Award-winning filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky is looking for support on Kickstarter to fund an eco-documentary on the Arctic

Unless you have been hiding under a rock these last couple of months, the record loss of Arctic sea ice this summer will not have escaped your attention. According to the scientists, the Arctic ice melt broke all previous records (and not a small margin but by an an area larger than the state of Texas) and represents the clearest sign yet of global warming. So, what can we do? Well, lots but one interesting question that award-winning documentary filmmaker and photographer Saeed Taji Farouky want us to ask is ‘can art save the Arctic?’

Around a year ago, Farouky was invited to join an artists residency on a tall ship sailing around Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago for two weeks. During that trip he shot …Even That Void, a surreal, semi-fictional, sci-fi ecological documentary. Farouky now wants support to fund a full length documentary which will not only explore the loss of this last great wilderness but will turn the ecological documentary genre on its head. 

Tell us a little about yourself.
I am Saeed Taji Farouky, an award-winning documentary filmmaker [based in London]. I am a Senior Fellow at TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design). I’ve been previously named Artist-In-Residence at Tate Britain and twice at the British Museum for my film and photography work. In 2004, I co-founded the production Tourist With A Typewriter with Gareth Keogh.

What inspired you to make this ecological documentary about the arctic?
As a human-rights and social justice filmmaker I find that many documentaries about environmentalism can’t get beyond academics and politics. So with my latest experimental documentary, There Will Be Some Who Will Not Fear Even That Void, my team and I will turn the traditional ‘ecological-documentary’ on its head and re-connect environmentalism to humanism, morality and passion. We want viewers to see that the movement to protect the natural world is as much about ethics as it is about technology. Our film will bring a new dimension to the debate about climate change and ask “can art save the Arctic?”

What is going to be different about this film?
There Will Be Some Who Will Not Fear Even That Void is an ecological film for the 21st century.

During the two weeks I spent on the tall ship Antigua, I filmed, interviewed and collaborated with the other artists on board to chronicle the bizarre, surreal, beautiful and frightening works of art they made in response to the extreme and poetic environment of the Arctic landscape. Together with photographers, performance artists, painters, sound artists, writers, and general creative disruptors of the norm, we made a documentary that will re-define the “environmental film” genre and surprise audiences into reconsidering their relationship with the natural world.

While the footage I shot is real, the plot – inspired by the other-worldliness of the location and recent events in my own life – is fictional. I imagine the artists as a team of specialists sent on a mission in the future to rebuild the Arctic environment after it has been almost completely destroyed by global warming. With no master plan, maps or blueprints, each artist recreates the Arctic of his or her own (flawed) memories, fears and desires. Through the film’s narration I will also address darker contemporary concerns: global warming, the Arctic resource race, the political tension of a militarised Arctic and the disappearance of the last great wilderness.
Ultimately, the film is my love-letter to the Arctic: obsessive, tumultuous, affectionate and heart-breaking.

Wondering about the film’s catchy title?

Yes, we are!
It is taken from a letter Johannes Kepler wrote to Galileo Galilei in 1610, musing on the future of space travel. “Provide ship or sails adapted to the heavenly breezes,” Kepler hypothesised, “and there will be some who will not fear even that void.”

Why have you launched the kickstarter campaign and what will the supporter’s money go towards?
The team and I have been invited to return to the Norwegian Arctic – to the city of Tromsø – in November to edit the film and write and record an ambitious soundtrack with Norwegian ambient and Jazz musicians. We already have an excellent distributor on board – DR Sales from Denmark – and a brilliant Norwegian co-Producer, John Arvid Berger from JAB Film based in Tromsø. We also have plans for an international premiere in a major US festival. But in order for this to happen, we really need you to be a part of the team too.

We’ve already secured a grant from the wonderful people at the North Norwegian Film Centre to cover expenses in Norway like studio time and local technicians and studio engineers. This Kickstarter campaign will get our team to Norway to work for five weeks, and will allow us to collaborate with a local sound designer. Your pledges will also cover the costs of bringing together an impressive collection of local and well-known Norwegian ambient and Jazz musicians to record the soundtrack: musicians travel costs, fees and legal expenses. Stay tuned for more details of the musicians we’ll be working with as our new collaborations are announced.

Anything else you’d like to add?
We do need lots of generous backers to finish the film but if you can’t make a pledge, you can still be part of the team by following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook or just generally spreading the word. It really would mean a lot to us.

Content and information via the Kickstarter page. Images via Saeed Taji Farouky.

For more on arctic and eco-films see: 
Greenland’s Melting Glacier will affect Middle East
The Lorax Brings a Muddling Message to MidEast
Abu Dhabi Behind Matt Damon Anti-Fracking Film

The post Help Make Palestinian Filmmaker’s Eco-Documentary A Reality appeared first on Green Prophet.

The editor of the Arabic-language magazine Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia was awarded the Zayed International Prize for environmental action leading to positive change in society

Najib Saab, the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia (Environment and Development) and secretary general of AFED (Arab Forum for Environment and Development) won the Zayed International Prize for the role he has played in raising awareness about environmental concerns in the Arab world.

UAE minister of Environment and Water, Dr Rashid Ahmed bin Fahd, explained that Najib Saab had secured the award because his influential and successful magazine had “triggered unprecedented environmental awareness at all levels” and “built a new relationship between policy-makers and people of the Arab world with the issues of environment and sustainability, and placed the environment high on the national and regional agenda.” The prize will be handed out next week in a ceremony in Dubai.

The Zayed International Prize for Environment was setup in 2001 by Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and is worth $1 million. It is believed to be one of the most prestigious environmental prizes worldwide. Dr Mohammad Bin Fahd, Chairman of the Prize, told Gulf News; “The prize is named after the late Shaikh Zayed, who showed care for the environment long before it became a global issue, and this award represents Shaikh Zayed’s philosophy.”

