Sub-Saharan Africa Broadcast Presents: CLIMATE CHANGE & COMMUNITIES – ON YOUR SCREEN A Week of Environmental Films on AfriDocs

AfriDocs is proud to present the second in its series of AfriDocs Film Weeks from Dec 2 – 9thto coincide with the United Nations Framework on Climate Change COP meeting in Lima, Peru. During this week some of the world's best environmental films will be screened across sub-Saharan Africa on DStv channel ED (channel 190)and GOtv (channel 65).

These documentary films from across the globe bring the global discussions between countries back down to the human level – sharing stories of how climate change is already affecting some of the world's most vulnerable peoples.

From India and Kenya to the Pacific Islands and the USA, these films share stories of communities trying to overcome the very real challenges presented by environmental processes that have already started to affect their ways of life.

A series of short films produced for the Action4Climate challenge will also be screened during the week. The Action4Climate competition challenged filmmakers to raise awareness of climate change, share experiences and inspire action by creating a video documentary.

The response was overwhelming with more than 230 videos from 70 countries were submitted, bringing to life the serious consequences of climate change across the world and highlighting the actions taken by local communities to tackle it.

The three Action4Climate competition winning short films to be screened are:

The Tail of a Trail: The 1stplace winner of the competition, this film from Portugal is a letter from the future is written to our recent past, telling us how the world ´it turned out right´. It follows the trail of someone that left words written, words of change, of simple change. In this near future, the images of our world are the same, but the value of words can be very different.

Global Warning: This 2nd place winning film from Bulgaria and the Philippines is a A documentary about the super typhoon Yolanda - Haiyan which hit the Philippines on Nov 8th 2013.

Snows of the Nile: 3rd place place winning film from USA & Uganda. Uganda's Rwenzori Mountains rise 5000m from the heart of Africa. At their summits are some of Earth's only equatorial glaciers. But these "Mountains of the Moon," whose existence caused a sensation in Europe when they were first climbed in 1906, are changing fast.

Watch the AfriDocs Climate Change Week Promo 2-9 Dec 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxrhW9JPRhY

FILM SCHEDULE

2 December Tuesday

BLACK ICE | Maarten van Rouveroy | Russia
When the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise set sail to protest the first ever oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean, none of the people on board could have known what was coming. Seized at gunpoint by Russian special forces, the 'Arctic 30' were thrust into headlines all over the world, facing up to 15 years in prison and finding themselves at the centre of a bitter international dispute.

BEYOND PRAYER | Neelima Mathur | India | 2011
The north Indian region of Ladakh is barren and rocky, a cold desert. The biggest problem for the people, like in any desert, is the shortage of water. The Film chronicles the pioneering work of Chewang Norphel who builds artificial glaciers that provide water to the farmers in summer through an innovative engineering process of channelising main water resources.

3 December Wednesday

Char – The No-Man's Island | Sourav Sarangi | India | 2012

Meet Rubel, a fourteen-year-old boy smuggling rice from India to Bangladesh. Everyday he crosses the international border at the river Ganga, which has eroded his home in mainland India. Years later a fragile island called Char formed within the large river and Rubel's family and many homeless people settled in this barren field controlled by border army. He dreams of going to school in India but reality forces him to smuggle rice to Bangladesh.

Carbon for Water I Evan Abramson, Carmen Elsa Lopez I Kenya I 2011

In Kenya's Western Province, most drinking water is contaminated. The wood many Kenyans use to boil this water to make it safe has therefore become increasingly valuable. Women and girls, who bear the responsibility for finding water and fuel, often miss school or work while seeking both fuel and water. Yet waterborne illness remains a daily--and life-threatening--reality for them and their families. Carbon For Water introduces audiences to the inspiring people who face these hardships, and explores one company's innovative solution for improving the health of millions of Kenyans and the environment in which they live.

4 December Thursday

THERE ONCE WAS AN ISLAND | Te Henua E Nnoho | Papua New Guinea | 2010

An award-winning documentary exploring the question: what if your community had to decide whether to leave their homeland forever and as there was no help available? This is the reality for the culturally unique Polynesian community of Takuu, a tiny low-lying atoll in the South Western Pacific. As a terrifying tidal flood rips through there already damaged homes, the Takuu community experiences the devastating effects of climate change first-hand.

This film gives a human face to the direct impacts of climate change in the Pacific, challenging audiences everywhere to consider their own relationship to the earth and the other people on it.

5 December Friday
CLIMATE OF CHANGE | Brian Hill | USA | 2010
This documentary , narrated by Tilda Swinton, is an inspiring and optimistic look at the efforts of everyday people all over the world who are making a difference in the fight against global warming. From a group of 13-year-olds in India rallying against the use of plastics, to a Renaissance man in Africa who teaches villagers to harness solar power, this film reveals how everyone can make a difference.

9 December Tuesday

BAD WEATHER | Giovanni Giommi | Bengal | 2011
Off the coast of Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal is a tiny 'brothel island' populated by women forced to sell their bodies to men who arrive by the boatload. Each of the women came to inhabit the 100m long and 10m wide piece of land for different reasons, whether through a sister, the need for money, or in search of love and affection, but for all of them it is a life tougher than they could have imagined. Deepening their troubles is the island's existence at the frontline of climate change, and with the increase of cyclones, floods and soil erosion the prospect of losing their homes, and the island itself, is closer than ever.

ABOUT AFRIDOCS FILM WEEK
The AfriDocs Film Week will connect the a massive Pan-African TV viewership through a 'documentary film festival at on your screen' with films from across the globe- all powerfully communicating the very real effects of climate change on communities.

“There are so many real and powerful stories out there, and documentary films are one of the most effective tools for sharing these stories,” explains AfriDocs Executive Producer Don Edkins from Steps in Cape Town.

This week-long film event is a special broadcast project from AfriDocs, the first weekly primetime documentary strand broadcasting across Africa. Every Tuesday - and starting soon also every Thursday - evening on ED (DStv channel 190) and GOtv (channel 65), AfriDocs screens top African documentaries to 49 countries by satellite, and terrestrially to an additional 100 cities in 8 countries.

AfriDocs is an initiative of the multi-awarded South African documentary production and distribution company, Steps, in partnership with the Bertha Foundation.

For the full programme schedule and synopses of the films, please go to www.afridocs.net or www.facebook.com/AfriDocs

You can also follow AfriDocs on twitter: @Afri_Docs

#AfriDocsCilmateWeek #AfriDocsCOPSummit