Third Ecocinema festival to take place on Rhodes
From radiation-soaked Chernobyl, ecologically damaged Western Australia, poverty-stricken Africa and the poisoned industrial centers of a prosperous Western world, more and more voices are being heard on the pressing matter of the earth’s environmental destruction. Whether stemming from poor or rich countries, some of these voices have been recorded on film. And a few of these films will be screened on Rhodes at the Third Ecological Cinema Festival, running from September 9 to September 14. Known as Ecocinema, the event is the first thematic film festival in Greece and the only environmental cinema festival in the Mediterranean and Balkan regions. This year’s crop of 65 films stem from 30 different countries, while a number of these will be making their world or European premieres. The Ecocinema festival includes an international competition (seven awards), a panorama of Greek films, a special prize awarded by the public, special tributes (such as «Water on Planet Earth»), and meetings and round-table discussions attended by directors, members of environmental organizations and scientists, among others. For the third consecutive year, the international Ecocinema festival has been organized by Cinema and Environment, an independent, non-profit cultural organization. The organization is headed by former Public Works Deputy Minister Ilias Efthymiopoulos, while filmmaker Loukia Rikaki is the festival’s artistic director.
