16th Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Fest
Duration : 00:46:48
Filmmaker : Alvynn Diagne
Theme : Marine Conservation, Waste Management
Synopsis :
NO MAD highlights how the association, ‘The Lifeboat Project’, is working with the government of the Philippines to combat illegal fishing (dynamite, cyanide) as well as trying to create a Non Take Marine Sanctuary in Coron and replanting reef with the use of BioRock technology.
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Duration : 00:51:29
Filmmaker : Oliver Goetzl
Theme : Wildlife, Ecosystem
Synopsis :
Volcanoes are temperamental, dangerous and deadly. Not the ideal place for wildlife. But Mt. Suswa in Kenya is a volcano like no other: it hosts a multitude of life both above and below its
surface. Underground tunnels were formed thousands of years ago by rivers of lava whose outer layers cooled and solidified while the core continued to flow. Once the fluid lava evacuated itself completely, massive subterranean tubes were left behind.
One of these caverns is the Baboon Parliament as the local Masai named it. Remarkably, Suswa is the only known place in the world where olive baboons roost in caves. It is an almost unique behaviour among primates that gives us a glimpse over the reasons that drove hominids to find shelter into caves in pre-historic times.
Surprisingly so far no film has ever been made exclusively about this natural history wonder.
Mt. Suswa’s rugged flanks conceal an untouched treasure trove of biodiversity hidden inside its craters and in the deep and mysterious scars left behind by its turbulent past. But the mountain’s true colours are locked up within an aura of mystique: Mt. Suswa is a fortress protected by its own inaccessibility. Its bastions are steep, barren and sharp, discouraging any unwanted visitors.
(Featured mammal species: olive baboon, rock hyrax, bat-eared fox, african wild dog, spotted hyena, kirk’s dik-dik, klipspringer, large-eared free-tailed bat, African elephants.
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Duration : 00:05:08
Filmmaker : Niki Borger
Theme : Sustainability
Synopsis :
Set twenty years in the future, four adults confess their day-to-day climate sins and why they didn’t do things any better.
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Duration : 00:01:35
Filmmaker : Bauddhayan Mukherji
Theme : Water Conservation
Synopsis :
Save water is the backbone of this film which harps on the rural-urban divide in India. One day the villagers discover a shower cubicle on a deserted barren land of Rajasthan. Immediately the word spreads in the entire village and the villagers gather in-front of the cubicle to drink and store water. The mere joy among the villagers were well portrayed throughout the film and the voice over backs it up by saying “While the entire village fulfilled their thirst, an urban man’s shower is still not over – making us question the amount of water we waste on a daily basis while we go in for a quick shower.
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Duration : 00:04:21
Filmmaker : Alex Spoerndli
Theme : Energy Conservation, Climate change
Synopsis :
Encouraging change in energy consumption starts not only with the consumers at home. Politics and industry need to step forward and boldly present measures for sustainable energy solutions. Two research programs conducted by the Swiss National Science Foundation presented their solutions in front of a large audience of politicians and industry leaders. But for convincing them to change, a more direct message needed to be sent.
That’s why we let the energy speak for itself.
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Duration : 00:10:12
Filmmaker : Katie Garret
Theme : Wildlife Conservation
Synopsis :
Iconic salamanders that live exclusively in Mexico City’s Xochimilco lake complex, axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum) are remarkable for a number of reasons. While most salamanders spend part of their adulthood on land, axolotls live permanently underwater and retain their larval features” including their feathery external gills”throughout their lives. There, they grow to lengths of up to 30 centimeters (12 inches), preying on aquatic insects, worms, tadpoles, crustaceans, and small fish. Thanks to their unique physiology and ability to regrow severed limbs, axolotls have been treasured by both the ancient Aztecs, who considered them to be descendants of an important deity, and modern scientists, who have used them as lab models to study everything from tissue regeneration to cancer. However, the species is now critically endangered in the wild, suffering from the triple threat of habitat destruction, pollution, and the introduction of non-native predatory fish. It is also a canary in the coal mine for an ecosystem in extreme distress. In this short film, join Luis Zambrano and Cristina Barros from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) to see how some of Mexico’s biologists, anthropologists, and traditional farmers are responding to this crisis, working to restore the habitat that is necessary not just for axolotls to survive in the wild, but also for the region’s human populations to thrive.
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Duration : 00:11:26
Filmmaker : Katie Jewett
Theme : River Conservation, Community, Biological Mitigation
Synopsis :
Restoring native crustaceans along the West Africa’s Senegal River may be a critical step in controlling one of the world’s deadliest tropical diseases.
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Duration : 00:16:15
Filmmaker : Raghunath Belur, Sugandhi Gadadhar
Theme : Wildlife
Synopsis :
“Wings & Wetlands – A Story Of Migration”, is produced by the Karnataka Forest Department, as part of its outreach activity, for the State’s Action plan, on the protection and conservation of the birds that use the Central Asian Flyway. It is a short documentary that highlights waterbirds, especially the ones that migrate to Karnataka, India during winter, and the wetlands that they migrate to.
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Duration : 00:41:00
Filmmaker : Andrea Marinelli
Theme : Community, Pollution
Synopsis :
In the 1970s the start of oil extraction in the Ecuadorian Amazon engendered expectations that the country was entering a new era of prosperity. Over the following four decades, hydrocarbons have marked the history of Ecuador affecting economic fluctuations, following oil price cycles in the global market together with changes in domestic taxation and ownership regimes, and stirring periodically renewed hopes of development as well as discontent. The documentary shows some of the impacts generated by oil extraction in the Orellana and SucumbÃos provinces of the Ecuadorian Amazon and the associated social mobilization of the indigenous and mestizo population.
The focus is on frugal but advanced GIScience, drones, smartphones and bespoke apps that are being deployed by community members living next to oil installations to produce evidence on the impacts of the oil industry. The activity is a result of a project combining citizen science, scholarly activism, indigenous and mestizo mobilization. The activities bring together social movements, academics and some (mostly local) government authorities that take advantage of each other’s expertise and co-develop tools to collect and communicate evidence on the local impacts of oil extraction. The evidence produced has been used for campaigning at various levels addressing the companies, governments and public opinion. Taken together, the tools and strategies deployed are instruments in the David and Goliath slow struggle for environmental justice that pit local communities and activists against the interests of extractive industries.
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Duration : 00:13:17
Filmmaker : Nico Aguren
Theme : Wildlife Conservation
Synopsis :
On a remote volcanic island in the Caribbean, a little known frog species is taking part in an experiment that could help scientists cure a fungal pathogen that is wiping out amphibians across the world. This short film follows the journey of the first frogs to be successfully reintroduced into Montserrat in ten years. But there is no guarantee that these frogs will endure the long journey or survive in a contaminated island.
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