Green Me Film Festival Ends Today

Yinka Olatunbosun
The annual environmental film festival, Green Me Global will end today at the Silverbird Galleria, Victoria Island, Lagos. The two-day festival which began yesterday was initiated in 2008 to showcase the works of green film makers and honour them.

This unique festival, split into four sections, features film screenings, workshops, exhibition and panel discussion sessions. The overall idea is to create awareness about the danger of global warming as well as the imminent destruction of the earth through pollution and land degradation.

The festival director, Nicolai Niemann expressed his gratitude for the financial support by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs on this project during the media briefing held at the German Consulate, Walter Carrington Street, Victoria Island.
“It is our ultimate goal to host the Green Me festival in every continent of the world. By so doing, we take our message to the people, rather than wait for people to come to us,’’ he said.

In the past eight years, the Green Me Festival has offered a platform for the green films, green publicity and green economy. Movies with ecological related topics from all over the world are evaluated and screened at the festival. This year, the select topics are ocean, life, waters, as well as movies addressing ocean pollution, life’s complications and water sustainability. Hence, German films which had won the Green Award in the past will be screened.

“We are organising a film workshop for some invited film schools,” Niemann said. “A topic will be giving to the participants who are expected to shoot a short film that expresses the topic. This short film will be shot and screened at the festival while the best short film will be given a prize. The winning school will also receive an award in prize money as a way of promoting the culture of making environmentally friendly movies.’’

Since 2013, when the 6th edition of the festival was held, the Green Me Film Award which rewards the winner with the sum of 5000 euros was instituted. The shortlisted films for this special award this year in the water category include Tunde Kelani’s Dazzling Mirage. Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen’s Invasion 1897, and Dagogo Jack’s Stigma.

For the Water category, the nominations include, Jeta Amata’s Black November, Rightangle Production’s Oloibiri, and two documentaries, The Lady in the Water and Nowhere to Run by 37th state and Yar’adua Foundation respectively.
The jury is made up of the festival director, Niemann, German filmmaker, Volker Langhoff and the German Consul-General in Lagos, Ingo Herbert.