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The growth of Green Screen – the Environmental Film Series into a full-fledged Film Festival in its sixth year is a huge step for the organization as it graduates from screening some of the best environmental films from around the globe to hosting international film-makers and educators and developing programs which will focus on local issues.

Founder and Director of Green Screen, Carver Bacchus made the statement at the launch of Green Screen – the Environmental Film Festival 2016 on October 14 at the German Ambassador’s residence in Maraval.
Green Screen – the Envirnonmental Film Festival, is a production of Sustain T&T, a not-for-profit organization that highlights issues of environmental conservation, renewable energy. A key feature of the event is a Films for a Better Place, a workshop and film production program which builds on the success of Sustain T&T’s 2015 documentary A Better Place. This program provided selected short film projects with technical support and small grants in order to support the development of local film content centered around the environment. The film-makers who participated in the program are Maya Cross-Lovelace, who produced The Trouble with Plastic; Ozy Merrique Jr., who produced Horse; the team of Rhonda Chan Soo and Edward Inglefield, with their short film Quiet Revolution; and Miquel Galofre, who in addition to being the project advisor, also produces a short film titled Green and Yellow. Bacchus also produced a short film titled Teach a Man which deals with fishing communities in La Brea.
Another addition to the Film Festival is a Jury Award for the Most Outstanding Film for a Better Place. Film-makers Maya Cross-Lovelace, Ozy Merrique Jr. and the team of Rhonda Chan Soo and Edward Inglefield will compete for this prize. The jury will consist of two independent members as well as one person each from the T&T Film Festival, Animae Caribe Animation and New Media Film Festival and the T&T Film Company.
The Film Festival runs from November 1 to 12 and will feature film screenings at various locations, school screenings at IMAX, various discussion panels including one with Greenpeace co-founder Bobbi Hunter. The featured films are of local, regional and international origin. In addition to Hunter, the international visitors will include Peruvian and Catalan director Núria Frigola Torrent and Venezuelan director Jorge Thielen Armand, who will be showing their films Hija de la Laguna (Daughter of the Lake) and Flor de la Mar respectively.
The schedule also includes a Bioblitz, where the T&T Field Naturalists Club, the UWI Zoology Museum and wildlife enthusiasts document and photograph wildlife in a particular area, and a Moving Table Fundraiser, where patrons can enjoy locally sourced food and watch a movie.
The theme of the Film Festival this year is The Big Picture, and as part of this, they will be hosting an event discussing the Beverage Container Bill at the National Library in Port of Spain on November 8.
Speaking at the launch, German Ambassador to T&T Lutz Görgens said the Environmental Film Festival is a highlight of the year, with its noble cause of spreading knowledge and preserving the planet. He said, as a signatory to the 2015 Paris agreement to mitigate Climate Change in 2015, raising awareness of climate change is a key political goal of the German government. The German Embassy has been a long-standing partner of Green Screen in raising awareness of climate change and to make art for a better place.
Sagicor General Manager of Business Development and Marketing, Lisa Mahabir said the company, which is sponsoring the jury prize, found it necessary to align itself with the Environmental Film Festival because “we live in a world where our supply of fossil fuels is finite and will eventually dwindle. Living in this world means that the protection of the earth and its inhabitants is not a question of morality or ethics but a question of our survival. How we respond to the challenges of climate change will affect not only this generations, but generations to come.”
General Manager of Film TT, Nneka Luke acknowledged the growth of the event from a screening exercise to a full-fledged Film Festival. “Green Screen is becoming a reference point for information, education and inspiration to tread more lightly on the earth. One of the most vital roles the Festival plays is creating a community within T&T of people who consider the state of the environment to be important.” She said it was good to see the Festival encouraging the production of local content and the growth of talent through its various programs.
Luke noted that the Environmental Film Festival is part of a Film Festival season in T&T which includes the T&T Film Festival and the Animae Caribe Animation and New Media Festival.
In closing, Bacchus said “the Big Picture includes everyone, not only those who know that climate change is real, and certainly is real to an island state like T&T, but also those who could care less. To them, environmental, economic and social issues are problems for politicians to solve, but it’s our job to convince these people, to involve them, to excite them, and not only to speak to the converted. Through our programs this year, we’re trying to reach out to more people to show where sustainability, with art, with food, with energy and with activism.”