on itself, various ecocriticism academics argue that there is a much broader range of films that could be given an ecocritical

2 Iordanova, Dina and Leshu Torchin, eds. Film Festival Yearbook 4: Film Festivals and Activism. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies, 2012: 7.

3 For example in: Cubitt, Sean, Salma Monani and Stephen Rust, eds. Ecocinema Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge, 2013.

- Ingram, David. “The Aesthetics and Ethics of Eco-Film Criticism.” 47. - MacDonald, Scott. “The Ecocinema Experience.” 21.

4 See <http://greenfilmnet.org/>

5 Ibid. Monani, Salma. “Environmental Film Festivals: Beginning Explorations at the

Intersections of Film Festival Studies and Ecocritical Studes.” 256.

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reading. 7 These narrative driven films, be it biographical works, fictional dramas or animated features, can thus be valuable for the endeavours of environmental festivals.

Throughout this work, a variety of seemingly similar words will be used, which require elaboration. Both in practice and theory “environment” and “ecology” are often used interchangeably. However, basically, “environment” refers to everything around us, including us, and “ecology” encompasses the possible relationships of everything. The field of ecology, derived from the Greek words oikos (home) and logos (study), is literally the study of homes,8 thus essentially, the study of all organisms in their natural home – the environment. This thesis will not deal with ecology as such, but rather, with ecocriticism, which is an interdisciplinary field that analyses cultural texts for how they treat the subject of

environment/ecology. For film specifically, the theory of “ecocinema” deals with different manners in which films can be given an ecocritical reading. Furthermore, in her introduction to Framing the World,9 Paula Willoquet-Maricondi, makes a distinction between

environmentalist films and ecocinema, the former being popular films utilizing a topical subject for plot development, and thus entertainment. Subsequently, she considers ecocinema to have an overt eco-activist intent. Although later works in the field have expanded on the term ecocinema, which arguably involves a much broader range of films, the notion of environmentalist films might still hold value, for clarifying purposes.

Essentially, there is one driving question that structures this thesis: How can environmental film festivals be an effective platform for ecological activism? Through breaking down this main question into sub-questions, a better understanding can be achieved. As such, one could be led to ask also: What constitutes a film festival in general, or more precisely, what are the different influences that give a festival its meaning? What are the aims of environmental film festivals specifically, and how do they put their ideals to practice? Which activist goals can be identified and how are they realized? After this exploration of the practice of film festivals, this thesis turns to ecocinema theory for further research. Which (types of) films might be eligible for environmental activism and which different audiences could they serve? In which ways could programming a greater variety of films influence the

7 Primary works are from Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann, Ecology and Popular Film: Cinema on the Edge (2009), and That’s All Folks: Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features (2011).

8 Murray, Robin L. and Joseph K. Heumann. That’s All Folks? Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2011: 2. 9 Willoquet-Maricondi, Paula, ed. Framing the World: Explorations in Ecocriticism and Film.

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impact of a film festival? And finally, after exploring this theory, this thesis will make full circle and return to the practical field. Drawing from festival directors’ considerations, attained through interviews for the purpose of this thesis, the several issues will be addressed and interconnected. This will allow to draw several conclusions pertaining to the importance of ecology in film and the impact of its presentation in film festivals

Chapter Outline

Chapter one is concerned with the theories regarding film festivals, thereby exploring what it is that constitutes a festival. Main academic books in this field are Marijke de Valck’s Film

Festivals: From European Geopolitcs to Global Cinephilia,10 and the anthology Film Festival

Yearbook 4: Film Festivals and Activism.11 De Valck’s main argument is that film festivals

have become obligatory sites of passage within the film industry, which, by extension, allows me to argue that environmental film festivals can similarly play a key role for the

environmental movement. In the Film Festival Yearbook, several ways in which festivals can deploy film for an activist purpose are considered. These and other works provide

comparative material, mainly through their analysis of other festivals. As such, this chapter deals with the first question of this thesis: What constitutes a film festival in general, or more precisely, what are the different influences that give a festival its meaning? By outlining the different factors that make up a festival and its network, a framework is created that serves as an analytical tool for the subsequent case studies of this thesis.

In the second chapter I close read the written rhetoric of multiple festival websites, programmes and festival reports. The focus of this chapter thereby lies on two sub questions: What are the aims of environmental film festivals specifically, how do they put their ideals to practice? And which activist goals can be identified and how are they realized? A synchronic approach will be applied to study a set of environmental festivals that were organised in 2016 and 2017. While a diachronic approach would have been beneficial for a study of one festival advancing over the years, in relation to developments in the environmental movement, this synchronic approach is chosen to analyse these festivals as a network.12 This puts the

emphasis of this thesis on film studies, revealing how several films have travelled the festival

10 Valck, Marijke de. Film Festivals: From European Geopolitcs to Global Cinephilia.

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007.

11 Iordanova, Dina and Leshu Torchin, eds. Film Festival Yearbook 4: Film Festivals and Activism. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies, 2012.

12 As is suggested by de Valck, 15: ‘In this study, film festivals will be presented as the nodal

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circuit and gained value through presentation over the course of one or two years. The first case study is the Wild & Scenic Film Festival (January), followed by the Environmental Film

Festival in the Nation’s Capital (mid March), the Princeton Environmental Film Festival

(March/April), the Green Film Fest (late April) and finally CinemAmbiente (May/June). The first four are based in the United States, the latter is held in Turin, Italy. The reasons behind these choices will be elaborated on in the respective chapter. Analysing these different

festivals reveals their ideological motives and ecological practices. This chapter will conclude by presenting some reflections from festival directors and programmers themselves, retrieved from interviews conducted after the initial festival analyses.

