SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, May 22. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife has presented this Monday the twenty-fifth edition of the Canary Islands International Environmental Film Festival (FICMEC), which will be held from May 25 to June 4 in Garachico and Buenavista del Norte. A total of 44 works (21 feature films and 23 short films) make up this year’s film program, whose common thread will be the extinction of species.
The event was attended by the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín; the Minister of Ecological Transition, the Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Antonio Valbuena; the mayor of Garachico, Heriberto González; the mayor of Buenavista del Norte, Antonio González; the president of the CajaCanarias Foundation, Margarita Ramos; and the director of FICMEC, David Baute.
Pedro Martín highlighted that it is the oldest environmental film competition in Europe, “which is much more than a film exhibition, since it promotes and invites reflection, training and environmental education”.
During his speech, the island president also valued the figure of Paco Afonso, mayor of Puerto de la Cruz, “who promoted the celebration of the first edition of this event”, as well as that of the journalist Alfonso Eduardo Orozco, first director of the festival, “as pioneers of something that we now understand as normal, but that at the time it originated was almost daring”.
The director of the festival, David Baute, highlighted this year’s film programming: “We have nine films that compete in the official section. They are films of a very high level and that address different ways of understanding cinema, more creative, more experimental, of denunciation and social”.
For Baute, the cinematographic programming forms “an interesting range for everyone who comes to FICMEC. You can see different themes and different types of cinema and it helps us all to continue raising awareness about the reality of the planet,” he concluded.
For his part, José Antonio Valbuena endorsed the involvement of David Baute with this festival and its original promoters (Paco Afonso, Pepe Dámaso or César Manrique), who launched this event when there was hardly any knowledge and dissemination of the effects of climate change. and the need to protect our territory.
“This event has been consolidated internationally due to the quality of its speakers and projections and for being the perfect showcase for the great variety of endemic species and the rest of the endemic species that make up the environmental wealth of the Canary Islands,” he said.
The mayor of Garachico, Heriberto González, thanked the administrations and entities for their support over the years, “thanks to whose involvement this event has been consolidated over time.”
He also assured that “in Garachico we are delighted and proud to be able to host this festival” and invited the public to enjoy “not only the films and planned activities, but also our streets, our gastronomy and our traditions”.
The mayor of Buenavista del Norte, Antonio González, highlighted the opportunity for the municipality to join this proposal. “For us it is a gift that we have tried to take care of and pamper, because we want the festival to find a part of its home in Buenavista.” In this sense, he stressed that it is “a unique opportunity to enjoy and learn about the wealth of options that Isla Baja presents.”
The president of the CajaCanarias Foundation, Margarita Ramos, recalled that the Foundation has been collaborating with the festival since its inception, 25 years ago. “We believed in this initiative from the beginning due to the educational background that it entails, by uniting the passion for cinema, art and culture, with awareness and the importance of caring for the environment.”
In his opinion, the festival is a stage “to encourage the younger population to learn about the biodiversity of the Canary Islands, create awareness, knowledge and culture about our natural and scenic wealth, and the need to protect and care for it”.
PROGRAMMING
A total of 21 feature films and 23 short films make up the film program for this edition. The official section will include six documentary feature films and three fiction films, plus four documentary short films and five fiction and animation films. In Buenavista del Norte, the Ficmec Adventure section will be screened with five feature films and three short films.
Many of them will be national premieres and some of the film’s directors are expected to participate during the screenings.
The feature films EO, by Jerzy Skolimowski; and The daughter of all the rages, by Laura Baumeister; and the documentary feature films A golden life, by Boubacar Sangaré; and Waters of pastaza, by Inês T. Alves.
Also noteworthy is the world premiere of ‘Cumbre vieja, a land forged by fire’, directed by Pedro Felipe Acosta; and the screening of the documentary ‘Garajonay from a bird’s eye view’, by Juan Carlos Moreno.
A wide range of conferences, exhibitions, workshops and parallel activities related to nature will be added to all the film programming. Regarding the training part, it will be present in various aspects: environmental education for boys and girls, volcanology, photography, environmental cinema, organic farming and responsible video games, among other issues.
This year the 8th edition of Vulcanalia will take place, as well as the II Conference on Sustainable Cinema. Also noteworthy is the participation of the mountaineer Beatriz Flamini, who will attend a public event for the first time after spending more than 500 days locked in a cave, carrying out various scientific studies.
OUTBREAK AWARDS
As every year, the film festival will honor various personalities in their professional field related to the environment. In this edition, the environmental activist María Caal will be awarded the Outbreak Environmental Activism award for her indigenous struggle in her territory against multinational companies.
The Brote Fotografía award has gone to Chus Recio, a photographer who focuses on the details of nature. In addition, the Artistic Outbreak award will go to the Artimalia project, a collective of cartoonists who portray extinct species so that they do not fall into oblivion.
The Brote Comunicación award will be given to the journalist María García de la Fuente, who has dedicated more than two decades to environmental journalism. In the Canary Islands, the La Orotava Acclimatization Garden will be distinguished with the Brote Canarias award for its conservation work and botanical research.
The Young Outbreak award has gone to Laura Reboul, climate activist, environmental disseminator and Greenpeace volunteer representative in Spain. Finally, and notably, the Special Outbreak award will be given to Beatriz Flamini, an elite athlete who has recently broken the isolation record by spending 500 days in a cave.
