2014 Cape Town Eco Film Festival

5 DAYS, 10 SA PREMIERES, 25 ECO FILMS!

www.capetownecofilmfestival.com

DO NOT MISS the inaugural Cape Town Eco Film Festival, which will take place at the Labia Theatre on Orange Street in Cape Town from Thursday the 27th of March to Monday the 31st of March

“We’ve got so many brilliant environmental documentaries to share with Capetonians, we’ve had to extend the length of the Festival by a day. The Festival will now run from the 27th until the 31st of March, instead of the 30th as initially planned”. 

- Dougie Dudgeon. 

Among the 25 short and feature-length films to be on show, are 10 movies that have never been seen in South Africa. 

“We’ve really got something for everyone. Whether you’re interested in fracking or industrial hemp production, genetic engineering or climate change, the fate of the world’s bees or organic food – we’ve got a documentary film for you!” 

- Andreas Wilson-Späth

The highlights of the lineup include:

• Gasland Part II – the explosive follow-up to the 2011 Oscar-nominated film Gasland about fracking.
• Blackfish – an astonishing eco-thriller about the plight of killer whales in captivity and the danger that comes with it.
• Bringing It Home – a film about industrial hemp cultivation featuring Cape Town’s own hemp expert Tony Budden of Hemporium fame.
• More Than Honey – a beautiful Swiss masterpiece that compares old-fashioned beekeeping with its modern industrial counterpart.

The complete programme and information about all of the films, including trailers, can be found on the Festival website: www.capetownecofilmfestival.com.

Tickets will sell for R45, of which R5 will go towards Festival sponsor Greenpop’s tree planting efforts. “Festival goers will also be able to buy ‘Tree Tickets’, which will cost R160 and each of which will allow Greenpop to plant a tree!” explains Wilson-Späth.

Online ticket sales will become available on the Festival website within the next few weeks.

For now, tickets may be reserved by calling the Labia box office at 021 424 5927.

The Cape Town Eco Film Festival is a project of While You Were Sleeping, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing documentary films with important environmental, social and political messages to South African audiences.

The Festival is made possible through generous contributions from sponsors Reliance Compost, JoJo Tanks, Hemporium, Ballo and Earthbound wines, and is hosted in partnership with Greenpop, Exploring Consciousness, Simply Green, Green Times, Project 90 By 2030, Bicycle Cape Town, Bellovista Productions, Janet Botes, Coz it Counts and the Charter for Compassion.

For more information, visit www.capetownecofilmfestival.com and www.facebook.com/whileyouweresleepingSA and follow While You Were Sleeping on Twitter (@WYWS_SA).

Publishing with fewer environmental Perils?

A bit of a focus on Green Design
written by visual artist Janet Botes

While doing some online research for my studies in 2006 I came across Celery Design Collaborative, based in Berkeley in the US. On a recent search for this Design company I found that 5 years later they're still going strong. With updated branding and some outputs or "eco tools" from their efforts in creating and supporting sustainable design they're a great example or role model for other design and publishing companies. One of the outputs is a Sustainability Score Card that gives a good overview of what options to favor when choosing paper, plastic, ink and binding methods for your next creative or publishing project. Check it out at celerydesign.com//images/uploads/Celery_SustainScore_11.08_.pdf. Looking at paper, they have also created an ecological Guide to Paper. Go and read more about paper processes and how to choose your paper at www.celerydesign.com/ecological-guide-to-paper

Another output is a book published in 2009, Green Graphic Design, by Brian Dougherty. Check it out at www.greengraphicdesign.net. According to Jade-Snow Carroll of the Design Observer, it is a "great resource for designers wanting to practice their craft sustainably".

On the same track there is a fresh, new and local company to keep an eye on... Paper People Publishing Collective, based in Johannesburg. As a book arts network and a publishing house they encourage all their authors to print on recycled materials, and are developing solutions for hand-printed and hand-bound books from Studio 6 at the Newtown Artist-Run Centre.

As a general guideline, when choosing your paper, try choose paper that are approved by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), tree-free paper or recycled paper.

When choosing your recycled paper also consider the percentage of waste used, and the amount of chlorine used to whiten or brighten the post consumer waste paper used in the production of the paper. And how about hemp paper? From what I hear things are looking good for the possibility of having industrial hemp legalized in our country! Industrial hemp is not from the same strain of plants that can be smoked, and as hemp grows much quicker and with less water than cotton it is a great raw material for use in the clothing industry, building industry and, of course, for paper. Another new option is stone paper, have a look at the post we published about Stone Paper: greenyourart.blogspot.com/2013/02/stone-paper-is-writing-on-wall.html

When looking at ink, suggest to your printers that they use vegetable-based inks and low-VOC solvents. And from what I've read, don’t use a printer that uses isopropyl alcohol. Generally, as with all materials and products, try to avoid inks with toxic chemicals.