Chapter three will be used to outline the main arguments from ecocriticism and ecocinema theory. Accordingly, it deals with the final two sub questions. First, which (types of) films might be eligible for environmental activism and which different audiences could they serve? Analytical tools offered by ecocritics will be used to give a variety of films an ecological reading. In these analyses, problems in our current ecological crisis come to the fore, as well as possible solutions. Despite these problems being identified on a wide ideological scale, the opportunities to change it are directly related to cinema. In these opportunities lies the answer to the second question: In which ways could programming a greater variety of films influence the impact of a film festival? In some instances, ecocritics show that subliminal cues in films can be more effective for raising awareness than direct messages. Fiction might be more suitable for eliciting empathy for the environment in different audiences than documentaries or wildlife films. However, when it comes to the activist’s purpose of inspiring people to take action, fiction films might turn out to be more problematic. Building on all these assumptions, this chapter will elaborate on the advantages and disadvantages of a wide range of films, and work towards a hypothesis that cinema can indeed affect change.

Lastly, the conclusion is used to connect the different chapters in more explicit ways. The many theoretical propositions are put in a different perspective. This all leads to an elaborate answer to the questions of whether environmental film festivals can play a key role in ecological activism, and if so, how precisely this can be done.

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1.0 Defining the Film Festival

“The first law of ecology is that everything is connected to everything else.”

- Barry Commoner13

In the last decennia, the growth of film festivals has increasingly urged academia to consider individual festivals as part of larger network or circuit. For environmental festivals

particularly, with the estimated number worldwide going over 40,14 it is more likely that each separate festival is influenced by preceding festivals around the globe, and that it will

influence those succeeding it. This effect, coined as interrelational dependency,15 makes that

in order to understand any singular event and its possible role for the environment, the network as a whole needs to be examined. This chapter will deal with a variety of influences in a step-by-step approach, consequently revealing what constitutes a film festival and thus answering the first sub-question of this thesis: what are the different influences that give a festival its meaning?

To understand how and why environmental film festival have been established, a short selective introduction to the century long film festival history is useful. A full outline of this history is beyond the scope of this thesis, yet a few examples will reveal how the origin of festivals has often been a political event, and how different agendas can lead to establishing different types of festivals. The exploration of these influences starts with the physical

dimensions of a festival. After considering where and when a festival is, it becomes important to question who organized it and with what money. These factors determine how a festival can have influence as a public sphere (a concept that will be elucidated in its respective paragraph). All these factors will serve as a background for the following chapter, for which a full understanding of the festival phenomenon is required.

1.1 Political Origins of the Festival

While many film festivals nowadays may be conceived as exciting events with award shows and glamour on the red carpet, or as great celebrations of cinephilia, the origin of this festive event has a great political dimension. The first festival to be organized on a regular basis was

13 Commoner, Barry. The Closing Circle: Confronting the Environmental Crisis. London:

Cape, 1972.

14 Appendix 1. 15 de Valck 68.

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La Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematographico in Venice, on 6 August 1932.16 Even though the festival was supported by the fascist government, the political influence had not been evident during the first festival edition. The political dimension became apparent when Nazi Germany’s Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, was received at the 1936 festival as an honoured guest. Two years later, the festival became more political through its main prize, since it was awarded, ex aquo, to both Olympia17 and Luciano Serra, Pilot,18 with the latter being produced by Mussolini’s son.19 It was discontent with this political course that ultimately led to the establishment of the Cannes Film Festival in 1939, organized with combined efforts from French, British and American people, as a response to fascist dominance.20

Furthermore, after World War II, more festivals sprung to life (in Berlin, Edinburgh, Moscow, and London among others), which were all, according to Julian Stringer: “closely aligned with the activities and aims of particular national governments.”21 Similarly, it was political turmoil of the late 1960s that caused specialized and thematic programming to appear on the film festival circuit.22 Not only did existing festivals organize new programmes to engage with topical debates, but also entirely new festivals were founded to support racial and sexual minorities. The number of festivals proliferated in the 1980s and 1990s, when the film festival truly became a worldwide phenomenon. Among these new festivals was the first one explicitly dedicated to an environmental theme, established in Washington in 1992: The

Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFF). As the causes for this festival

proliferation are numerous, they will come forth in the following part of this chapter, where the definition of “film festival” will be contemplated through a study of its many facets.

1.2 What is a Film Festival?

For a proper analysis of the case studies in the following chapter, a clear definition of the concept “film festival” is necessary. As an acting concept, I combine de Valck’s theories with

16 de Valck, Marijke. Film Festivals: From European Geopolitcs to Global Cinephilia.

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007. 47.

17 Olympia. Dir. Leni Riefenstahl. Olympia-Film, 1938.

18 Luciano Serra, Pilot. Dir. Goffredo Alessandrini. Aquila Cinematografica, 1938. 19 Ibid. 48.

20 Ibid. 15.

21 Stringer, Julian. “Global Cities and the International Film Festival Economy.” Cinema and the City: Film and Urban Societies in a Global Context. Eds. Shiel, Mark, and Tony

Fitzmaurice. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001. 135.

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related arguments from mainly Julian Stringer and Thomas Elsaesser. The idea of the film festival can be broken down into many parts, as different facets that define the phenomenon.

1.2.1 The Temporal Axis

First of all, it is the temporality of the film festival event that distinguishes it from other presentation/exhibition formats. It is highly timed on various levels. On a macro level, the event can take from two days to two weeks, thereby marking its place on the annual festival calendar. Within this twelve-month cycle, the festivals have to consider the timing of similar festivals in order to prevent overlap. With further globalisation, cities thus have a place in the global space economy,23 which may even cause them to shift their film festival to another time of the year.

