Eco Focus

San Francisco’s Green Film Fest 2018 ended with the hope-inspiring sneak-peek screening of The Condor and The Eagle, September 13, after hosting over a week of new environmental films from around the globe, expert panels, and audience discussions in theaters throughout the city. 

Green Film Fest 2018 was an official Affiliate Event of the Global Climate Action Summit, and partnered with COAL + ICE exhibition, and Bay Area Now 8. Films were accompanied by panels and discussions featuring more than 60 new films and 100 filmmakers and guest speakers. With events held in the Castro Theatre, Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and Koret Auditorium at SF Public Library. This year featured more international guests than ever before. Films from 20 countries, visiting guests from 10 countries including China, South Africa, Australia, and Switzerland.

AWARDS ANNOUNCED AT FESTIVAL CLOSING NIGHT

Green Fire Award

The Green Fire Award is a juried annual award for Best San Francisco Bay Area Environmental Feature and includes a $1,000 cash prize. The award recognizes the best of independent filmmaking in the SF Bay Area by honoring innovative storytelling and new perspectives on environmental topics. 

Green Fire Award:    Wilder Than Wild: Fire, Forests, and the Future, Stephen Most & Kevin White, USA

“Filmmakers Kevin White and Stephen Most did a splendid job taking a complex, and often emotional, topic like wildfire and translating it into an informative and inspirational film... The more people that see this excellent documentary, the sooner we can begin to have the hard, but necessary, conversations about how to accommodate fire in our lives rather than futilely wishing it to go away. The jury hopes that this award will help Wilder Than Wild gain the visibility and attention it richly deserves.” ~ Green Fire Award jury

Green Fire Award Jury:
Gaetano Capizzi, Director, Cinemambiente; President, Green Film Network
Maribel Guevara, Director, ECOador International Film Festival
Leah Mahan, Documentary film director/producer; SFGFF Award Winner for Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek
Mark Valentine, ReFrame It Consulting
Jale Yoldas, Cultural & Public Diplomacy Officer, Consulate General of Switzerland in SF

Learn more about the Green Fire Award at greenfilmfest.org/greenfireaward_name.

San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award

For the first time, the SF Film Critics Circle – a group of Greater Bay Area reviewers and film writers – presented an award at the festival. The committee bestowed the honor on the work of a first-time documentary feature filmmaker.

SF Film Critics’ Circle - Best First Feature Documentary:    Food Coop, Tom Boothe, France

Other Green Film Fest Awards

Audience Award (voted at screenings):    Patrimonio, Lisa F. Jackson & Sarah Teale, USA
Best Feature:    Anote’s Ark, Matthieu Rytz, Canada
Best Short:    Invisible Blanket, Pasha Reshikov, USA
Green Tenacity:    STROOP: Journey Into the Rhino Horn War, Susan Scott, South Africa
Inspiring Lives:    Food Coop, Tom Boothe, France
Young Filmmaker:    Youth Unstoppable: Rise of the Global Climate Youth Movement, Slater Jewell-Kemker, Canada

Green Film Network Awards

SF Green Film Festival was the first USA host of the Annual International Green Film Network Awards. GFN is an association of the world's leading environmental film festivals to support the diversity and strength of documentary work around the globe, and is partnered with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The award winners are nominated by the 39 worldwide member festivals and decided by a global jury. Gaetano Capizzi, President of the Green Film Network, presented the awards.

GFN Best Feature:    Genesis 2.0, Christian Frei and Max Arbugaev, Switzerland

GFN Best Short:    Water Warriors, Michael Premo, USA/Canada

GREEN FILM FEST HIGHLIGHTS

Diversity in the Festival Foundations

International studies show that the women's roles are essential to climate action. Green Film Fest has always striven for gender parity both on-screen and behind the camera, because empowered women are critical for the global economy and the environment. The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film recently found that when it comes to programming films by women, the top 23 film festivals average just over 32 percent. Meanwhile, Green Film Fest 2018 featured 58% of all films with female directors, and 69% of all feature films. Green Film Fest features expansive diversity in not only gender, but also age, race, class, ethnicity, nationality, and sexuality.

Indigenous Emergence & Environmental Justice

Some of the environment’s strongest and most tenacious advocates are indigenous peoples around the globe. Indigenous leadership and climate justice spanned throughout Green Film Fest 2018, with guests including Madonna Thunder Hawk, leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM), the Steiger Butte singers and drummers of the Klamath Tribe, and dozens of indigenous activists from The Condor and the Eagle. Green Film Fest 2018 marched in the international RISE for Climate, Jobs, and Justice, organized by indigenous environmentalists around the globe to display the growing strength and diversity of the climate movement, and to demand change.

New International Collaborations

Green Film Fest was an official affiliate event of the Global Climate Action Summit, bringing leaders from around the world to San Francisco in support of the Paris Climate Agreement. This partnership aligned with collaborations at environmental art exhibitions Bay Area Now 8 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; COAL + ICE at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture; and the Reel Science Challenge at Exploratorium, bringing filmmakers and scientists together to create vital climate stories. Green Film Fest was also sponsored this year in part by the Consulate General of Canada in SF, and the Consulate General of Switzerland, and French Embassy in the USA. International partnerships include the Green Film Network, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Bank’s Connect4Climate initiative.

Visit their website at greenfilmfest.org/2018_collaborations for more information.

Impact Partners & Audience Engagement

Lights! Camera! Take Action! Green Film Fest connects passionate audiences with immediate actionable approaches to getting involved in the issues. Audiences engage in environmental discussions with guests that are leaders in the field, make Green Pledges, and connect with impact partners whose objectives align with the stories in the films.

Find out more about Green Film Fest community impact partners at greenfilmfest.org/partner.

Check out Green Film Fest Take Action initiatives at greenfilmfest.org/takeaction.

Sponsors & Partners

Green Film Fest 2018 is grateful to have exceptional support from Kaiser Permanente and The Campbell Foundation, and the generous support from all of its sponsors and partners. A current list of our 2018 sponsors and partners is at greenfilmfest.org/thanks.

Additional Information

Launched in 2011, the San Francisco Green Film Festival is the West Coast's leading event for films & discussions about people and the planet. SF Green Film Festival is dedicated to screening compelling environmental films; connecting audiences to filmmakers and experts; and sparking green ideas & actions. Our signature program is the annual Green Film Fest and we also screen films and support filmmakers throughout the year.

Photo Descriptions (at top): Steiger Butte Singers and Drummers of the Klamath Tribe with screening of Symphony for Nature. Green Fire Award Winning Film Wilder than Wild: Fire, Forests, and the Future (Filmmakers Kevin White and Stephen Most, and film subjects). Non-Stop Bhangra Dancers performance with screening of The Harvest. Q&A with Becky Tsadik, Master of Gastronomy, Good Food Foundation, and Randy Wittorp, SFGFF Board & Director of Public Affairs, Kaiser Permanente at screening of Wasted! A Food Waste Story. Closing Night: The Condor and the Eagle Q&A with Filmmakers Sophie and Clément Guerra, and film subjects/activists. Gaetano Capizzi, President of the Green Film Network, presenting GFN award for Best Feature to Christian Frei, director of Genesis 2.0. Q&A with Soumyaa Kapil Behrens, director of Nail House. Warrior Women director Christina King and Elizabeth Castle, and film subjects/American Indian Movement activists Madonna Thunder Hawk and Marcella Gilbert.

Photo credits: Tommy Lau, Pamela Gentile, Emily Boleware.

SF Green Film Festival
http://www.greenfilmfest.org/