NEW DELHI: Bringing together the best of wildlife and environmental films is a two-day “Wildscreen Film Festival” that opens at the British Council on Kasturba Gandhi Marg here on February 9.
Consisting of film screenings and master classes on significant issues concerning wildlife and our planet as a whole, the wildlife and environmental film festival will also visit Bangalore, Mumbai and Guwahati. The master classes will be conducted by nine award-winning film-makers from the United Kingdom.
During the festival, renowned Indian film-makers like Mike Pandey and Sandesh Kadur will share the Indian perspective and their case studies with audiences. Screenings of wildlife and environmental films from across the globe, some of them winners of the Panda Awards, nicknamed the Green Oscars, will be the highlight of the festival.
Day one will see an inaugural address by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, while actor Nandita Das will deliver the keynote address. There will be a master class on “Trends in wildlife and environmental film-making” by Harriet Nimmo and another on “Can films make a difference?” by Mike Pandey.
A 60-minute film titled “Can We Save Planet Earth?” co-produced by Discovery Channel and the Open University will be screened on February 10.
After a long, illustrious career as a naturalist, David Attenborough cares passionately about the world which he is leaving to coming generations. He looks into the future to find out what needs to be done to save the planet from the worst impact of global warming.
A special documentary commissioned by BBC Natural History United titled “Battle to Save the Tiger” will be screened on February 10. David Attenborough will narrate this moving documentary tracing the history from the 1960s when tiger shooting was legal to the present-day illegal trading of huge numbers of fresh skins from India to Tibet and China. This is the story of three champions of conservation – an undercover investigator, a tireless political campaigner and a whistle-blowing scientist.
Another film on the world climate change is “Global Dimming”. Climate scientists have discovered a phenomenon that threatens to disrupt our world.
If scientists are correct, then we may be about to unleash a climate catastrophe on our planet the like of which it hasn’t experienced in its four billion years.
Described as the world’s largest and prestigious wildlife and environmental film festival, Wildscreen was founded by Sir Peter Scott in 1982 and is organised every alternate year. It is aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change in an urban environment.