At the same time, its ephemeral nature is one of the great strengths of a festival, since it creates a sense of spectacle and newsworthiness.24 It can drive the industry forward to have their production ready just in time for a festival. Visitors only have a few opportunities to see certain films before they disappear again, especially since some films first travel the festival circuit before having their actual release. Consequently, the newsworthiness of some

international film festivals can overshadow their smaller community-based counterparts. Susan Conlon, as director of the Princeton Environmental Film Festival, has noticed that filmmakers were pressured to finish their film for Sundance. From her perspective, a negative result is that some filmmakers were hard to reach or could not commit to their festival three months later.25

Furthermore, on micro level, a festival usually has a tight programme, with film schedules, “question & answer sessions” (Q&A’s) and other side programming. The timing of a film can have influence on how it is received, or even whether people will attend the

screening or not. A film might have an early slot or be at the same time as a more popular title. Similarly, being programmed as the opening film or for a gala event will generate more attention. While often small-scale environmental film festivals have no gala events, they can still highlight their first and final screenings. The DCEFF, for example, shares how their 2016 opening night was a packed house with an emotional panel discussion, while their closing

23 Stringer 140. 24 de Valck 144. 25 Appendix 5.

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night was recounted as “advocacy in motion” when the audience sprung to action after seeing

How to Let Go of the World (and Love all the Things Climate Can’t Change).2627

1.2.2 The Spatial Axis

Secondly, festivals distinguish themselves spatially through various instances of location, which range from a city and its festival grounds to specific exhibition spaces. Through the notion of global space economy, cities organize a festival as a form of marketing and brand awareness to generate tourism.28 On city level, there is usually a festival heart with

concentrated activity. Luxurious theatres and red carpet events create a greater sense of spectacle and in turn influence how an audience might value a film. Through their spectacular location, cities can establish a certain “festival image,” for example when the event is at a beach resort, a tropical island or high in the mountains, with or without appropriately themed films. According to Stringer, this festival image can even develop real-estate initiatives and rejuvenate the value of urban space.29

Moreover, a festival location can have great political significance. Historically, the

Berlin International Film Festival was established in 1951 as a geopolitical tool in the Cold

War.30 The Berlinale could in several ways serve as a showcase of western culture in West Berlin. In more recent history, the Sarajevo International Film Festival was held in 1993 during a war, making a political statement by symbolizing ‘the furious and foolhardy daring of those determined to watch films.’31 Reportedly, people died on the way to the festival, to the embarrassment of the United Nations. There are, however, also less extreme cases and by example, connected to climate politics. In 1992, the Earth Vision-Tokyo Global

Environmental Film Festival was established to coincide with the Tokyo Earth Summit.32

Usually these global political events are subject of considerable media exposure, from which the film festival can profit at that location, and vice versa. Additionally, there is a higher

26 How to Let Go of the World (and Love all the Things Climate Can’t Change). Dir. Josh

Fox. International WOW Company, 2016.

27 “DCEFF 2016 Festival Report.” DCEFF. 2016. Environmental Film Festival in the

Nation’s Capital. 25 June 2017. <http://dceff.org/explore/>.

28 de Valck 92. 29 Stringer 142. 30 de Valck 52.

31 Turan, Kenneth. Sundance to Sarajevo: Film Festivals and the World They Made.

Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2002. 105.

32 Armatage, Kay. “Planet in Focus: Environmental Film Festivals.” Screening Nature: Cinema Beyond the Human. Eds. Anat Pick, and Guinevere Narraway. New York: Berghahn,

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chance of having influential people in the audience, who might be of interest to filmmakers with a political agenda. In practice, this equally works for small-scale festivals. For example, the mayor of Princeton attended the local festival and saw One Big Home,33 which caused her

to discuss issues raised in this film with with the local government.34 This way, a film festival becomes more than a cinephile event or a city marketing opportunity, and it can (indirectly) have far reaching effects. Consequently, it signifies one way for a festival to affect change and become more activist in nature.

1.2.3 The People Involved

Thirdly, every film festival is an event organized by people with interests and agendas. Despite the influence of different roles having changed throughout time,35 the typically most

important actors involved are the following; a festival director, one or multiple programmers, and a jury, which can be led by a head of jury. These people decide which films are shown, if they are selected for a competition, when and where they are shown, and whether they win any awards or not. In short, they have the authority to set an agenda, such as the Fascist agenda of the earlier discussed case of Venice, or an environmental agenda, as is of interest to this thesis. On the other hand, the press, filmmakers and film scholars and the general

audience can react to this agenda and have equal influence on individual films or what the festival means as a whole. An example can be found in the 1968 edition of the Festival de

Cannes, during which an upheaval was caused by Nouvelle Vague film critics, which led to

the termination of the festival and globally changed the role of the festival circuit.36 This marks an interrelation dependency beyond the festival network, showing how the whole film industry is intertwined with the festivals.

Consequently, festival programming decisions may influence what is generally perceived to constitute a certain genre, field or national cinema.37 This notion is particularly interesting when discussing ecocinema or environmentalist films, and what festival

programmers perceive that to be, expressed through their power of in- or exclusion. Such

33 One Big Home. Dir. Thomas Bena. Elephant in the Room Productions, 2016. 34 Appendix 5.

35 See de Valck, 163-202, “Rotterdam and the Rise of Thematic Festivals”, for her distinction

between the age of the programmers and the age of the festival directors.

36 Names include, among others, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Alain Resnais. See

de Valck 62.

37 Czach, Liz. "Film Festivals, Programming, and the Building of a National Cinema." The Moving Image 4.1 (2004): 85.

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perspectives will change with time and may be different for particular festivals, yet the possible impact on the industry seems clear. In his exploration of European Cinema vis-à-vis Hollywood, Elsaesser goes as far as to argue that film festivals have been responsible for virtually all the art new waves in cinema.38

One last organisational factor to consider is that of funding and sponsorship. Since most film festivals have a non-profit business model, they often rely on a variety of funding opportunities, which can be on an international scale (such as EU funds), from a national or local government, or on a corporate funding/sponsorship level. In his article on festival programming, Mark Haslam notes that some festivals may receive the status of charitable organisation.39 This means that when a private company donates money to the festival, the receipts can be used to reduce the company’s taxable income. Thus, by forgoing potential tax revenues, the government could in some cases still be funding what appears to be private-sector funding. According to Haslam, it is important to realize that most film festivals are in fact mostly funded by (taxpaying) citizens.40 One reason seems to be that with money comes (or should come) a certain power/influence. A main sponsor can change the face of a festival. Vice versa, organisations can associate themselves with social concern festivals41 as part of their own image. In some cases, associated organisations can even suggest certain public speakers to introduce a film.42 The following paragraph will discuss some of the implications

these notions might have.

1.2.4 The Public Factor

Fourthly, film festivals, and environmental festivals especially, can often be regarded as public spheres, since they function as “meeting spaces for expanding the spheres of

democratic and public engagement.”43 In her work, Salma Monani follows other film festival

38 Elsaesser, Thomas. European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood. Amsterdam: Amster-

dam University Press, 2005. 26.

