AL SIDR ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL 2022
The second edition of Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival returns this month in Abu Dhabi, after a one year break because of, well…you know, COVID.
The festival was launched in February 2020, founded by Nezar Andary, the Artistic Director of the festival, who is also a filmmaker, an academic and writer, in partnership with Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi and Zayed University.
The festival will take place in Manarat Al Saadiyat between February 24-27. The theme this year is “oasis”.
The oasis, an integral feature of Emirati geography and history, mainly conjures up hope. The oasis, a representation of fertility in the desert, flowing with precious waters, invokes sustainability.
Yet, the oasis is also a human construction that has revealed environmental degradation, human vulnerability, and disease. When the oasis was established in the UAE, these human made pools of water also brought malaria. The need for water also made the oasis the center of power, greed, and wars. This paradox entrances us as eras of Climate Change and COVID-19 stare at us with similar dynamics, such as the devastating mining of lithium for greener electric cars.Nezar Andary, Artistic Director
The festival line up can be found here, it includes a selection of short and feature films, many are critically acclaimed and were screened in recent international film festivals. A few of the screenings will be followed by discussions related to themes of the festival with notable speakers.
Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival is free to attend and there’s something for all ages. All non-English language films include English subtitles. If you live in or near Abu Dhabi, please go and show your support, it’s extremely important for independently run initiatives like this, and to help it continue.
I plan to attend, and I will also be introducing the last film on the last day (TAMING THE GARDEN), followed by a post screening discussion.
The following is an interview with Nezar where we discussed the festival and the challenges of putting together a small independently run film festival. It’s an edited version of our discussion, for length and clarity.
After the interview, I added the schedule and trailers, and you will find additional information, plus registration links here.
KOYAANISQATSI (Godfrey Reggio, 1982)
Why did you start this festival and why do you think it’s important?
In 2018 when the UAE no longer had the international film festivals, and no budgets for festivals in general, I felt it was important to do smaller more committed film festivals on many subjects and genres. One of the things I had followed for years were environmental film festivals, and one that inspired me is the Princeton Environmental Film Festival run by the Princeton Public Library. They created an amazing experience and I told myself I can do that here. I should go to the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, I was a professor at the time, and ask why not make that happen here for a very low budget, and to be done in an ethical way. That’s really why I started this.
I feel there needs to be a lot more smaller committed film festivals on many levels like CineMAS that you curated last summer, or retrospectives on different directors. There's so much that can be done here for cinema.
Part of the reason is also to have an environmental film festival that wasn't preachy. I believe in ecological consciousness, but not the type that’s communicated in a didactic way. I wanted something that connected people without hitting them over the head. And I feel there's a lot of cinema out there that makes you feel nature, question nature, and that in itself makes you a better citizen for the environment.
If we don't have institutions or venues committed to showing a more expansive selection of films, is this the solution or a model, i.e. hosting mini film festivals that last over a weekend or a few days to help create an active calendar of film screenings outside movie theatres that could hopefully inspire others to do something similar?
I think we need both, we need the big international film festival and it doesn’t matter which emirate it’s in, but one that really connects to the world and connects to the ground here. We need both big and small film festivals for a healthy cinema environment. Small ones that are committed to certain types of films, themes and issues. Also, by having small film festivals, we're encouraging filmmakers here to start looking at other topics and issues related to film, both in fiction and documentary, and also other genres.
I agree, showing films like this isn’t just about getting an audience to attend, but to also inspire artists and filmmakers. How do you decide on the final selection of films?
The first thing is to do research myself as the Artistic Director - I don't think it always has to be done this way, but it’s researching like crazy all the festivals and films from around the world, old and new. There are films from the 1940-50s, especially horror films about the environment that I wanted include, because I feel for festivals like this, we should push ourselves and see different types of films from the past and not for instance be afraid to programme a horror film at midnight. But it isn’t possible to do so this year.
But overall it’s about preparing a big list, and then sharing it with a selection committee that includes the sponsors and a diverse selection of people including high school students.
The process this year, because of the pandemic, wasn't perfect. And due to some budgetary issues, some decisions had to be made last minute. So the process this year wasn’t as smooth as anyone would want it to be.
