Perhaps cinema won't save the Earth, but it can certainly play an important role. Gaetano Capizzi, director of Cinemambiente, tells us about the impact of the many green festivals taking place around the world.
While it is true that cinema alone cannot save the planet, it is equally true that films, with their narrative power, play a genuinely important role in this mission: through the power of emotions, which more than anything else can stir consciences, helping messages take root indelibly within us. We spoke about this with Gaetano Capizzi, founder and director of the festival Cinemambiente, which for twenty years has been bringing hundreds of documentaries and films dedicated to green themes to Turin.
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In the edition that concluded on 5 June, the filmmakers who came from around the world addressed a great many subjects, bringing environmental issues to light and also highlighting good practices from which to draw inspiration and join the virtuous circle of change. Change that festivals like Cinemambiente encourage, by promoting targeted initiatives and projects. A worldwide synergy that took concrete form four years ago with the founding of the Green film network (Gfn), a network bringing together the most important environmental film festivals. "At the moment we have 38 festivals and requests keep increasing," Capizzi says. The twentieth anniversary of the Turin festival was an opportunity for many of them to come together at the conference entitled Can movies save the planet?
What does the question that gave the conference its title tell us?
Obviously we are all aware that cinema cannot save the planet, but we are equally aware that it is one of the most powerful communication tools there is. And that is because it touches deep chords, engaging the emotions. Over the years I have often spoken with people who remembered one film or another in particular and told me: "That story stayed in my heart, and now I do the same."
This conference gave the directors of the various international festivals a chance to meet in person. Who was there and how did it go?
Very well — 14 festivals were represented and it was the largest gathering we have ever had, because it is not easy to bring everyone together. On this occasion there were, for example, the festival from Washington, the Mexican one from Cuernavaca, the Spanish Ecozine festival — which pays close attention to environmental video art — the Deauville festival, which is more "professional" and where documentary filmmakers try to sell their work, and some new additions such as the Hungarian festival from Gödöllő. This was also an opportunity to "count ourselves" and find that the numbers that emerge are significant. If we add up the audiences of all our festivals we reach approximately 700,000 people directly involved. And if we calculate the budget invested by each one, the total runs to several million euros. Many small festivals that together create a great global network.
What are the objectives of Green film network?
Primarily to promote all the initiatives and projects that stimulate reflection on environmental issues and to help films enter an international circuit. We are now engaging with various international organisations such as the World Bank and the European Community, and we have a memorandum of understanding in place with Unep (the United Nations Environment Programme), which will extend its patronage to all the festivals in the network. The goal, therefore, is to jointly advance transnational initiatives.
Beyond the mission of these festivals, what do they have in common and where do they differ?
One thing all of them share, for example, is the involvement — albeit in different ways — of schools and young people. Each festival then has its own distinctive features, first and foremost linked to the place where it was born. Running an environmental festival in Turin is one thing; running one in Borneo, for example, is quite another. There, in the Malaysian part of the island, the Beff — Borneo eco film festival — was founded, and it is tied to very specific, local issues such as deforestation. They too are a new addition to our network and took part in the conference. Cinemambiente, on the other hand, and Western festivals in general, have a more educational approach that seeks to engage a broad public with popular films.
Cinemambiente celebrated its twentieth anniversary with this edition. What assessment can you make, having watched the festival come into being?
One obvious change is that the audience has shifted. In the early days Cinemambiente was attended mainly by environmentalists and industry insiders; today it is largely families and ordinary people who take part. Interest in environmental themes has grown and become more wide-ranging, and that is because the serious risks we were talking about when we started in 1998 — such as global warming — have today become tragic realities visible to everyone. This twentieth edition, however, marked an "optimistic" turning point in that many of the documentaries that arrived this year were dedicated to concrete examples of good practices already under way, and not solely to exposé, as is generally the case in environmental cinema. An encouraging sign, and one we very much welcome.
The standard of the films on show was very high. What helped the jury in selecting the winners?
This year the competition was very fierce. The film awarded by the public, Frágil Equilibrio, had also been greatly appreciated by the jury. In the end, in the international section, Plastic China was awarded the prize because it was a difficult documentary to make and it was made very well. Director Jiu-liang Wang revealed how China has become the West's rubbish dump, entering one of the countless plastic recycling plants and exposing its most critical aspects. He is waging a genuine struggle and has actually managed to change things. After the film was released, inspections have already become more stringent.
Good news, we conclude, that shows that yes, cinema can and truly is helping to safeguard our planet a little.