39 Haslam, Mark (2004). “Vision, Authority, Context: Cornerstones of Curation and

Programming.” The Moving Image 4:1 (2004): 50.

40 Ibid.

41 A common denominator for festivals concerned with human rights, environmental issues,

sexual minorities, disability etc.

42 Appendix 5.

43 Monani, Salma. “Environmental Film Festivals: Beginning Explorations at the Intersections

of Film Festival Studies and Ecocritical Studies.” Ecocinema Theory and Practice. Eds. Cubitt, Sean, Salma Monani and Stephen Rust. New York: Routledge, 2013: 253-78.

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scholars by applying Jurgen Habermas’ notion of public sphere to study festivals.44 The festival space is a place where citizens, distinct from any official or governmental body, come together to get informed on, and in turn form an opinion on public matters, in this instance through the festival screenings. This compares itself to the instances in history, described by Habermas, when a loose forum was created “in which the private people, come together to form a public, readied themselves to compel public authority to legitimate itself before public opinion.”45 Film festivals are especially suited for this purpose since they are programmed events, which means that they can be quick to address topical issues. Elsaesser also notes that they have the advantage of being “more fun that party-political rallies, and at times they can attract public attention to issues that even NGOs find it hard to concentrate minds on.”46

Furthermore, the notion of festivals as public sphere can be deployed to distinguish various types of (environmental) film festivals. Monani discusses how besides the dominant public sphere, there is an alternative public sphere to offer minority groups a parallel ground on which they can regroup and direct themselves towards wider publics.47 She argues that the dominant public and alternative public spheres both seem to be represented by all

environmental film festivals, but that by more closely examining individual cases, their commitment to either public or alternative notions is quite variable. Monani adds a third sphere, the corporate sphere, recognizing some “trade show” festivals as clearly corporate driven events. She distinguishes their different ways of public engagement as follows:

While public sphere and alternative public sphere festivals pointedly engage political rhetoric, the former legitimizes itself as part of the “official” public sphere, whereas the latter’s rhetoric seeks to agitate or disrupt the official public sphere. Trade show festivals, by contrast, align their agendas most closely with the private sphere and existing political and economic systems. Each approach leads to a different strategy for shaping environmental discourse and action.48

44 See also, more recently explored in: C. Hing-Yuk Wong “Publics and Counter Publics:

Rethinking Film Festivals as Public Spheres.” Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method,

Practice. Eds. De Valck, M. and B. Kredell & S. Loist. Oxon/New York: Routledge, 2016:

83-99.

45 Habermas, Jurgen. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Trans. Thomas Burger and Frederick Lawrence. Cambridge,

MA: MIT Press, 1989. 25.

46 Elsaesser 101. 47 Monani 257. 48 Monani 263.

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Recognizing the different strategies that a festival can have thus becomes an important tool for studying how they put their agendas to work. (Three) different modes of engagement with the audience similarly may show variable festival aims, such as only raising awareness or calling citizens to action. A result is that within the public sphere, festivals can either compete or cooperate with each other.49 To fully comprehend this relation, the last element of the film festivals needs to be introduced.

1.2.5 The Network

Finally, a film festival is part of a network of other events. This can either be a more

conceptual socially produced space,50 or an actual formal network established between cities

and festivals. Previously discussed concepts of interrelational dependency and the ‘global space economy’ come into play in the network, and reveal an inequality of power relations. Some festivals are more significant simply because they have been around longest or on the most prominent locations. But they can also be granted a certain power by an organisation such as the FIAPF (Fédération Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films), when they give festivals an ‘A’ status or, historically, when they prohibited festivals from taking place too close to one another. The network makes that any festival is subject to many global influences, both on the level of textual content and for their structure. According to Elsaesser “the totality of film festivals provides the structures and interchanges permitting both chance and routine to operate. They seem unpredictable, yet they follow programmed protocols.”51 With this realization, additional questions come to the surface. How do festivals see themselves within a network? Does their agenda, and related written rhetorics, come from a very self-aware positioning within the festival network?

For environmental film festivals, the most prominent formal global networks are the Green Film Network (GFN) and Ecomove International. The GFN describes itself as having a threefold purpose; coordinating and promoting a “pro-environment culture,”52 distributing films, and encouraging projects and activities. With over 35 member festivals, the GFN supports many events worldwide. Ecomove, on the other hand, is a network with a more

49 Stringer 138. 50 Ibid.

51 Elsaesser 88.

52 Green Film Net. 2017. Green Film Network. 04 April 2017 <http://greenfilmnet.org/about/>

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direct approach, launched by five European film festivals and Earth Vision Tokyo. Ecomove is different in a sense that it stages a festival every second year and that it adds ‘education’ and ‘service’ among its clear aims.53 Although the focus of this thesis is with individual festivals, and not with these formal networks as such, they can exert an influence over certain events. Consequently, when a festival decides not to be involved with a network, it can lead to completely different conclusions (discussed in the following chapter).

1.3 How Can a Festival Support Films?

Once established that film festivals are variable events, as outlined in previous paragraph, it must be considered in which ways the festivals ‘help’ individual films. Essentially, this comes down to finding the raison d’être of film festivals. To reach their goals, festivals often claim to use to “power of cinema”. Iordanova argues that activists “embody the belief that film is powerful enough to have an impact”54 This claim seems seconded by the opinions of the festival directors featured in the appendices. A more articulated definition of this power is given by Pietari Kääpä, who claims that:

[Cinema] is one of the most efficient ways to debate political and cultural issues in a global society. This is especially the case with cinema’s potential to visually capture the transnational and even global scale of ecological problems, and engage with them in a way that reaches wide global audiences.55

Additionally, it is at the fundament of any visual medium that it has advantages over written media. In his discussion on Fespaco, the Festival Pan-Africaine du Cinéma de

Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso, Kenneth Turan notes how film has been of enormous

importance for the African continent.56 Even in areas with problematic numbers of illiteracy, film remains a powerful medium. The question then is: how do film festivals use that power,

53 Ecomove. 2014. ECOMOVE International. 04 April 2017. <www.ecomove.de>.

54 Iordanova, Dina. “Film Festivals and Dissent: Can Film Change the World?” Film Festival Yearbook 4: Film Festivals and Activism.Eds. Iordanova, Dina and Leshu Torchin. St

Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies, 2012.

