9th Annual Green Screen Environmental Film Festival Opening Night
Students, film lovers and environment enthusiasts turned out in their numbers at Queen’s Hall, Port of Spain for the opening night of the ninth annual Green Screen Film Festival, themed “Play Your Part”. This event was hosted by Sustain T&T, on Tuesday 05th November, 2019. The programme included the 2019 Very Short Shorts (VSS) Mobile Film Competition screenings of the twenty-five finalists along with the featured film “When Lambs Become Lions” and the awards presentation. Specially invited guests included Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries Senator the Honourable Clarence Rambharat; His Worship the Mayor of the City Port of Spain, Alderman Joel Martinez; Alderman Aasha Permanand of the City of Port of Spain; founder and director of Sustain T&T, Carver Bacchus; SWMCOL sponsor representative, CEO Kevin Thompson; FilmTT sponsor representative General Manager Ms. Nneka Luke; and bmobile sponsor representative Senior Manager of Corporate Communications TSTT, Marsha Caballero. Renaldo “Red” Frederick emerged the overall winner of the competition with his film “Eden Eaten” and Janis Mollineau the Jury Youth winner with her film “Compost It”.
Green Screen is a production of Sustain T&T, a non-governmental organization. According to founder & festival director, Carver Bacchus, “the film festival was started to promote environmental awareness and sustainability in Trinidad and Tobago.” Over the years, the organization’s impact and desire for environmental reform and change continued to grow significantly in a positive and proactive way through the medium of educational films.
The event began with the national anthem followed by brief introductory remarks from mistress of ceremonies, Ardene Sirjoo.
SWMCOL CEO, Kevin Thompson took to the podium next and delivered his address. He expressed, as proud sponsors of the competition for two years, SWMCOL has also been a part of the annual film festival for three years. According to Thompson, the festival’s theme “Play Your Part” resonated deeply with SWMCOL because they believe that everyone must do their part for effective change.
Thompson shared that in 2018, SWMCOL launched their “No Pollution Resolution” campaign which was intended to encourage positive behavioural changes in Trinidad and Tobago towards proper waste management and caring for the environment. He encouraged the audience noting:
“Doing your part does not only mean implementing completed or complex plans, but rather making simple changes. You may not change all you had hoped, but the world will be better for the caring demonstrated by your effort. Making a simple change like choosing to reduce, reuse and recycle, not littering, or volunteering to clean our coastline makes a difference.”
He continued:
“These movies about environmental conservation, climate change, green energy, sustainable evolvement and social justice are not simply entertainment, but a blueprint of a more palatable way of disseminating information to a wide cross section of persons on the issues of environmental sustainability. Evidence of this is the increasing numbers of this year’s competition and growing audience at Green Screen. Events which augers well for Sustain T&T, SWMCOL and the local film industry.”
In closing, Thompson stressed that these films allow for the opportunity to see and hear the untold stories or the hard truths of our realities. He urged that after the screenings, behaviours continue to change, creating conviction, “so that we can all make the necessary transformative shifts, thereby securing our environment for future generations.”
Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Clarence Rambharat in his address acknowledged the organizers and commended them for what he described as excellent work saying, “I think that the Green Screen Environmental Film Festival is excellent in all regards. . . in the opening, [the] selections of movies, [and the] categories . . .the quality of everything, including the Facebook page and material, the PR and marketing.”
However, Rambharat, who has been attending this event for the past five years lamented that the Green Screen Film Festival is under-patronized. He recalled, as he expressed his concerns about the lack of national patriotism, “I have been listening to the radio and I have been following television and no mention [was made] of the Green Screen Environmental Film Festival and the excellent work to be shown from the people, most of them young. We have dedicated a lot of time, newspaper space and social media space to something which I consider to be largely inconsequential.”
In his final remarks, Rambharat briefly addressed the issue of garbage collection and garbage in the country. He stated, “In local government reform, we may eventually move from having centralized tendering for garbage collection and we may give the responsibility to each regional corporation to tender and hire contractors to do garbage collection.” However, he noted that would not change the attitude of the people who dump their garbage in the rivers, drains and yards, then wait on the state to do the cleaning.
He ended noting that local government reform or any form of change requires an attitudinal shift instead of a legislative shift. “No piece of legislation, particularly those related to taking responsibility, will be effective unless you have changes in our attitude.”
Founder of Sustain T&T Carver Bacchus took the time to discuss what he learnt after nine years as director of an educational film festival:
“Messages must be repeated to be remembered. We have to be flexible enough to change our tactics. We have to be flexible enough to adjust our audience as we go along. Because messages are understood and accepted doesn’t mean that behaviour will change. Behaviour change takes a real intervention that goes to the heart. Show me how my behaviour impacts my life and the lives of those I love. This is not something that can be achieved with one film or one festival alone. But sustain[ed] communication efforts aimed at the heart, eventually break through and can be transformational for society.”
He continued:
“In our society, stories are a major part of our culture. They are how we communicate across generations, and the sweetness of the story is in the telling and the re-telling and embellishing. All stories told via film and digital media are one of the ways to ensure that our society and our national heritage persist.