That is totally understandable, but speaking of COVID, there was a gap between the first edition in February 2020 and the upcoming second one. You chose not to have the festival in 2021, and avoided the option of having it online, why did you decide to do this?
Planning an online festival is even more complicated then an in-person festival. People should know that it's more expensive and complicated legally. Things like online hosting, choosing the right online platforms and also dealing with geo-blocking rules because filmmakers worry it could ruin their chances of showing their films in other festivals/regions, so it’s not so simple and straightforward.
In the end, I think for many of us, we fell in love with cinema because of the dark room and because it gave us a space to focus on a film, and I did not want to have this festival online.
I totally agree with this sentiment. What are the challenges you face when trying to put together this festival? What needs to be done to make it easier for independent film curators/programmers to organise screenings like this?
The challenge for me is dealing with multiple institutions, and each institution has different systems and bureaucracies and they take time to get things through. With regards to budgets, there is a culture of auditing in the UAE, and they exist for valid reasons because sometimes money has been abused. But one of the ethics of this film festival is that I don’t want to ever have a big budget. I don't want to spend a lot, and it’s not about being cheap. I want to be able to pay the film directors, speakers and the creative people involved, everyone to get what they deserve, but also overall, there should be a sense of we are saving money. I don't disconnect, environmental consciousness to the economy, to social issues, gender, race, globalisation - all these things are connected to environmentalism.
The other challenge is being happy with the right mix of films. I think as a film programmer or curator, you're never that happy because there are so many films you’d love to include. But whatever you end up selecting, you have to create a journey for your vision and the next challenge is communicating this with an audience.
How to make my communication better? How do I make sure I get the programme out in time with links to reserve seats? How to create a brochure with all the relevant information about the film. the director, which country its from, film duration - most marketers don’t know its important to include all of this. It's a challenge to really create a brochure that's worth both for the public and also respectable to cinema. I’ve worked with a lot of freelancers, but I think it would be wonderful if these small festivals have a dedicated full time team, because when you're always dealing with freelancers, people come and go and what’s needed for these cinema traditions, and I would like this to be a tradition, is that there's some consistency, for people working on it for at least 3 or 4 years.
I don't have the ambition that I always have to do this, but I would like to see funding committed for the next 10 years. The artistic director might change, but that there will always be an environmental film festival.
How has the Environmental Agency responded or engaged with your ideas for the film festival?
They have been supportive 100 percent. I want to really thank them for believing in me when I first approached them. They’ve shown belief in the vision of the film festival this year, I’ve taken more risks, for instance this year I’ve included two fiction films and two experimental films and I’m happy they’re willing to take this risk.
Their community engagement team have really given me full support and I think if you're curator or programmer, and when you're being supported by an institution, what else can I ask for.
It’s not easy, one has to realise that part of the process of programming and curating is that there are lots of stumbling blocks, lots of things that get in your way, and it’s important to be calm and keep pushing. I think I've grown every time I do these things, including my level of patience.
What advice or tips do you have for someone that would like to start a small film festival similar to this?
Start with your vision. Write down the vision of what you want. How do you want the festival to work?
For me, I want my festival to mix different audiences. It begins in high schools in Abu Dhabi. But I want it to grow across the UAE in the future.
You really have to have a vision for the films you are showing and the festival itself. There has to be a different vision about how you have a film festival. Remember the word ‘festival’, it’s a celebration of something.
Someone I know in the culture sector once told me “I hate environmental films. They're all depressing.”
The impression is that environmental films will make viewers feel guilty, it doesn’t have to be that way.
One of the events scheduled in this year’s edition is a talk with a psychologist about climate guilt, what do we do about this eco-guilt that we have? I want people to think about how they want to celebrate cinema. I sometimes want to incorporate music or cooking with the screenings, but it doesn't have to be that way. It could be something more subtle.
There are so many ways to think about visions for film festivals. People can do festivals about so many different types of films and genres. People want more, and we should try to do more. Having these spaces are important to allow us to do more because the regular cinemas don’t show us everything.
Thursday, February 24
2.00-4.00pm - Manarat Al Saadiyat Theatre
Academic Roundtable “Thinking With The Atmospheric” led by Dr Alexandra Cotofana, Assistant Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences, Zayed University.