55 Kääpä, Pietari. “It Can Help Audiences, ‘Old’ and ‘New’, to Rethink their Place in the

World.” Why Does Film Matter? Masoud Yazdani, ed. Bristol and Wilmington: Intellect, 2011: 73.

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and what is the impact of this power? While the latter is thoroughly discussed in chapter two, the former is outlined in this paragraph.

First of all, film festivals provide filmmakers with an alternative to the regular theatre distribution network. Arguably, it is one of the main reasons why people go to festivals: to see films they otherwise could not. The main problem here is a commercial one, since it is a given that a blockbuster attracts more people than an environmental documentary. Festivals can help films sidestep this commercial system and give them a podium outside of the regular chain of distribution and exhibition.57 The result is that some films travel the film festival circuit, receiving ongoing worldwide exposure for a longer period of time.58 Notably, an additional effect is that some films can be made in the first place, knowing that there will be an audience at festivals at least, and a way to retrieve necessary funds.

Secondly, the sense of spectacle and festivity attracts a different (larger) audience for festival films. This is exemplary of what has been termed the “experience economy,”59

whereby people do not necessarily go somewhere for the content but for the experience, or in this case not the films but the festival. However, the fact remains and these people see films they otherwise might not. This may be one possible solution to the “green fatigue,”60 which has been coined to describe the diminishing priority that broadcasters give to the environment. Additionally, the spectacle of environmental festivals can be utilized to attract an audience beyond their core group of self-proclaimed environmentalists. This also means that studying the film festival goes beyond the mere films, and includes side programming, attractive use of location and festive events.

Another side of this festivity and a third way festivals support films is by providing the necessary context. Naturally, many of the aforementioned influences on festivals constitute its context, but there are direct ways to provide visitors with extra information. Having the filmmakers present at a screening can be a way to ensure that the right issues are understood and possibly addressed.61 For example, Haslam describes how every screening at the Planet in Focus festival is introduced and contextualized, not only by festival facilitators and

57 de Valck 58.

58 Armatage gives Waterlife. (Dir. Kevin McMahon. Primitive Entertainment, NFB, 2009) as

an example, which received many awards from environmental film festivals around the globe. Armatage, 262.

59 de Valck 194. 60 Armatage 264. 61 MacDonald 28.

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filmmakers but also by representatives of ecologically involved organisations.62 And while it can be argued that regular theatre screenings can also have introductions and similar

activities, a festival is in an advantaged position to have numerous interesting people present during the entire event.

However, one of the most important functions of the festival, according to de Valck, is ultimately its ability to add value to films.6364 The various selection processes that are part of the festival make it function as a cultural gatekeeper. Programmers decide what is worthy of being screened, and, in turn, juries decide which films win. Being nominated alone adds value to a film in the sense that it creates extra media exposure and that it can be seen as a quality stamp for the audience. Namely, it justifies putting the festival’s name on promotion material, as Elsaesser assesses in his comparison to Hollywood: “No poster of an independent film can do without the logo of one of the world’s prime festivals, as prominently displayed as

Hollywood production carry their studio logo.”65 Winning an award can strengthen the message of a film, as was the case with Fahrenheit 9/1166 when it won the Palm d’Or. De

Valck argues that it should be interpreted as a political sign from the festival, despite what official statements claim, especially since Fahrenheit 9/11 “is clearly not a masterpiece according to aesthetic criteria.”67 This notion complicates the examination of film awards, for it is not always clear why a certain film is nominated or what qualities made it win.

Consequently, the value a film has gained from one festival might influence the way it is received at succeeding festivals. In her article on film festival programming, Liz Czach draws from Pierre Bourdieu’s famous notion of cultural capital,68 to employ the term ‘critical capital.’69 This brings in the value of film critics, who, on one hand are dependent on the films the programmers feed them, while on the other hand being able to influence a film’s (or

62 Haslam 51. 63 de Valck 160.

64 Further explored in De Valck, M. “Fostering Art, Adding Value, Cultivating Taste: Film

Festivals as Sites of Cultural Legitimization.” Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method,

Practice. Eds. De Valck, M. and B. Kredell & S. Loist. Oxon/New York: Routledge, 2016: 65 Elsaesser 87.

66 Fahrenheit 9/11. Dir. Michael Moore. Fellowship Adventure Group, 2004. 67 de Valck 86.

68 Cultural capital is described as sum of knowledge and intellectual skills, inherited or gained

through education, that provides an individual with advantages to perform and position itself within society. See: Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of

Taste. Trans. Richard Nice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987. 13-14. 69 Czach 82.

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festival’s) success. Of course, there are plenty of badly reviewed films that still became hits,70 and similarly, good reviews do not equal success. Yet, both Iordanova and de Valck claim from experience that the media play a vital role for film festivals. The media are accountable for the reviews and reports that relate the local event to the global network, important for the value adding process.71 And particularly for activist festivals, media can generate a useful buzz that directs the public’s attention to an important issue or cause.72

1.4 Conclusion

After having laid out the multi-faceted nature of film festivals and the various functions they can have for films, there appears to be value in adopting de Valck’s notion of film festivals as obligatory sites of passage.73 If we seek to define the film festival one way, it is this “site of

passage” that appropriately expresses the festival’s worth. This is because it emphasizes, for example, the value environmental film festivals have for ecocinema. It considers how festivals have become important for every branch of the film industry, from production and distribution to exhibition. This has become even more clearly visible with the manifestation of industry oriented film markets that happen at some larger festivals. Even for niche festivals such as the environmentally themed, there is a ‘Green Market’ both at the Planet in Focus festival and at DCEFF. Especially for smaller film productions, the festival circuit can be crucially supportive, or even define their entire running time. This seems to be part of a shift in the political nature of film festivals. The larger-scale mainstream festivals appear hesitant to express political values, which caused niche social-concern festivals to fill this gap.

