Seven feature length documentaries (including several UK premieres) from all over the world will be presented at the festival, all of which will be preceded by an accompanying short film. Each film will be competing for the coveted Palme Verte Award, as well as the UKGFF Audience Award. This year, the Friends of the Earth.
The festival will open on the 1st of June with The Last Catch, studying the tuna industry’s rapid growth and its impact on both the fish and those who catch them. A week later, the festival will close with a special screening of Expedition to the End of the World, following the adventures of a group of scientists, artists and philosophers as they sail to the rapidly melting massifs of North-East Greenland.
Other programme highlights include Bay of All Saints, the SXSW Audience Award winner for Best Feature Length Documentary in 2012, tells the story of a marginalised Brazilian community in Bahia struggling against a government that wants to reclaim their homes in the name of ecological restoration, A River Changes Course, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance 2013, chronicles the influence of rapid urbanisation on three families in Cambodia, and Musicwood, takes a look at the impact of deforestation on the global music industry, with particular focus on the acoustic guitar. Also featured are Lost Rivers, an exploration of the subterranean network of rivers beneath London, Montreal, Toronto and Brescia that house the secrets of each city’s past, and Planet Ocean, a remarkably beautiful 90-minute documentary that serves not only as a prime example of Earth’s beauty, but as an illustration of the dangers that threaten our ocean and our entire planet.
Now let's preview the line up and have a look at each film's trailer....
THE LAST CATCH (15)
(Opening Night Film) (UK Premiere)Dir. Marcus CM Schmidt
Cast: Raphael Scannapieco; Roberto Mielgo; Roger Del Ponte
Running Time: 84 min
Country: Germany
The UK Premiere of this compelling documentary presents us with the shocking reality facing the bluefin tuna species. The Mediterranean fishermen’s desperate fight for survival is coming to a head.
No other fish in the world fetches such high prices. In Japan, it feeds a profit-driven machinery of gigantic proportions. The fishermen, too, are facing imminent extinction. The less tuna that remains, the more ruthless the fight for the last of this valuable resource becomes: Raffael stretches every legal loophole to the limit; his boats have repeatedly been impounded. Roger is one of the few who has stuck to the EU quotas and is now forced to sell his boat. Roberto got out of the business years ago and is now fighting desperately for a fishing moratorium in a last ditch effort to save the remaining spawning grounds.
EXPEDITION TO THE END OF THE WORLD (15)
(Closing Night Film) (UK theatrical premiere)Dir. Daniel Dencik
Cast: Minik Rosing, Daniel Richter, Tal R, Katrinbe Worsaae
Running Time: 90 min
Country: Denmark / Sweden
A real adventure film – for the 21st century. On a three-mast schooner packed with artists, scientists and ambitions worthy of Noah or Columbus, we set off for the end of the world: the rapidly melting massifs of North-East Greenland. An epic journey where the brave sailors on board encounter polar bear nightmares, Stone Age playgrounds and entirely new species. But in their encounter with new, unknown parts of the world, the crew of scientist and artists also confronted the existential questions of life. Curiosity, grand pathos and a liberating dose of humour come together in a superbly orchestrated film where one iconic image after the other seduces us far beyond the historical footnote that is humanity. Expedition to the End of the World is a film conceived and brought to life on a grand scale - a long forgotten childhood dream lived out by grown artists and scientists.
A RIVER CHANGES COURSE (12A)
Dir. Kalyanee MamRunning Time: 83 min
Country: Cambodia/USA
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at Sundance, A River Changes Course tells the story of three families living in contemporary Cambodia as they face hard choices forced by rapid development and struggle to maintain their traditional ways of life as the modern world closes in around them. From a remote northern jungle, down along the Tonle Sap, to the rice fields in the country’s center and the pulsing heart of urban Phnom Penh, this documentary showcases how the radical changes in Cambodia today are transforming not only the country’s landscape – but also the dreams of its people.
BAY OF ALL SAINTS (15)
Dir. Annie EastmanCast: Norato Moraes Trindade, Genilza Lima Ferreira
Running Time: 74 min
Country: USA
In Bahia, Brazil, generations of impoverished families live in palafitas, shacks built on stilts over the ocean bay. When the government threatens to reclaim the bay in the name of ecological restoration, hundreds of families are about to lose their homes. Bay Of All Saints is a lyrical portrait of three single-mothers living in the water slums during this crisis. Their individual stories of poverty unfold through visits from Norato, their big-hearted refrigerator repairman, born and raised in the palafitas. As these women rise to fight for their future, they begin to see the bay in a whole new light.
LOST RIVERS (PG)
Dir. Caroline BacleRunning Time: 72 min
Country: Canada
This feature documentary takes us on an adventure down below and across the globe, retracing the history of the lost urban rivers by plunging into archival maps and going underground with clandestine urban explorers. The film searches for the disappeared Rivière St‑Pierre in Montreal, the Garrison Creek in Toronto, the River Tyburn in London and the Bova‑Celato River in Brescia, Italy. Playing with the mystery of urban landscapes in constant transformation, Lost Rivers asks important questions as to the future of our disappeared urban waterways.
PLANET OCEAN (U)
Dir. Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Michael PitiotRunning Time: 94 min
Country: France
Award winning photographers and directors Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Michael Pitiot present a remarkably beautiful 90-minute documentary that serves not only as a prime example of Earth’s beauty, but as an illustration of the dangers that threaten our ocean and our entire planet. Planet Ocean’s goal is very clear: to change the way people look at the oceans and encourage them to imagine conservation as a globally-shared responsibility. This collaborative film aims to explain some of the planet’s greatest natural mysteries and highlights how essential it is that mankind learns to live in harmony with our oceans. Planet Ocean serves as a reminder of the bond between humans and nature, and the duty that exists to protect and respect our planet.
MUSICWOOD (12A)
Dir. Maxine TrumpCast: The Antlers, Dave Berryman, Turin Brakes, Bob Taylor, Yo La Tengo
Running Time: 80 min
Country: USA/Madagascar
The world's most famous guitar-makers are on a desperate mission to stop Native American loggers from devastating a primeval forest, threatening their own culture and the future of the acoustic guitar. Musicwood is about an unknown slice of American history, an unexpected and incredibly serious threat to the acoustic guitar, and a conflict that resists easy interpretations. It is a story where Native American tribes, Corporations, the US Government, and radical environmental organisations all clash in an epic battle over culture and natural resources.
The 2014 UK Green Film Festival will take place 17 independent cinemas across the country for those venues details, screening times head over to the Film Festival's officicial website. The festival will run from 1st until 8th June.
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