Saab’s vision for a more environmental conscious Arab world meant that he setup the environmental magazine back in 1996 and as it was published in the Arabic language, it has been able to reach a wide Arab audience including pupils at schools and influential policy-makers.

Saab has also influenced the establishment of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) which is now an influential think-tank for environmental issues in the region. AFED has played an important role in highlighting issues such as water shortages and the need for urgent action to avoid the worst affects of climate-change induced water scarcity.

We featured AFED’s documentary Wet and Dry back in July 2010 although Green Prophet reporter Tafline Laylin raised concerns about the misguided notion that flashy projects such as Masdar should be considered as some sort of sustainable solution.

Even so, the efforts of Najib Saab in highlighting environmental issues in the Arab world does deserve recognition. Other winners include the environmental economist Partha Dasgupta, Dr Mathis Wackernagel who co-founded the Global Footprint Network and Lee Myung-bak, the President of the Republic of Korea.

: Gulf News and MidEast Environment

: Image via AFED.

For more on the Zayed Prize see:

Six Finalists Chosen for Masdar’s Zayed Future Energy Prize

Wind Giant Vestas Gives Half of its $1.5 Million Zayed Prize to Other Renewable Innovators

Win The $1.5 Million Zayed Future Energy Prize

The post Editor of Arabic Environmental Magazine Scoops Top Eco Prize appeared first on Green Prophet.

The short documentary highlights the lack of adequate flood protection in Saudi, after floods killed four this winter and left over 120 people dead in 2009

Whilst the world deals with the recent Wikileak revelations that Saudi exaggerated its oil supplies by 40%, local Saudi citizens have got together to deal with a more pressing issue for them: recurrent and deadly floods. Just this winter four people were killed after heavy rains, electricity was cut off in parts of Saudi’s second largest city of Jeddah and many feared a repeat of the serious flooding of 2009 that killed 122 people.

A group of concerned citizens from Jeddah have released a documentary (in Arabic only, I’m afraid) on the difficulties locals have faced in dealing with recent flood that hit Jeddah. Insisting that the floods are man-made, they have put forward suggestions to help avoid heavy losses in future.

The documentary, which is titled The Gateway to the Two Holy Mosques, was uploaded to youtube on February 11 and has already been viewed over 150,000 times. It appeals to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to take action and save the city from corrupt or inefficient government officials. There have been complaints after the slow clean-up of central Jeddah which was devastated by a toxic mix of raw sewage and rainwater this January.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sCl9XGA2Ao&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Featuring the likes of Abdullah Omar Naseef, the former secretary-general of the Muslim League and Dr. Waleed Fitaiha, the documentary holds a lot of authority and is already gathering attention. In the documentary the writer Ahmad Al-Shugari asks for a solution which will ensure an end to the floods, a timescale for action as well an estimate of the cost of the efforts to improve flood protection.

Surrounding countries such as Oman also face the issue of flooding and have recently announced a major flood protection system to secure the suburbs of Muscat, which suffered from severe flooding during the recent cyclonic storms. Let’s hope that Saudi takes time not only to learn from its neighbours but also to listen to its citizens so it can resolve this issue once and for all.

: Arab News

:: Image via Abusaleh on Picasa.

For more green news from Saudi Arabia see:

Wikileaks: Former Aramco Head Warns US About Saudi’s Strained Oil Production

MENA’s Top Five Ideal Countries for Solar Energy Generation

Could a Political Crisis in Saudi Arabia Spur a World Shift to Green Fuel?

The post Saudi Citizens Release Documentary Criticising Lack of Flood Protection appeared first on Green Prophet.

Surrounded as they are by the glittering trappings of excess, where materialism appears to pave a golden path to happiness, convincing Dubai’s youth to care for their environment might seem like a colossal challenge. Not so, according to filmmaker Areeba Hanif.

For her final project at the SAE Institute in Dubai, Ms. Hanif set out to measure the power of documentaries (and maybe sci-fi, like EKON?) to educate youth. While she found that most of the emirate’s young people were spectacularly unaware of environmental issues, a quick flick made all the difference.

Ms. Harif told The National that many people in Dubai drive cars instead of using the metro, favor energy-intensive air-conditioning units over fresh air, and rarely recycle. As a filmmaker she was interested to know whether watching films could have a transformative impact on the youth, who, she believes, hold the future of Dubai in their hands.

The 24 year old Pakistani’s research was depicted  in an 18 minute film entitled, rather blandly, the UAE’s Environmental Issue and Adolescence. It screened at the third annual Documentary Voices film festival staged by Dubai’s Culture and Arts Authority.

Ms. Hanif found that children and young adults whose environmental knowledge was “disastrous” not only responded favorably, but wished that they had been “forced” to watch the kinds of environmental documentaries that she showed.

These results prompted her to team with another filmmaker, a researcher, and a graphic designer to expand Dubai’s online environmental documentary presence.

Mahshid Zamani, the founder and managing director of Documentary Voices, agrees that the UAE needs more documentaries. Among those shown this year were Chernobyl: A natural history, by Luc Riolon and Ecological Footprint, which was made in the UAE.

Certain films like Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth might have international relevance, but as a former BBC producer Richard Brock with Living Planet Productions has discovered in Africa, empowering the  populace with films that correspond to the local culture are likely to have more impact.

:: The National

More on eco-film in the Middle East:

EKON, Environmental Sci-Fi From the UAE

Dead Sea Worker Exposes Environmental Disaster Through Film

UAE Environmental Ministry Uses Animation To Protest Plastics

image via vmiramontes

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