However, even when considering the festival circuit as indispensable to cinema, many questions remain for this thesis, regarding the impact of individual environmental films. Although festivals are sometimes vital for their existence as films, can they be considered equally important for eco-activism in general? Do environmental film festivals actually create the right environment in which action can be taken? Or, as Armatage puts it, “can the

environmental film festival have an effect beyond convincing the ordinary consumer to ‘green up’ (in futile ways […])?”74 Which is coming from the sentiment that ecocinema, although he

70 Winfrey, Graham. “The 10 Worst-Reviewd Films That Were Box Office Hits.” IndieWire.

09 June 2017. 10 June 2017. < http://www.indiewire.com/gallery/10-worst-reviewed-films-box-office-hits/>.

71 de Valck 160. 72 Iordanova 7. 73 Ibid. 36. 74 Armatage 269.

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does not name it as such, should do more than, for instance, make people buy organic food and recycle better. General claims have been made that the raison d’être of film festivals is to give a voice to underrepresented cinema, with their main function being to add value. The next step is to identify, through the framework presented in this chapter, whether this added value is enough for the particular cases of environmental film festivals and their ecological goals.

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2.0 The Green Carpet: Exploring Different Takes on the “Environmental” Film Festival

Storytelling is incredibly powerful. We as humans tell stories, that is how we connect with one another. I believe in the power of film, to change, to change the world. If you can tell really compelling stories, through film, you have the power to change people’s ideas.

- Melinda Booth, Wild & Scenic festival director75

This chapter deals with the differences and similarities of several environmental film

festivals, in order to investigate their festival goals and their possible effectiveness as activist platform. As such, this chapter concerns itself with two questions: What are the aims of environmental film festivals specifically, and how do they put their ideals to practice? And, which activist goals can be identified and how are they realized? The decision on which case studies to include in this chapter is fourfold. Firstly, all the cases have a distinct way of approaching environmental issues, creating diversity within the overarching study of “environmental” film festivals. The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is an outspoken activist festival, DCEFF is the world’s largest environmental film festival, aiming for a wide audience, the Princeton Environmental Film Festival is a public library based educational festival, the San Francisco Green Film Festival sees itself as a movement focused on action and impact, and CinemAmbiente provides a European perspective, funded by both the Italian government and the EU. Secondly, since timing has emerged as an important aspect, the festivals closely succeed each other, possibly revealing correlations or discrepancies in programming. Thirdly, apart from one, they are all geographically within the United States, which reveals how different levels of network are at play, while highlighting similarities or differences between them. Fourthly, the choice of festivals was limited to those providing enough online sources to generate useful data on their goals and programming choices. A scheme of the festivals’ collective programmes of 2016-2017 can be found in appendix 3, including some other festivals that have appeared relevant to this research.

Each case is discussed generally following the order of different factors as discussed in the previous chapter. While all the cases are introduced with some basic information, practical details about each case have been included in appendix 2. In most cases, information is purely drawn from what is available on the respective festival websites. This is done in order to focus this study on what information festivals make accessible, and thus want the

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audience to know. In this sense, the festival websites are regarded as primary sources. Furthermore, Monani’s notions of the (official/dominant) public sphere and the alternative public sphere are a main reference point.76 With her article being one of very few texts that attempts to map out and discuss a multitude of environmental film festivals, incorporating some of her findings into this thesis has offered an additional perspective on the different strategies (i.e. official/alternative/corporate) for environmental activism. The conclusion is used to further expand on findings regarding the network, and to include reflections from several festival directors.

2.1 Wild & Scenic Film Festival: where activism gets inspired!

The environmental film festival year begins in Nevada City, California, with the WSFF in January. While being founded in 2003, it now claims to be the most unique festival and the largest of its kind.77 Considering the total scale of the WSFF, it is indeed one of the larger festivals with a purely activist focus. The organisation comes from an activist group, SYRCL (the South Yuba River Citizens League), which aims to leave visitors feeling “inspired and motivated to go out and make a difference in your community and the world.”78 This activist message echoes throughout the whole website, as well as in festival documents and other media writing about the WSFF.79 SYRCL was created in 1983 to campaign against plans to

build a dam in the South Yuba River. Their campaign succeeded and 39 miles of the South Yuba River would be permanently protected by achieving the status of “Wild & Scenic,” which the film festival’s name is intended to honour.

Spatially, the festival is more wild and scenic than the average film festival, a result from being established close to the Yuba river rather than moving to a more metropolitan area. In an interview with the Sacramento Bee,80 festival director Melinda Booth explains that

to include more people and activities, the organisation expanded the festival to another town,

76 Monani 257.

77 Wild and Scenic Film Festival. 2017. Wild and Scenic Film Festival. 03 May 2017.

<https://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/about/>.

78 Ibid..

79 To give an impression:The Nevada City Chamber writes about the event that will “change

your world”. An organisation in Jupiter, Florida promotes it as “one of our nation’s premiere environmental festivals” that serves as “a call to action”. 28-04-2017.

<https://www.nevadacitychamber.com/nevada-city-events/wild-scenic-film-festival/> <http://www.jupiterlighthouse.org/calendar/wild-scenic-film-festival/>

80 Korleski Richardson, Lori. “Grass Valley, Nevada City host Wild & Scenic Film Festival.” Sac Bee. 14 January 2016. The Sacramento Bee. 04 May 2017.

