The UNU-produced documentary Voices of the Chichinautzin is part of the official selection of the Moondance International Film Festival in the Feature Documentary Category. The festival will take place in August 29, 30, 31, and September 1, in Boulder, Colorado USA.

Voices of the Chichinautzin will screen on Saturday, August 30, 2008 in the Shambala Center Community Room, 1345 Spruce Street, Boulder, Colorado 80302.

The Moondance International Film Festival, popularly known as the “American Cannes”, is one of the premier venues for the exhibition and promotion of feature and short films in the US, and one of the leading indie film festivals in the world. Dedicated to celebrating and sharing with international audiences the absolute best in the world of films and screenplays, film scores, and some 25 other genres, the festival features special presentations, retrospectives, workshops, pitch panels, a gala awards reception and ceremony, and many of the world’s top indie film screenings.

You can find a full schedule of the festival here:

www.moondancefilmfestival.com/35-Schedule.html

On 15 May I traveled to the Lagunas de Zempoala National Park in central Mexico to join an event organized by the Tlahuica community of San Juan Atzingo and Greenpeace . They commemorated one year of the death of Aldo Zamora, a young environmentalist from this indigenous community who was killed by illegal loggers. The story of this tragic event is told in the UNU-produced documentary Voices of the Chichinautzin.

For me it was good to meet again Aldo’s father Ildefonso Zamora, and the Thahuica Chief Alejandro Ramirez, two of the key people featured in the documentary. I had the opportunity of giving them a DVD copy of the video, and visit their land and projects for the whole day.

I am happy to report that things had changed a lot in the area since the last time I have been there. Following Aldo’s death, the massive incursion of the army and police forces has caused illegal logging activities to decrease on an estimated 95%. The Tlahuicas have also received lots of material support from several government agencies, which includes trucks and uniforms (see photo) among other things. Their ecotourism project in the Tonatihua lagoon has been built and is already receiving visitors. Perhaps most importantly, after a legal battle which spanned several decades, the ownership of 18,000 hectares of their lands had finally been given official government recognition.

However, this success story has a very bad downside. A year has passed and justice has not been done, as the identified killers of Aldo Zamora have not been captured.

Here is the 2008 presentation by Al Gore at TED. Lots of new data and some surprises. He points out that we are missing a sense of urgency. How do we start changing this? This is a must see video. Tell us what you think about it.

We have just been informed that Saving the Ayuquila River: Video Documentary and E-Case Study has been selected as a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge Awards 2008. This is a six category Award for ICT for Development projects. The best projects will win the prestigious Stockholm Challenge trophies and receive a 5.000 Euro stipend.

Our project is a finalist in the Environment category and was reviewed by the jury composed of international experts in the area of ICT for Development. Only up to 20% of the entries that make it to the jury round are selected as finalists.

The winners of the Stockholm Challenge Award 2008 trophies are revealed during the ceremony in the Stockholm City Hall, on May 22, 2008.

We are working on a new project to develop a web magazine. The video below is an example of the kinds of topics we will be covering. We are convinced that with the right technologies, sounds investments and a lot of societal learning, we can cope with some of the big issues facing our world today.

Last Monday, March 3, we had the opportunity of screening Voices of the Chichinautzin to an audience of 250 people in an event organized by the Morelos State Autonomous University. The event was part of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Chichinautzin Biological Corridor, and Brendan Barrett and I participated via video conference all the way from Tokyo.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the event was the audience, which included people from the local communities of the Chichinautzin, the Chichinautzin Corridor director, as well as students and professors of the biology department of the University. Several of the people that appear in the documentary were present, including Ildefonso Zamora, who also gave a speech.

The film seemed to have a strong effect on people, as the discussions after the screening were quite heated. Most people praised the film before quickly moving into passionate discussions about the actual problems of the Chichinautzin, such as a new highway project that would cut across the protected area. The film was particularly effective in getting biology students thinking, with many of them expressing the view that they should take immediate action and use their knowledge to participate in solving the Chichinautzin problems.

This screening has taught me the importance of showing the documentary to the people whose story is being portrayed by the film. I think the documentary has great potential as an environmental education tool, and we should screen it in all the communities of the Chichinautzin.

On February 1st, 2008, the Victoria International Film Festival in British Columbia, Canada, kicked off with its 4th annual Trigger Points Pacific Co-production Conference, a three-day film and television industry event attended by international broadcasters, film distributors, producers, directors and writers.

The agenda included panel discussions on creative television programming, the convergence of online and interactive filmmaking, and lively discussions about the future challenges and opportunities for content producers in the rapidly changing media landscape. Scheduled between the panel discussions were the one-on-one meetings and social mixers, where producers had the chance to talk with executives from broadcast networks, film and digital distributors about their respective projects.

