Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa is all set to host Asia’s biggest environmental film festival ‘Goa – Centre for Media Studies (CMS) Vatavaran Festival & Forum on LiFE 2023’ starting Sunday.
The festival is being held in collaboration with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), its Commission on Education and Communication (CEC), #NatureForAll, Wildlife Trust of India, Video Volunteers India, Vidnyan Bharti Goa and BITS Pilani Goa from March 5-7.
This unique ‘green’ film festival of three days will screen a total of 21 internationally awarded winning films from different parts of the world, including Goa, on various relevant environmental issues like climate change, adaptation and mitigation, wildlife conservation, water conservation, forest conservation and sustainable livelihoods.
The films would be covering various aspects related to the concept of ‘Lifestyle for the Environment’ (LiFE), which was introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at COP26 in Glasgow on November 1, 2021.
Focusing on various issues of LiFE, this festival will also have a range of programmes and forums to engage a wide variety of audiences. This will include a series of panel discussions, seminars, ‘green filmmaking’ workshops and on-the-spot quiz competitions. The event is open for all and free of cost.
“’CMS Vatavaran’ has been on a mission to use films to initiate discussion and inspire action for the conservation of our environment. Through our festival, we highlight and bring to focus critical environmental issues and how and what different stakeholders can do,” DG, CMS Vasanti Rao told reporters.
IUCN-CEC Chair, Sean Southey said that as a Chair of the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication, he was excited that the film festival and its steering committee meeting was being held in Goa.
“Goa has a long history of merging culture, society and the environment. It feels like an excellent location for our international leadership team to engage with and learn from each other and the wonderful community of Goa. The opportunity to further partner on the ‘CMS Vatavaran Festival and Forum’ will deepen this engagement and allow us to contribute to the important issue of ensuring a sustainable future for this incredible part of India,” Southey said.
Luis Alberto Camargo, IUCN Vice-chair South America, said that films are a very powerful medium to evoke action from the community.
“The documentary films through a unique story telling style tend to engage the audience and evoke a strong reaction from them, which is necessary for sensitive subjects like environment conservation,” Camargo said. (For more, visit www.cmsvatavaran.org)