I hope that more corporate bodies utilise the Art and Culture Allowance [facilitated by the Ministry of Arts and Culture], as an allowance of a hundred and fifty percent of the actual expenditure incurred in respectable production up to a maximum of three million dollars. For those companies that take corporate social responsibility seriously, or want to take it seriously, this is an opportunity to support and build a sector, three million dollars at a time. Off course, it is an opportunity to Play Your Part.”
Highlighting the effects of behaviours and the role or power of community, he stated:
“People are inclined to do the right thing or what they perceive to be the right thing if their neighbour is doing the right thing. You can infect people with good behaviours the same way you infect them with bad ones. If we can impact behaviour significantly, eventually there will be a tipping point and the littering, pollution and things we complain about that we still see so much here in T&T, can be reduced. But first, you have to do the right thing…play your part.”
In his concluding remarks, Bacchus recognized the sponsors SWMCOL, bmobile and FilmTT. He expressed that he was pleased to see the competition grow, and that more filmmakers take their time to craft their little stories into the big screen. He further conveyed gratitude to the sponsors for their contribution and involvement and hoped that they would continue to grow both the competition and the festival together.
Following the screenings, the winner of the 2019 Jury Youth award, Janis Mollineau received her award and $5,000.00 from FilmTT sponsor representative, Nneka Luke. The overall winner, Renaldo “Red” Frederick also received his award and $12,000.00 from bmobile representative Marsha Caballero.
The highly informative films which were a duration of one minute each, were thought-provoking and well-received. The event provides a useful platform for the development of emerging, as well as more established filmmakers. Most importantly, it encourages everyone to be a part of the solution to today’s challenging environmental issues.
The feature presentation “When Lambs become Lions” by award-winning filmmaker Jon Kasbe then commenced. The documentary chronicles the challenges and pressures of poverty in Kenya and how it contributes to ivory poaching and the alarming plummeting of the elephant population.
One of the finalists, Akilah Stewart had this to say:
“I saw the marriage of art, social justice and local environmental issues. I learnt in newly stimulating ways that “plastic is not so fantastic”, how to compost properly, how to “Innovate” and how beautiful steelpan music truly is fitting for a local film. I noted that kids less than 10 years old have “pollution solutions” too and that we ought to pay attention. I also learnt how to make a healthy cocktail with kitchen leftovers.” Akilah had three film entries which dealt with the issues of plastic pollution, the threats to marine organisms and the problem of waste in Trinidad and Tobago.
List of the 2019 (VSS) Mobile Film Competition finalists with one honourable mention:
Film / Filmmaker – in alphabet order:
Akilah Goes For “Seafood” – Akilah Stewart
Another Man – Dominique Chung
Beneath the Surface – Xala Ramesar
Bread and Butter – Willie Singh
Compost It – Janis Mollineau
Eden Eaten – Red Frederick
Food Waste – Jonathan Francis
Hailey’s Video – Sarah-Lee Manmohan
Innovate – Aaron Peter
It Starts With One – Julien Neaves
Lady Nature – Jonathan Francis
Local Mandarin Vibes – Chimene Shah
Methane – Jason Marcano
Mind The Gap – Sarah-Lee Manmohan
Paradise Lost – Darian Lalla
Supermarket Seas – Akilah Stewart
Stuck – Red Frederick
The Degradation Challenge – Akilah Stewart
The Last Drop – Darion Mungal
The Life of Kevin Julie – Domnik Jones-Armour
The Haves and Have Nots – Renaldo Lewis/Central Pathfinders Environmental Foundation
Trash Heaven – Ayesha Jordan
Urbanised Composting – Renaldo Lewis/Central Pathfinders Environmental Foundation
Waste – Red Frederick
We Share the Same Home – Xala Ramesar
Honourable Mention: Baggage – Deneka Thomas (not in competition)
The Green Screen film festival marked its tenth anniversary in 2020. Despite the challenges and uncertainty during the coronavirus pandemic, the organizers continued their way forward and successfully hosted their first virtual competition. Though making the transition to a virtual festival was one of the organizers’ biggest challenges, they were confident that their carefully developed adaption plan would continue to keep their audience engaged.
Riyadh Rahaman emerged the 2020 Overall Jury winner with “Before It’s Too Late”. He received $ 12,000.00 from lead sponsor the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago.
Xala Ramesar won the Youth Jury Award with “A Journey to Our Own” sponsored by Festival Patron FilmTT.
Celene Bassaw and Satesh Ramkesson won the #PlantYuhROOTS Special Category Award with “Seed of Hope”, sponsored by Caribbean Philanthropic Alliance Trinidad and Tobago.
Magda Leschik won The People’s Choice Award with “The Real Hero”, sponsored by SWMCOL.
The festival returns from the 28th to 31st October, 2021. Even with tentative hopes of returning to a physical film festival in the near future, Green Screen organizer Carver Bacchus stated:
“Green Screen has planned a hybrid program for 2021 – virtual and in person events, with all protocols properly observed. However, due to the increasing cases of covid-19 we are seeing now, we may have to roll back to an online only edition. We are hoping that our fellow citizens will do their best to flatten the curve in the intervening months.”
Included in this year’s programme will be two new additions: a separate international category which will allow Trinidad and Tobago based filmmakers the opportunity to participate, and two new prizes for Best T&T Film and Best International Film.
For more information, email sustaintt@gmail.com and follow @greenscreentt on Facebook and Instagram or call 1 868-745-6017.
9th Annual Green Screen Film Festival in pictures:
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