Planet In Focus - Our Planet, Your Focus, Our Festival

Global Warming and Energy just two of the environmental topics being explored at the 2005 Planet In Focus Festival

Toronto, ON September 12, 2005 —

The post oil world and climate change are major themes being explored at the 6 th annual Planet in Focus: International Environmental Film & Video Festival being held September 28 to October 2. Four films and a panel on The Post Oil World: Have We Really Thought Through Our Solutions will explore these pressing issues.

The Disappearing of Tuvalu documents the concerns of the small South Pacific island-nation of Tuvalu, which is facing total destruction due to the effects of global warming. With a population of about 11,000 living on a total land mass of 20 sq miles, Tuvalu has been inhabited for over four millennia and is the earth’s first sovereign nation. In the film, the warm spirited, and highly community-oriented, people of this ex British colony struggle to survive economically while confronting the likelihood of having to evacuate their homeland within the next 50 years. Director Christopher Horner’s encounters with Tuvalu’s citizens paints a full portrait of a unique community awaiting a dubious future on the front lines of a global environmental assault.

Directed by American film makerOle Tangen, Wind Over Water explores the issues at stake for the residents of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the first community in America faced with the prospect of living next to an offshore wind facility. Though many argue that wind power is beneficial, this decision has proven to be a challenging and fervently contested one for Cape Cod. At a moment when wind power is currently a 5 billion dollar global industry growing at the rate of 40% per year, Wind Over Water is a timely example of the environmental choices being faced by Americans: whether to embrace new energy technologies like offshore wind, or to continue its dependency on fossil fuels.

In The End of The World As We Know It, presenter and writer Marcel Theroux treks across the planet in order to discover the truth about global warming. He visits Chernobyl, the melting ice caps of Alaska, West Bengal in India, and talks to scientists, environmentalists, economists and even the ex-chairman of the British department of Shell Oil. Though the prognosis is scary and the lesson learned irrefutable, this is an irresistible documentary that presents scientific details in a forthcoming and human centered manner. The solutions proposed will surprise you.

Oil On Ice documents the goings on high above the Arctic circle in Alaska, where a battle is being fought over oil development and oil drilling in the Hula Hula Arctic Refuge. At stake is the culture and livelihood of the Gwich’in Athabascan Aboriginals, the Inupiat Inuit, and the migratory wildlife. This vivid doc goes right to the heart of oil politics/policy and explores our society’s addiction to fossil fuels. A sobering analysis of the global politics of oil sales and oil ownership and a definite must see.

PLANET IN FOCUS: International Environmental Film & Video Festival
September 28 - October 2, 2005
Tickets: 416.531.4689
Single ($10), student/senior ($8), opening night ($15), festival passes ($75)
Discounted block seats for groups available