Climate scientists from Macquarie University, the University of Melbourne and Monash University have launched a short film competition, Green Screen: Climate Fix Flicks.
Professors Tim Flannery, Lesley Hughes and Ann Henderson-Sellers are seeking film submissions of between 30 seconds and five minutes that communicate positive messages about a zero or low carbon, clean energy future. Fifteen films will be shortlisted and publicly screened in Sydney around the Australian Film Festival in March 2012. Entries will be judged by a panel of well-known artists, film-makers and scientists including Kimble Rendall (Matrix and I, Robot) and Professor Tim Flannery.
The winning entry will receive $5000, up to five films will be awarded ‘highly commended’ prizes of $500 each, and there is a people’s choice award worth $2500. Participants are encouraged to push their creative boundaries! This competition is a great opportunity to have work seen by high profile film and television professionals as well as audiences around the country.
Deadline for submissions is February 10th 2012.
See www.greenscreen.org.au for further details and official entry form..
Long Horizons is a collection of personal reflections about art, artists and climate change. Commissioned by the British Council working with Julie’s Bicycle the piece includes contributions from Antony Gormley, Jay Griffiths, Professor Tim Jackson, Professor Diana Liverman and KT Tunstall.
Click here to download Long Horizons as a pdf.
Antony Gormley’s essay appears in The GuardianReview on Saturday February 13th.
Click here to read a blog post on Long Horizons by Michaela Crimmin, Director of Arts, RSA.
Arts, Climate Change and Sustainability
Climate change is one of the defining issues of the age. It is affecting, or will affect, everyone on the planet, though differences in infrastructure and locality profoundly affect vulnerability. One size will not fit all and local communities will need to find creative solutions that respond to their specific vulnerabilities and needs. The impact of climate change will be social and cultural as well as environmental and economic, and solutions need to be social and cultural as well as technical and scientific.
Arts, Climate Change and Sustainability is a British Council programme aimed at harnessing the inspirational qualities of the arts, along with the trust felt towards artists, to demystify and energise the debate about climate change. By energising and invigorating others, it will help find creative and local solutions to the challenge of climate security and encourage the necessary behavioural change in the UK and internationally. Art and artists can help move the climate change agenda from intellectual understanding to emotional engagement, and then on to action.
Just as the challenge of climate change is international and inter-connected in nature, so is the global arts market, and any attempt to create change needs to happen on a global scale. The British Council, with its vast network, is one of the very few agencies able to create dialogues and communities of interest around this subject with leaders and opinion-formers in governments, funding agencies, NGOs, and our cultural analogues in the UK and worldwide. These institutions and individuals share an interest in the support and promotion of their artists’ work, and we will work with them to strengthen understanding of the role that artists can play in the fight against climate change, and the need to support and encourage that role. This will include working together to facilitate sustainable practices around the international presentation and touring of art and artists.
