Blue Planet Film Festival
By Charlie • May 23, 2009 • 5 commentsLast week I had a highly enjoyable and long (very long - flat rate calling is so useful eh?) phone call with someone I’m a huge fan and supporter of - human tornado Mira Tweti: parrot welfare activist, award-winning journalist, author of the inspirational “Of Parrots and People“, film-maker - and now soon-to-be FILM FESTIVAL mogul (when does this woman sleep?)…
Yes, not only is this vegan fireball working on getting ‘Parrots and People’ turned into a major film (which she promises - and I believe her - will put the shocking truth about the wild bird trade in the public arena in the same way that Al Gore mainstreamed global warming issues), she is putting together an animal-welfare/environmental film festival and forum, the BLUE PLANET FILM FEST, to be held in Santa Monica, California this September.
Final details are still being worked out, but plans are well underway and Mira’s not someone who won’t finish what’s she started! The Festival genuinely sounds very exciting and the start of something very BIG indeed. I certainly hope so, and with Mira’s help 10,000 Birds will be following every step of the way - starting with reproducing some of the text Mira sent me outlining what the Blue Planet Film Festival is and what it aims to achieve…check it out below!
Awareness is Everything
MISSION:
Blue Planet is the first animal-welfare/environmental film festival and forum to raise mainstream awareness and motivate people to action on the most important issues of our time: saving the earth and the biodiversity in it.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL:
Blue Planet Film Fest is one of the only environmental/animal-welfare film festivals on the planet. Of more than 5300 festivals around the globe there are less than 60 that solely focus on these issues.
Blue Planet endeavors to do for environmental films what Sundance did for indie films: branding a genre and making these films a staple of the general filmgoer’s cultural menu. Our festival will be more than an entertaining weekend where films are screened and seen. Instead, we aim to provide both a visual and visceral experience with interactive, hands on, off-site, events to connect attendees at a heart level with issues related to Animal Welfare, Wild Life, Environmental issues, Ecology, Conservation, Sustainable Living/Non Sustainable living, Globalization, Climate Change, Factory Farming/Agriculture issues, Water, Land.
While we work to engender personal commitments in individuals to do what they can to protect the planet, our goal is to draw a mainstream audience because the earth’s wellbeing lies in the hands of the masses.
Celebrities who want to help raise awareness of environmental issues will help draw the public by hosting panels and presenting films and awards, and they will impress attendees by their commitment. Experts in the various areas covered will share the latest developments and issues presenting themselves on the global stage. Everyone will leave knowing more than they did on arrival and with insights and ideas to act on.
Blue Planet will be an annual event in Los Angeles with a blueprint for traveling the fest to New York, Chicago, London, Paris and other cities to create a global film festival forum.
Blue Planet is a 501c3 non-profit project of Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (www.SaveOurPlanet.org).
All profits will be donated to non-profit environmental/animal welfare endeavors. In addition, a % of each film’s ticket sales will be donated to the topic of that film.
Blue Planet will premiere September 4 - 7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.
Come enjoy the beach, the mountains, the Santa Monica Pier amusements, great shops, entertainment, restaurants, and most of all, exciting films to stimulate your mind, and encourage you be part of the change needed to save our planet.
What more could you want for a film festival?
TO FILMMAKERS: Be there with your film for this history making first year. We look forward to seeing your film. We think the world will too!
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Festival Director, Mira Tweti
MiraTweti@BluePlanetFilmFest.com / 310-574-0911
More information at www.BluePlanetFilmFest.com and on WithoutABox.com.
The Blue Planet Film Festival welcomes sponsors and advertisers. If YOU think you would like to help support the Festival and would like more information there is a downloadable pdf available here.
Have you seen the cool 10,000 Birds t-shirts? Get yours today!
I’m sure this film will educate many people. I learned, years ago, about the horrible way in which expensive birds (mackaws, cockatoos, etc) are drugged and then smuggled across the border. I was horrified then, and still am. Good job, Charlie!
Hi April - I’m intrigued: what did you learn and where from? Would you be interested in writing a guest post, because this is something very close to my heart and I’d love to have more people talking about it…
A highly topical post, Charlie. Here we’re in the second and final week of Reel Earth, the Aotearoa Environmental Film Festival (http://reelearth.org.nz). It’s the largest environmental film festival in the Southern Hemisphere and has been hugely successful in this, its fifth year. With the Blue Planet festival and others encouraging awareness of environmental issues throughout the world, maybe we’ll finally get to that point where concern for the world — and action — will become the norm, not the exception.
Hi Pete. Interesting what you say - I think you’re right, but for it to happen it will take a lot more of us stepping forward and offering to support the ‘doers’ of this world because they’re in short supply, and I know that someone like Mira (or my brother Nial in Korea, Marc and Karen at Foster Parrots, or hundreds of other under-funded committed conservationists) is doing the work of about ten people! I wonder every day what people who aren’t so driven and willing to give everything up (and I include myself in that group) can do to support these ‘enviro-heroes’…any thoughts anyone?
By the way, if I’d known about this Festival I’d have run a post about it. Do you know the organisers by any chance?
Cheers
Charlie, I agree, and I’m increasingly thinking more and more about how to encourage changes in attitudes and behaviour. My feeling is that for most environmental problems we already have solutions that would (probably) work, but the difficulty lies in getting them implemented. How does one get through to a person who’s more concerned with polishing and tuning his V8 than some bird he’s never heard of in a country he can’t even locate on a map? (No offence intended, petrolheads ;^)…) Seriously, as much we might wish to rail against those kinds of values, railing achieves nothing positive, and those people are unlikely ever to understand our point of view until we understand theirs (as difficult as that might be). And, that understanding is only the first step. It can be achieved through sheer effort and will on our part, but the subsequent step — influencing attitudes — needs more than effort and will. Right now, lessons from behavioural economics seem promising, but I’m wary of evangelising, and I’m sceptical about the value of so much talk around this issue (mine included).
As for the Reel Earth festival: yes, I know the organisers well (I had a part to play in selecting the films, writing synopses and a few other things). The core team are all volunteers and most have committed enormous amounts of time and effort; this year it’s paid off magnificently. And, to keep this aligned with 10,000 Birds, I’ll point out we screened a couple of marvellous films specifically about birds.