These one-on-one meetings are the signature feature of the Trigger Points conference, providing a good opportunity to meet key television and film industry decision-makers. I had the pleasure of meeting with several broadcasters and internet distributors to talk about Voices of the Chichinautzin, and the possibilities for its distribution within Canada, the U.S., and Latin America as well as discussing the potential for future UNU Media Studio documentaries. I was very encouraged by everyone’s interest in the Voices of the Chichinautzin documentary and the Media Studio in general.

One of the main discussions among the conference participants was the convergence of internet and television and how this connects people and places together, making local stories global and global stories local. The synergy between documentaries and online learning can create engaging, educational tools that are a good fit for this changing landscape of digital content, where new opportunities to distribute important stories of social and environmental relevance outside of the traditional media outlets are continually evolving. In this way, good storytelling combined with in-depth educational content can work hand-in-hand by using these media tools to raise awareness about important global issues that affect everyone.

We’ll have some word in the weeks ahead as to where Voices of the Chichinautzin will be broadcast and distributed so that more people will have a chance to see this documentary.

The Story of stuff is an easy to understand documentary about the material economy and consumerism presented in a series of cartoons full of good humor.

It is a very creative and effective movie that really makes you think and reconsider how your daily life affects the environment. The presenter, Annie Leonard, explains that we are living in a linear system, that is rapidly using up our planet’s natural resources.

I really like this movie because it is a powerful example of how you can use the Web as an open channel to present ideas. It is simplicity at its best, no over production here! In my view, this is one of the best documentaries that you can find on the net. Go ahead and watch the video below:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

You may be wondering why the UNU Media Studio is blogging about the Prius Plug-in Hybrid. Well, yesterday morning on the way into work, we discovered this car sitting on the front court of the UNU. The car is still in development and wont be on the market until 2010.
A senior engineer from Toyota was in the UNU giving a presentation on the vehicle and I have to say I was impressed. Plug-in hybrids will offer better mileage and will help reduce CO2. If the main forms of electricity production in your country are renewable, then the potential CO2 reductions are even greater. Also, if more and more countries switch to a mix of biofuels and oil, then that means further CO2 reductions!
Here in the UNU Media Studio, as blogged earlier, we are focusing this year on the links between Climate Change, Peak Oil and Food Security and it is innovations like the Prius Plug-in Hybrid that will help overcome this problems - we hope.

And if you like the plug-in hybrid, then you may find the video below interesting. In it, the Brookings Institution expert David Sandalow demonstrates his plug in hybrid electric car and talks about his book, Freedom from Oil.

Photo by Sean Wood (aka motionid on Flickr).

While gearing up for the marketing and distribution phase for the “Voices of the Chichinautzin” documentary, I’ve had the chance to go through some of my files and photographs. This one brings back good memories. It was taken on the first day of our production, back in October 2006, and shows our intrepid crew about to embark on an 18-day schedule that would take us throughout the Chichinautzin Biological Corridor.

From left to right is camerman Edson Lopez Pineda, coordinator Flor Zamudio, myself, (director, co-producer), Luis Patron (producer, co-director) and sound recordist/camera assistant Milagros Vargas. On our journey we met many impressive and inspiring people from the communities, coordinators from government, and scientists from the academic institutions, all brought together by the common goal to conserve the rich biodiversity of the Chichinautzin. We learned that the people who live in the Chichinautzin are faced with challenges that are not simple to overcome and require cooperation between many different stakeholders.

This was perhaps most acutely exemplified by the tireless efforts of the Tlahuica people in the San Juan Atzingo community, who have led a ten-year struggle for the protection of their forests from illegal loggers, and on May 15, 2007 had to cope with the tragic loss of Aldo Zamora, a young environmentalist from San Juan Atzingo who was killed in an ambush by members of the illegal logging cartel. Since that time government, NGOs, scientists, environmentalists and members of the community have banded together to put a stop to the illegal logging in the Chichinautzin.

It is our hope that this documentary can make a contribution to this effort by helping to get the message out about the necessity to protect the forests and biodiversity in the Chichinautzin and worldwide, for the benefit of everyone. Fifteen months after this crew photo was taken, I reflect on the importance of this project, as we now embark on the mission of getting the message of “Voices of the Chichinautzin” out into the world. We are seeking international broadcasters, webcasters, and special interest groups who would like to exhibit this documentary. My first stop will be the Victoria International Film Festival and Trigger Points Forum taking place in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada from February 1–10, 2008. Stay tuned for more postings, as I send updates from this exciting event.