7.00-9.30pm - Manarat Al Saadiyat Auditorium
Introduction To Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival by Dr. Nezar Andary
Opening Address “The Deep Roots Of The Emirates: Palm Trees And Pot Sherds In The Al-ain Oases” by Dr. Timothy Power, Associate Professor of Archeology, United Arab Emirates University
FOOTSTEPS ON THE WIND
Directors: Gustavo Leal, Faga Melo, Maya Sanbar
2021, Animation, United Kingdom, 7 mins
HONEY, RAIN, & DUST
Director: Nujoom Alghanem
2016, Documentary, United Arab Emirates, 86 mins
Friday, February 25
Manarat Al Saadiyat Theatre
5.00pm
Short Films Sponsored by The British Council, Abu Dhabi:
THE FOURFOLD (Alisi Telengut, 2020, Documentary, United Kingdom, 8 mins)
THE GIRL WHO CHANGED THE WORLD WITH AN ACORN (Chi Tai, 2020, Animation, United Kingdom, 6 mins)
SONGS OF THE EARTH (Soumik Datta, 2020, Documentary, United Kingdom, 23 mins)
CONNECTING THE CLIMATE CHANGE (2021, Documentary, Nepal, United Kingdom, 20 mins)
GREEN SPACES ATLAS (2020, Documentary, United Kingdom, Botswana, 7 mins)
7:30pm
EVE
Directors: Lucy Jane, Joya Berrow
2021, Documentary, United Kingdom, 21 mins
COSTA BRAVA, LEBANON
Director: Mounia Akl
2021, PG-15, Lebanon, France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Qatar, 106 mins
Followed by a discussion: “What Is The Family Oasis? Does Living Off The Grid Work?”
9:30 PM
ACASA, MY HOME
Director: Radu Ciorniciuc
2020, Documentary, Romania, 86 mins
Introduced by Dr. Alexandra Cotafana, Assistant Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences, Zayed University
Saturday, February 26
Manarat Al Saadiyat Theatre
12.00 pm
I AM GRETA
Director: Nathan Grossman
2020, Documentary, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, Germany, 97 mins
3.00 pm
UMAH
Director: Shoyab Hesham
2021, Documentary, No Dialogue, United Arab Emirates, 8 mins
THE ANTS & THE GRASSHOPPER
Directed by Raj Patel and Zak Piper
2021, Documentary, United States, Malawi, 71 mins
5.00 pm
Discussion: “Addressing “Out Of Balance” 40 Years Later” led by Adama Sanneh, Co-founder Of Moleskine Foundation
KOYAANISQATSI
Director: Godfrey Reggio
1982, Documentary, No Dialogue, United States, 74 mins
7.00 pm
SON OF MONARCHS
Director: Alexis Gambis
2021, Fiction, PG-15, Mexico, United States, 97 mins
Followed by a discussion about the film moderated by ecologist Brigitte Howarth.
Sunday, February 27
Manarat Al Saadiyat Theatre
3.00 pm
M’HAMID OASIS MOROCCO: RESTORING, RECORDING AND INVENTORYING THE TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE
Director: Monika Koeck
2019, Documentary, Morocco, United Kingdom, 23 mins
INVISIBLE DEMONS
Director: Rahul Jain
2021, Documentary, Finland, Germany, India, 70 mins
5.00 pm
THE MAGNITUDE OF ALL THINGS
Director: Jennifer Abbot
2020, Documentary, Canada, 100 mins
Followed by a discussion, “Eco-anxiety, Species Loneliness And Solistalgia: Psychology And The Climate Crisis” led by Dr. Justin Thomas, Psychologist And Professor At Zayed University
7:30 PM
DOOM'S DAY CLOCK
Director: Waleed Al Madani
2019, Experimental Documentary, Hungary, United Arab Emirates, 6 mins
TAMING THE GARDEN
Director: Salomé Jashi
2021, Documentary, Georgia, 71 mins
Film introduction by cultural critic, film curator and artist Hind Mezaina followed by a discussion “The Oasis Paradox, The Palm Tree And The Future Of Ecological Consciousness” with Dr. Sandra Piesik, an award-winning architect, author, and researcher specialising in the implementation of global sustainability.
