Armed by Nature selected for Earth Vision Film Festival in Tokyo

An investigative Asian environmental documentary film produced by TVE Asia Pacific has been selected as a finalist at the 16th Earth Vision Global Environmental Film Festival in Tokyo, Japan.

Titled The Greenbelt Reports: Armed by Nature, the half hour documentary is part of a multi-media, multi-country project named The Greenbelt Reports. It investigates challenges in conserving Asia’s coastal greenbelts – coral reefs, mangroves and sand dunes – that offer protection from sea-based disasters, buffering against climate change impact and economic benefits to coastal communities.

This year's Earth Vision festival will be held from 7 to 9 March 2008 at the Yotsuya Kumin Hall in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo.

The festival will screen to a public audience a dozen film entries short-listed by two rounds of screenings by the festival secretariat. Additionally, nine environmental films intended for children and youth will also be screened.

Each screening will be followed by a talk by the film's director or producer who will then engage the audience.

TVE Asia Pacific will be represented by its Regional Programme Manager Manori Wijesekera. She was the overall producer of The Greenbelt Reports.

In Armed by Nature, TVE Asia Pacific’s production returns to many Asian coasts that were battered by the Tsunami. The documentary was filmed over several months in 2006 in many coastal locations of India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand – the four countries that were hardest hit by the Asian Tsunami.

“We brought together a highly talented group of TV journalists and film-makers who are locally based nationals in these countries,” says Manori Wijesekera. “Working with these colleagues made our series more authentic and credible. Thanks to them, we filmed interviews in a dozen Asian tongues, and accessed locations and stories not easily found by visiting foreign film crews.”

The documentary shows how countries are now beginning to appreciate the life-saving ‘ecosystem service’ of coastal greenbelts, but “it comes too late to save many of Asia’s greenbelts.”

It adds: “As the region advanced economically, large extents of mangroves and coral reefs were destroyed or degraded. What’s left is under tremendous pressure from poverty and growing human population.”

But all is not lost. There is hope yet for saving the region’s remaining greenbelts. Across Asia, dedicated individuals and groups are trying out various methods to save, strengthen or bring back coastal greenbelts. Their experience shows that it’s indeed possible to have the greenbelts and use them too.

The documentary ends on an optimistic note: “The good news is that more and more local communities and activists are taking up these challenges. Their efforts offer some hope for the beleaguered greenbelts of Asia.”

Earth Vision, the Tokyo Global Environmental Film Festival has been held annually in Tokyo since 1992 as a visual forum to examine the environment through moving images. Official entries are chosen by public invitation from Polynesia, Oceania and Asia, including Japan. Film entries are screened for judging. Accepting entries from both amateurs and professionals is an important characteristic of this film festival.

Earth Vision is operated by the Earth Vision Organisation comprising the Global Environmental Forum (an environmental NPO for scientific policy research and dissemination of information about environmental issues), NHK Joho Network Inc. (a company providing news-related services and contents), Kiyosato Educational Experimental Project (a foundation for promoting environmental education), Oak Group (an organization for promoting environmental education), Group Gendai Films Company Ltd. (an independent production company of environmental films), and Urban Communications, Inc. (a subsidiary of Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. specialised in cultural events). Earth Vision is supported by many public institutions and private companies that have a high awareness of environmental issues.

Useful links:

December 2006: Armed by Nature: New documentary looks at the Tsunami's environmental lessons

December 2006: TVE Asia Pacific releases The Greenbelt Reports

A Year After the Tsunami: Have We Learned the Lessons?
Nalaka Gunawardene’s article in Islam Online Science and Technology Section

The Asian Tsunami’s Powerful Lessons: We ignore them at our peril
Nalaka Gunawardene’s essay in Green Cross International’s The Optimist magazine