Planet In Focus (PIF) Environmental Film Festival, Canada’s largest and longest running environmental film festival, is proud to announce the dates for next year’s festival. The 17th annual Planet in Focus will take place from October 18th to 23rd.
From a very interesting list of films and other events at PIF this year, I have selected a few key ones:
Theater Of Life – Opening Night Gala
Thursday, October 20, 6:30pm
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
A documentary that follows world renowned chef Massimo Bottura, and 60 of the world’s best chefs as they join him to cook for refugees and the homeless in Milan. The dishes served at this beautifully designed, remodeled former theatre, called Refettorio Ambrosiano, were created from the wasted food discarded during the city’s 2015 Expo.
Photographs by Alberto Bobbera
Opening Night Gala Reception – Thurs, Oct 21, 2016
At 918 Bathurst St., Toronto
These photographs were taken in 2015, when Peter Svatek was making the movie Theater of Life. Bobbera focused on its main characters and their private lives.
100 Short Stories
Friday, October 21, 9:15pm
Innis Town Hall
Neal Livingston is Atlantic Canada’s Don Quixote: he not only tilts at windmills, he makes them. 100 Short Stories, which is more of a personal essay and less of an anthology, sees the veteran doc director combine his twin loves—the environment and filmmaking—into one tale of trial and tribulation.
Saturday October 22
Innis Town Hall
FREE FOR STUDENTS
Fest Forum Day at PIF has three interesting documentaries lined up, which include 45 minute panel discussions following each screening.
The following three films and engage the issues presented with the experts on the panel:
10 Bilion: What’s On Your Plate, 1:00pm
Within the 21st century, the global population will surpass 10 billion, a figure that current methods of agricultural production cannot hope to sustain. Author, filmmaker, and self-proclaimed “food fighter” Valentin Thurn (Taste the Waste) set out in search of solutions to this looming crisis.
To The Ends Of The Earth, 3:15pm
Since the peak of crude oil production a decade ago, the fossil fuel industry has been forced to resort to costly and unconventional methods of extraction—arctic drilling and shale gas fracking among them—giving rise to unprecedented economic and environmental hazards. Narrated by Emma Thompson, To the Ends of the Earth is a comprehensive investigation of the increasingly intensive hunt for untapped non-renewables.
Freightened – The Real Price of Shipping, 6:00pm
From the history behind industrialization, to the impact of cheap transportation costs on global manufacturing processes, this film utilizes expert opinions and informative narration, alongside behind-the-scenes looks at factory conditions in the places where much of the final product assembly is done to tell the story of a rich society running on the consumption of cheap goods, and the cost of this insatiable appetite on the world
Ever The Land
Saturday, October 22, 8:45pm
Innis Town Hall
A film of rich cultural insight, keen sensitivity, and no shortage of visual splendour, Ever the Land is a portrait of the Ngāi Tūhoe, one of New Zealand’s most passionately independent Maori tribes, and the sacred bond they share with the breathtaking forest region of Te Urewera. Historically, the relationship between the Tūhoe and the New Zealand government has been defined by the kinds of colonial injustices that will be only too familiar to Canadian viewers, but Ever the Land captures a moment of reconciliation and renewed hope.
FREE SCREENING
Voyage To The Edge Of The World -Archival Screening
Sunday, October 23, 4:30pm
AGO Jackman Hall
The third in Jacques Cousteau’s acclaimed trilogy of feature-length films, Voyage to the Edge of the World takes the intrepid crew of the Calypso to the vast expanses of Antarctica. The adventurous divers and scientists on the expedition shot the first footage of underwater life in the icy region, finding gorgeous fauna and creatures of the deep. On land, they explore volcanic craters still hot enough to melt all the ice in its own mini-eco- system.
Full festival schedule and tickets now available at: PlanetinFocus.org.
