The Environmental Film Festival Australia (EFFA) invites audiences from Australia, New Zealand and internationally to join them in the digital realms for an awe-inspiring journey around the globe. Touch down with people and communities around the world as they unpack some of the most pressing environmental issues of our times and whose work and decisive actions are leading the way forward for a more sustainable future and healthier natural world.
The entire 2021 Environmental Film Festival program of free and ticketed events is available to stream online from 14 October to 14 November, from wherever you decide to put your feet up.
The reels will be rolling with short-films, documentaries, feature-length movies, children’s viewing and special events tackling the big environmental issues; such as mining, degradation of land and forests, excess consumerism; poisoned and disappearing waterways, and the knock on effect it has on communities. On the flipside of disaster, problem solvers, change-makers, storytellers, individuals, groups, Indigenous elders and traditional custodians of the lands on which we walk, show us the way.
Environmental Film Festival Australia program
To name just a few of the many highlights. In ‘Women in Fire’, female firefighters are on the frontline. The short film highlights the courage and determination of women based in America who are making inroads for women’s equality in the emergency services sector and in other traditionally male-dominated workplaces.
With their ‘can’t stop me’ attitude, the women featured in this film are living out their dream jobs, caring for the environment, protecting community, and sending an inspiring message out to young girls and women around the world that they can and should strive to be who they want to be.
Veins of the Country, is a short film by Senior Gooniyandi artist and storyteller Mervyn Street. Mervyn draws on the likenesses of the human body; veins, heart and lungs, with the currents and flow of lakes, rivers and estuaries. His analogy describes how water inhales and exhales like the motion of our lungs, and how the waters that run through land and Country are like the blood running through our veins.
Mervyn impresses on the importance of the Warlibiddi/Margaret and Martuwarra/Fitzroy Rivers catchment area, how it sustains the people of that region and connects them further down the line to community and culture. Presented as part of the Australian & Local Neighbours short-film collection, which also among other shorts includes No Distance Between Us, a journey to the largest human fossil trackway in the world, which is located in the Willandra Lakes Region, on the lands of the Barkandji, Mutthi Mutthi and Ngiyampaa people.
“We’re all part of that river, we drink one water from the one main rainfall. Everybody.” – Mervyn Street.
Have a listen to Australia’s future generation, a group of insightful young people who marched for ‘action on climate change’ during the global youth movement School Strike 4 Climate. EFFA presents a wrap up of the behind-the-scenes action, and turns up the volume on the voices of young visionaries telling us the future of the world and the state of the environment matters to them.
A compelling story unfolds in Veins of the World. This film tells a captivating tale of an eleven year old boy named Amra and his nomadic family who live on ancestral lands in Mongolia, one of many places around the world being taken over by global mining corporations churning up the land and spoiling the water. Amra’s family are one of only a few left who haven’t taken the small monetary compensations offered to them to move off the land. The sublime beauty of their land is ghastly overshadowed by the pits and craters that mark the presence of gold mining in the region. While taking the short-track home one day, Amra’s father’s car hits a divot in the road. The crash has a devastating impact on the family and Amra must step up to help his mother. Before long, Amra finds himself down a well mining buckets of earth for local men involved in illegal mining activity. And in the face of such adversity, Amra fulfils his dream to sing at Mongolia’s Got Talent.
“Once upon a time before greed prevailed. In the beginning of time. Our planet was woven of gold. That is why we call it “Golden Earth”. To remind the world let’s sing this hymn. When the last golden vein is exposed, the demons awaken. Life will be extinguished forever and the earth falls into dust. That is why we call it the “Golden Earth”. To remind the world lets sing this hymn. Gold is unattainable happiness, gold is endless suffering. This truth is told over generations from grandparents, to parents, to us. That is why we call it “Golden Earth”. Let’s sing this hymn for every living thing. – ‘Golden Veins’ a hymn sung by Amra at Mongolia’s Got Talent.
These simple words remind us that the search for wealth can lead to greed. Veins of the World is emotive, intimate and at times humorous but most of all it opens our eyes to the devastating costs that corporate greed has on communities and the environment the world over. Don’t miss it!
Jump online to see more of the Environmental Film Festival program and to book your tickets.
5% of all ticket income (after fees) goes to Pay The Rent, a program run by First Nations and non-First Nations people working together as the Pay The Rent Grassroots Collective. The initiative is based on the lands of the Kulin Nation in Victoria, Australia. Click here to find out more about the work they do and find out how you can be part of helping right the wrongs of the past.
Environmental Film Festival Australia is a 100% volunteer-run organisation. Through their efforts, EFFA brings provocative storytelling and environmental realities to audiences in ground-breaking cinema experiences that challenge the way we think about our relationship and interactions with the natural world. With hope for the present, and in turn, the future, EFFA extends the olive branch to inspire us all to do our part and help in the healing and care of our beautiful, yet fragile planet.