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Grass Valley.81 It seems that the location has developed itself as one of its key features. The advantage of having a festival in a nature area is that it allows for a different kind of buzz, as is evidenced by the many activities organised besides screenings. These activities include environmental and nature art exhibitions, hikes and wine tours and tastings. Add to this the organised free yoga sessions, and one might speak of an anti-buzz that is generated alongside the inspirational and motivational activities, or as one workshop at the festival calls it,

“Radical Relaxation.” Consequently, being located in nature becomes part of a philosophy that considers that “getting people outdoors is a first step in getting them to conserve.”82

However, throughout the year, WSFF goes on tour to expand its reach beyond that of the five festival days in Nevada City. Screenings are organised in other cities and states to reach communities other than their own. This way, WSFF claims to annually reach 39.000 people.83 The website features testimonials of, for example, the River Alliance of Wisconsin

and the Middle Colorado Watershed Council. This seems to attest to Iodranova’s notion that, while community building is recognized as important for activist film festivals, such outreach is especially effective for ‘developing new audiences, building and strengthening local

communities and capitalising on the network potential of the festival’84

When considering the people involved in the organisation, the majority comes from a background of environmental related work rather than cinema. For example, director Melinda Booth, who ultimately decides which films are shown each year, has a background in

environmental studies and working experience in national parks.85 The 2017 jury counted seven members, of which only three are active in the film industry. The others are described as politician, social change leader or simply as activist. This exemplifies the balance many environmental film festivals seek to find between rewarding excellent filmmaking as opposed to inspiring stories. This is similarly reflected in the ten awards of the WSFF, among which are the Best of the Festival, Spirit of Activism, Best in Theme, Most Inspiring Adventure Film, Environmental Filmmaking Award, the Jury and a Kids Jury Award, Best Short Film, and additionally there are even honourable mentions. It appears the People’s Choice Award is

81 To give an impression of the scale of these towns, according to the 2010 United States

Consensus, Nevada City and Grass Valley respectively had a population of 3068 and 12860 people. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_Census

82 Appendix 4.

83 Wild & Scenic Film Festival. 03 May 2017.

<https://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/on-tour/>

84 Iordanova 15

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given considerable significance, because it is the first award to be featured on the website. This is particularly striking, especially when considering Elsaesser’s argument, who sees audience awards as “the forum where the people perform their sovereignty.”86 Thus, making the People’s Choice Award the first one visitors perceive would add value to the activist image of the festival, with its origin as a self-proclaimed grassroots democracy.

Finally, the role of the public is to be further elaborated on, since the festival continues the work of a “citizens league” that protested against local government plans. Main sponsors of the festival are non-profit organisations, national and local businesses and private

individual donors. According to Monani, festivals with little government funding are more likely to present critical rhetoric, making them part of the alternative public sphere.87 She regards the WSFF as more assertive, since it hopes to inspire change and not only awareness. Additionally, she argues that festivals in the alternative public sphere often primarily value cinema as an activist tool rather than for its artistic qualities. This seems true for the WSFF, with the festival being referred to, on various occasions, as a fundraiser for SYRCL. This also explains why all screenings have an entrance fee, unlike some festivals discussed below. The only free events are some of the workshops at the festival, further strengthening the festival’s cause of supporting activity and action. This marks the way WSFF can be considered a platform for environmental activism. It is the fundraiser for an activist organisation, making money through the presentation of films that aptly reflect their ecological ideology.

2.2 International Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital

2017 marked the 25th anniversary of the DCEFF, making it one of the longest running environmental film festivals. The festival’s rhetoric is quite different from the WSFF, which is evidenced by their main page during the 2017 edition. The page in question shared the aim to keep visitors “entertained and informed,” followed by a quote from former President of the U.S.A. Ronald Reagan stating that: “Preservation of our environment is not a liberal or conservative challenge, it’s common sense.”88 Even though this claim is again topical in the current political debate, it also seems to serve as a valuation of a more top-down approach to environmental issues. DCEFF creates a more popular buzz and an aura of importance by quoting authority figures and by making politics something glamorous. It is the

86 Elsaesser, 101. 87 Monani, 267.

88 “Main Page”. DCEFF. 2017. Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital. 23 April

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proclaimed Cannes of environmental films, where the stars are not celebrities but national decision makers. To increase this image, the DCEFF appears to want as many premieres as possible. Consequently, the festival catalogue uses the same star symbol for films that are world premieres as for those that are merely a DC premiere. The result is that half the films are featured as premieres, for example, Freightened: the Real Price of Shipping89 is listed as premiere,90 even though the world premiere of this film was almost a year earlier, at the Green Film Fest in April 2016.91

The fact that DCEFF is in the US capital adds to its aura of importance. An article in the The Independent Film & Video Monthly claims that festival founder, Flo Stone, “took advantage of the fact that Washington, D.C., didn’t have a major film festival. She saw it as an opportunity to broaden people’s access to quality films that would never be shown at local theatres.”92 However, the importance of location goes beyond filling the gap of ecocinema,

DCEFF utilizes the presence of important government buildings and museums to enhance people’s screening experiences. 2017’s screening venues include eight embassies, six

museums and several university buildings. Not only can such venues generate extra appeal to the festival, they arguably change the way audiences perceive the films. Cultural and political institutions can have a certain authority, to the advantage of the depicted films,93 for example by making claims more credible or raised issues more imminent. In similar fashion, it can add to the festival experience when there is a synergy between a venue and the depicted film, by creating a dialogue between the content of a film and for example a museum. DCEFF offers a diverse selection of venues that can thus in several ways add value to the messages of

environmental films.

Additionally, with online transparency regarding information on the staff and sponsors a sense of inclusiveness and openness seems to be created. When investigating who is

involved in the organisation of the festival, DCEFF stands out from many others in the sense that everyone of the main staff is shortly introduced, accompanied by links with contact

89 Freightened: the Real Price of Shipping. Dir. Denis Delastrac. Polar Star Films, 2016. 90 “2017 Festival”. DCEFF. 2017. Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital. 24

April 2017. <dceff.org>.

91 “2016 SFGFF Annual Report.” Green Film Fest. 2016. San Francisco Green Film Festival.

24 April 2017. < http://www.greenfilmfest.org/about#IMPACT>.

92 Germano, Jana. “Festival Circuit: The Environmental Film Festival.” The Independent Film & Video Monthly 25.5 (2002): 28-9.

93 An interview with curator and artist Ian White in: Peyer, Siri. “Curating Film.” OnCurating.org 3.10 (2010): 4.

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information.94 When it comes to sponsorship, DCEFF openly shares that all donations are tax-deductible. While, as discussed in the previous chapter, Haslam found this to be a dubious fact regarding the Planet in Focus festival, DCEFF publicly states this information of being a charitable non-profit organisation, likely to get more donations. This sense of inclusiveness is similarly identifiable in other aspects of the festival. In 2017, one of only four awards was given to a fiction (although biographical) film, The Lost City of Z.95 By considering more than just documentaries for their programming, DCEFF probably speaks to a wider audience than many other festivals discussed in this thesis.

