Meet the Environmental Film Festival Australia’s Summer of Change program.
Last year, we shined a light on the 2020 iteration of Environmental Film Festival Australia (EFFA), an online event throughout October and November that explored the interactions between science, technology, philosophy and art.
Now, the festival is back with Summer of Change – their second of four seasonal events taking place across 2020 and 2021. For this instalment, EFFA celebrates the go-getters and achievers in the environmental world.
Showcasing the heroes and appending success stories, EFFA is laying down its own blueprint for climate action. While powerful advocates and delegates ply their influence at the top of the tree, there’s more that can be done nearer to the ground and EFFA is setting the example for such espousal.
So, what can we expect from Summer of Change?
Off the top, the Sally Ingleton-directed Wild Things offers an intimate insight into the new age of environmental activism. Against a backdrop of drought, fire and floods, an ambitious and tenacious group of ecowarriors chain themselves to coal trains, lock onto bulldozers and perch high in the canopy of threatened rainforests, using nothing more than their mobile phones to employ non-violent tactics in the fight for climate action.
Then there’s Climate Exodus – a documentary telling the story of three women living in three different continents fighting against the climate crisis on their very doorstep. It’s estimated that an astounding 300 million people will become climate refugees by the year 2050 – watch as these women fight to keep their home, land and community safe.
Elsewhere, there’s Michiel Thomas’ That’s Wild which follows the journey of three teenage boys from Atlanta who set themselves the mammoth task of scaling four 12,000 foot snow-capped peaks in Colorado’s Maroon Bells mountain range.
That’s just the start. Amongst a host of other inspiring documentaries, animated films and shorts, EFFA has got your summer watching schedule sorted.
Tickets for the festival can be purchased on a single session basis, while there are also three-session, five-session and all-access ticket options available. EFFA also offers discounted concession tickets to seniors, students, as well as those on JobSeeker, those who have been hit hard by COVID-19 and anyone who would struggle to afford the festival at its standard rate.
What’s more, 5% of all profits EFFA make on the festival go to Pay The Rent – an innovative scheme aiming to shift the power in Australia, diverting funds to a body led by Indigenous elders and away from governmental strongholds.
EFFA’s Summer of Change event can be screened on demand from Thursday January 21 to Thursday February 4 here. Check out the festival website here.
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