UB hosts the Environmental International Film Festival for three consecutive years
This is the third consecutive year that the University of Barcelona is one of the venues of the Environmental International Film Festival (FiCMA), the longest running environmental film festival in the world that celebrates its 21st edition. Under the title “FICMA, feel it", the festival offers an extensive programme that includes the best environmental films produced during the last year: more than eighty fiction films and documentaries dealing with topical issues are screened at several places around the city of Barcelona. Climate change, urban waste, renewable energies, human rights and the defence of animal rights are some of the topics analysed on this edition.
This is the third consecutive year that the University of Barcelona is one of the venues of the Environmental International Film Festival (FiCMA), the longest running environmental film festival in the world that celebrates its 21st edition. Under the title “FICMA, feel it", the festival offers an extensive programme that includes the best environmental films produced during the last year: more than eighty fiction films and documentaries dealing with topical issues are screened at several places around the city of Barcelona. Climate change, urban waste, renewable energies, human rights and the defence of animal rights are some of the topics analysed on this edition.
From 10 to 12 November, the faculties of Biology and Geology of UB host some of the activities organised within the festival: four films of the Short Documentaries Official Section are screened and Fernando López Mirones, a prestigious documentalist and biologist, gives a master class. The main objective of the collaboration between the UB and the festival is to bring environmental problems closer to citizens and to raise their awareness by means of cinema and audiovisual art. Consequently, the entrance to all activities that take place at the University, within the 21st FiCMA, is free.
Moreover, UB community members can enjoy free entrance to all the screenings of the festival that take place from 6 to 13 November at Cinemes Girona, CaixaForum and CosmoCaixa. The full programme of FiCMA 2014 is available here.
Screenings and master class given by Fernando López-Mirones
On 10 and 11 November, screenings take place at the Aula de Graus of the Faculty of Biology (645, Avinguda de la Diagonal, Barcelona). Sessions are introduced by members of the Biodiversity Research Institute of the UB (IRBio); film producers participate in all of them. On Monday 10 November, at 1 p.m., the film Endless Road, by Huaqing Jin, is screened; it deals with the pollution issues caused by a paper-making factory in a Chinese village. Then, at 1.40 p.m., El cercle nuclear is screened; on it, Lluís Casabella emphasizes that Andorra is surrounded by a large number of nuclear facilities in an area of 350 kilometres. On Tuesday 11 November, at 1 p.m., Plastic Paradise, by Angela Sun, is screened; it is about an island of plastic garbage somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
On Wednesday 12 November, a special session happens at the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Geology (Carrer de Martí i Franquès, Barcelona). It is presented by Àlex Aguilar, director of the IRBio and professor from the Department of Animal Biology of UB. At 4 p.m., Guadalquivir, by Joaquín Gutiérrez Acha, is screened. It is the first nature film which was completely shot in Spain. The film, nominated as best documentary on the latest edition of the Goya Awards, shows the existing life next to the Guadalquivir river when it runs through Cazorla, Serra Bruna and Doñana, and the landscape of these three amazing places during different year's seasons.
Later, at 5.30 p.m., the Spanish documentalist Fernando López-Mirones gives a master class about the former project, in which he worked as scriptwriter. He received the medal conferred by the Writers Circle on the best documentary film. Fernando López-Mirones is a prestigious filmmaker and biologist has written and he has directed more than 120 documentaries, such as the first productions of the National Geographic Television and BBC Natural History Unit, shot in Spain and internationally awarded.
2nd Global Meeting for Environmental Education
Besides being one of the venues of the festival, the UB participates in the 2nd Global Meeting for Environmental Education, organised by FiCMA. It takes place on Saturday 8 November at 11 a.m. at CosmoCaixa, in Barcelona. The meeting gathers people, institutions and organizations that care for animal life regardless of the species. Some participating institutions are: the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Foundation for the Adoption, Sponsorship and Defense of Animals (FAADA) and the Jane Goodall Institute. The IRBio represents the UB in the meeting. The Institute will describe animal species and the role they play in our environment. The main objective of the meeting is to discuss which should be our moral actions to achieve, not only a natural and ecological balance, but a balance of rights.UB collaboration in FiCMAʼs activities strengthens UBʼs commitment to the environment and consolidates its participation in promoting cinemaʼs ability to disseminate the respect for the environment