When delivering and packaging your books, brochures and other designed materials for your clients, don’t wrap them in plastic, but pack them in re-usable, recycled or re-used packages. Also tell buyers to recycle or re-use all packaging and containers as far as possible.

Together all the small changes and effort we make makes a big difference.

Call for community-generated videos for CTV’s weekly environmental programme

Cape Town TV (CTV) is calling on all environmental and social justice organisations, activists, school groups, academics, government bodies etc. to submit video material for inclusion in CTV’s proposed weekly environmental magazine programme entitled “Bright Green".

The weekly programme will be co-produced by Neil Frye - who has a background in marketing and is passionate about environmental issues and the challenges facing living with dignity, peace and prosperity in Cape Town - and Liane Greeff, who has campaigned for environmental and social justice in South Africa for the past two decades.

The programme aims to highlight environmental issues and to showcase different approaches to environmental solutions - from engineering to art to activism to getting your hands dirty whilst planting the seeds of our future. Our primary focus is on what organisations and individuals in Cape Town are doing to lighten our ecological footprint.

The programme will complement and work in collaboration with Muna Lakhani’s studio programme entitled “People and Planet” as part of CTV’s objective of strengthening its environmental portfolio and contributing to genuine and people-friendly solutions to our environmental problems in Cape Town. The environment desk is also working in close collaboration with CTV News to provide up-to-date environmental news clips.

You are invited to contribute your community generated content. Additionally, send information on interesting environmental events or eco-art exhibitions and the crew may turn up with cameras and record your event.To this end the following contributions are wanted:

1. Ideas for the name of our weekly environmental magazine programme

Our favourite name so far is “Bright Green” or alternatively “A Lighter Footprint”, but we are still open to new ideas so let us know your suggestions.

2. Environmental video content

Contributions of existing environmental videos and clips, preferably edited, that we can include in our programme. Inserts need to be recent or current and should be no longer than 8 minutes in length.  Contributions can be in almost any format - usually AVI, MPEG4, or MOV files - which are then converted by CTV to our broadcast specifications. The video material can be submitted to CTV on a DVD, a portable hard drive or a flash drive.

Video material can be shot on cell phones and small consumer digital cameras, as well as more professional cameras. However, the better the quality of your camera, the better the quality of the final product will be. Be aware that if your video is in a format size smaller than our broadcast resolution of 720 x 576 pixels, it is likely to pixelate and to look digitally distorted when the size is increased for broadcast.

For your information, CTV’s broadcast specifications are as follows:

• Resolution: 720 x 576 pixels
• Frame rate: 25 frames per second
• Video system: PAL
• Aspect ratio: 4:3 (other formats such as HD formats are “letterboxed” to fit the 4:3 screen ratio)
• Display mode: Interlaced (top field first)
• Bitrate: 6000 Kbps

Guidelines for community-generated content:

• When you submit your content to CTV you will be required to sign a license agreement which gives CTV permission to broadcast the content. You can get a form via email by sending a request to the programme producers (see contact details below).
• Material must not contain any commercial content - i.e. which promotes products, businesses or other commercial ventures.
• No commercial music may be used (i.e. from popular artists who you hear on radio or see on TV). However CTV is registered with Norm and SAMRO and you can use what is called "library music", that is music that has been specially recorded for use in broadcast programmes. You can also use royalty-free music that is available on the internet.
• You will be required to fill in a music cue sheet that gives the title of the track, the name of the artist, the title of the album it appears on and the name of the music publisher who distributed the album.
• All content should be delivered to CTV at our offices: 6 Observatory Business Park, 18 Lower Scott Road, Observatory for attention Neil Frye.
• Please note that CTV is not in a position to pay for content as we are working with a very limited budget. This may change in the future.

3. Need some training in community journalism?

If you have a camera but are not very confident that your camera skills are up to scratch for broadcast purposes, why not sign up for the CTV civic journalism programme. Contact Lisa at  lisa.bluett@gmail.com

4. Your suggestions re topics, current events key calendar dates for inclusion

“Bright Green” is envisaged as an environmental magazine programme and therefore each week will include a variety of topics as well as interviews, music, art and an eco-diary. The tone is light and upbeat but this does not mean we will shy away from heavy topics, and each week at least one in depth story on a current hot topic will be included.

5. Keeping us up to date with important environmental calendar events

CTV's work is to profile your work, so letting us know what is happening, where and when will help us to do our work properly. Cape Town TV is your community TV channel. Use it!

Working together to create the future we want!

Neil Frye                                 &
Producer
neil@capetowntv.org
072 075 3978

Liane Greeff
Co-producer / Director
liane@kingsley.co.za
021 709 0864 or 083 415 2365