Planet In Focus | Environmental Film & Video Festival Blog

First Ever Planet In Focus Press Conference

September 23rd, 2010 | Posted in Film Festival, Planet In Focus Events, Ticket sales | Comments »

It was standing room only at the first ever Planet in Focus Press Conference, held yesterday in the spectacular Schad Gallery of Biodiversity at the Royal Ontario Museum.

We couldn’t have asked for a more appropriate venue to announce the schedule for the 11^th annual edition of the Festival.

But first: why environmental film? For a moment, think back to your earliest film memory. For many of us, there are images that are indelibly imprinted on our minds.

Mine is of Bambi prancing through the softly falling rain, deep in the heart of the wood. Perhaps the empathy I felt as a child for that little deer helped feed my interest in the wilderness, and the film’s beauty forage a lifelong love of film.

As I walked into the Museum, past the birds and the animals in the spectacular Schad Gallery of Biodiversity, I recalled Bambi, perhaps the best-known environmental film ever – with a reach even greater than An Inconvenient Truth.

This year, Planet in Focus brings you more unforgettable stories and experiences as we launch the 11^th annual edition of our festival, with over 100 environmental feature films, documentaries, shorts and animation over 5 full days in October.

We even have a Silent Auction with retailers in the Bloor-Yorkville area, whose Business Improvement Association has made a bold commitment to environmental sustainability, as well as a stunning photographic exhibition of large format photography of species at risk at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre.

I am also very proud to announce that our Opening Night will be held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, a beautiful venue and important centre for film not only in Toronto but around the world.

And with plenty of filmmakers, film discussions, receptions and workshops, your Festival experience is sure to live with you well beyond the theatre.

This year, we champion an unprecedented number of films – over 100 in total – that promise to change the dialogue around the most pressing issues of our time.

Why environmental film? Perhaps we should say what is environmental film.

I believe that environmental film is about engagement. What happens after you watch the film is as important as what happens on-screen.

Anything can happen when environmental interest meets artistry, and it does.

We can even change the world.

We invite you to join us this October. Have fun. Be inspired. Get engaged.

Tickets on Sale Now: Order Online! – Call 416-968-3456 or view our film schedule online at planetinfocus.org.

PIF Environmental “All Time Favourite” Films – Andrew Stevenson – Cane Toads: An Unnatural History

September 14th, 2010 | Posted in Documentaries, Staff reviews, film reviews | 1 Comment »

Posted by Andrew Stevenson

For me, the film that radically redefined my sense of what an environmental film could be was Mark Lewis’ 1988 documentary Cane Toads: An Unnatural History. While countless nature films that came before it relied on imperious narration, sombre talking heads and an unremittingly gloomy tone to hammer home their message, Cane Toads deployed unrestrained humour, quirky, memorable characters and a playful use of fictional movie-making conventions: subjective camera angles (ie., a toad’s POV), suspenseful editing and horror film music. By focusing on invasive toads as its unlikely subject (as opposed to cuddly polar bears, penguins or dolphins), the film manages to turn yet another cliche of the environmental documentary on its head: that of nature as the perpetually passive victim of human encroachment.

In Cane Toads, the tables are turned; nature (in the form of oversized and oversexed amphibians running rampant across vast stretches of Australia) is shown as a disruptive force impacting both human lives and the human environment. Nature is not romanticized or eulogized in a simplistic fashion, but depicted as a multi-faceted and unpredictable force provoking a variety of human responses. At the same time, the film very effectively makes a vital point about the unintended and potentially disastrous consequences of human interaction with the environment.

Regards,
Andrew

Andrew Stevenson is a member of the Planet in Focus Board

PIF Environmental “All Time Favourite” Films – Allan Tong – Blade Runner

September 10th, 2010 | Posted in Film Festival, Staff reviews, film reviews | 3 Comments »

Posted by Allan Tong

Huh? You’re wondering what is Ridley Scott’s 1982 dystopian masterpiece doing on a list of the greatest environmental films? It’s a sci-fi film about robots who want to live longer in futuristic L.A.

I argue that Blade Runner is a green film, because it forces its audience to consider a world without natural landscapes or animals. Forests of blinking skyscrapers have replaced trees and hills. All the animals, down to Joanna Cassidy’s snake in her exotic dance routine, are man-made. Organic is an historic notion. Nature is a quaint memory. There’s no green at all in this film, just darkness, smoke and shiny metal.

Blade Runner warns us of human development run rampant. Just look at the supercities of today’s China and our own downtowns in Canada, and Blade Runner’s Los Angeles will start to look familiar. Of course, this is a terrifying trend, but one of the key roles of film, especially science-fiction, is to dream nightmares so we can avoid them in reality.

Allan Tong is the 2010 Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival Industry Programmer