With a wide and inclusive approach, DCEFF functions differently as a platform for ecological activism than the WSFF. Aiming for widespread awareness and entertainment results in another kind of impact. The 2016 festival report revealed that the festival had an impact in sheer numbers, with over 27.000 attendees. The opening youth screening of An

American Ascent96 drew over 2450 students from 41 different schools. However, it is hard to

measure what reaching a wide range of people and being in a good location can actually accomplish. There is one article mentioning that filmmaker Jon Sorenson, after presenting his film Yucca Mountain97 - with a critical standpoint regarding a nuclear waste disposal site in

the Nevada Desert - was approached by representatives of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a democratic senator of Nevada.98 They were all interested in showing the

film, and thereby one could argue that DCEFF has helped this film affect people with influence. Nevertheless, the DCEFF offers only a few workshops, which would engage regular audiences beyond merely seeing a film or listening to an introduction. As such, DCEFF acts less as a platform for activism. Instead, its presentation practices emphasize a wide environmental awareness and aim to have indirect influence.

2.3 Princeton Environmental Film Festival

In the beginning of April, shortly after the DCEFF, the Princeton Environmental Film Festival (PEFF) takes place. The festival was founded in 2006 by the Princeton Public Library, with

94 “About.” DCEFF. 2017. Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital. 24 April

2017. <http://dceff.org/about/staff/>.

95 The Lost City of Z. Dir. James Gray. Keep Your Head, 2016.

96 An American Ascent. Dir. Andrew Adkins. Wild Vision, Floating Point, 2014. 97 Yucca Mountain. Dir. Jon Sorenson. N.k.

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an aim to “share exceptional documentaries and engage our community.”99 They do so by making all screenings free to the public, and they are all accompanied by an introduction or a Q&A. The focus on their community is an important detail that puts the PEFF in a different context than previously discussed festivals. The locality of the event is a conscious choice, as becomes apparent by the following statement: “As we grow the festival and consider its sustainability, we are mindful to expand our reach while keeping the character of the festival focused on being a great and a special local event.”100

The scale of the festival is similarly visible in its organisation and local sponsors. Of the nine organizers listed on their website, most are employees at either the Princeton Public Library or Princeton University. Others are involved in environmental organisations and one person is simply described as “Plant Based Educator, Chef, and Yoga Teacher of the Website Plant Based Yogi and Community Organizer and Change Catalyst.” No one appears to have a background directly related to the film industry. However, this does not negatively affect their programming, judging from the festival’s films. In between two larger festivals in the US, the DCEFF and the Green Film Fest, PEFF shows some similar (more recently released) titles. Additionally, the film’s directors are often present at the screenings, which is not per se the norm for similarly small and locally based environmental film festivals.101 Ultimately, the goal of the PEFF seems to be an educational one, offering a qualitative programme, freely accessible for the public. Based on this, it can be said that the PEFF has no activist intentions. Rather, the Princeton Public Library assumes its role as information provider, and extends this through film to an ecological cause.

2.4 San Francisco Green Film Festival

The San Francisco Green Film Festival, which seems to be a year-round movement, annually organizes the Green Film Fest (GFF). The slogan on their main page is: “More than a festival – a movement,”102 one which aims to spark green ideas and “to educate and connect

communities through forward-thinking programs, environmental films, dialogues and action

99 “About.” Princeton Library. 2017. Princeton Public Library. 24 April 2017.

<https://www.princetonlibrary.org/peff/about/>.

100 Ibid.

101 This claim is based on a more general research of environmental film festival

programming, which is partially represented in appendix 3.

102 “Main Page.” Green Film Fest. 2017. San Francisco Green Film Festival. 29 April 2017.

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opportunities.”103 The festival rhetoric seems intended to make everyone believe that they can

make a difference, no matter how small. One way is, for example, to volunteer for the festival. Being founded in 2011, the GFF is relatively new. The “About” page features an origin story, describing how Rachel Caplan was inspired by An Inconvenient Truth.104 One of

the messages of Al Gore’s famous presentation is that in order to reduce the greenhouse effect, every individual can contribute by decreasing their ecological footprint. This seems to have caused the GFF to take a broad approach, with goals and programmes revolving around more than film. The GFF brings both environmental and cultural “content,” where film is named alongside other arts, discussions and clear action steps.

The GFF appears to have both a strong local and an international focus, as is

evidenced, for example, by their awards. Often the website and festival documents mention the Bay Area, referring to the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, which encompasses multiple cities and other metropolitan regions. Many of the programmes are targeted towards local filmmakers and youths in the area. There is Green Fire Award, for best independent filmmaking within the Bay Area, and the award for best Young Filmmaker. However, at the same time, the site gives room to the Green Film Network, of which the GFF is a member. Additional to showing some general information about the network, the festival is said to show highlights from GFN partners. The awards page also lists the Green Film Network Award, which, for example, was not on the DCEFF page. Moreover, the 2016 annual report describes the festival as “a city-wide celebration for Earth Day,”105 perhaps utilizing the attention generated with this global event. In this sense, the local Bay Area community is connected a supposed “green community” on a global scale.

When looking at the people involved, only two people are featured with a personal introduction: the CEO and COO of the GFF. In contrast, for other people related to the festival, only their function within the GFF and their related company or organisation. For sponsors, there is a great number of supporters, with a chief and a leading sponsor featured at the top, while in total more than 150 are listed. Among them are some that have been

sponsors for for other festivals as well. However, Google is also listed, as are five

organisations under the header of “foundations and government support.” Unlike previous

103 “About.” Green Film Fest. 2017. San Francisco Green Film Festival. 29 April 2017.

<http://www.greenfilmfest.org/about/>.

104 An Inconvenient Truth. Dir. David Guggenheim. Lawrence Bender Productions, 2006. 105 “SFGFF Annual Report 2016.” Green Film Fest. 2016. San Francisco Green Film Festival.

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