Celebrate Diversity in Nature at the specially designed film festival & forum begins

31012014

The 5 day biodiversity gala features film festival, forums, exhibitions, musical festival, food festival, green bazaar and many more at the IGNCA Lawns.

In a completely new format, a five day green festival is being organised at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in New Delhi from (Thursday – Monday) which started from Jan 30, 2014.

For the first time in the world, a film festival & forum is being organized in open grounds (not in auditoriums). Inspired from the Jaipur Literature Festival and in its endeavour to mainstream biodiversity issues to general public, this specially curated festival is spread across 27 acres of IGNCA campus (near India Gate and Central Secretariat Metro Station).

Special venues and layouts are being created to make it people friendly and highly engaging to both general public and also for the professionals in this field.  The six main venues in this festival are : 1) International Screen – where all best of world cinema and the nominated international films will be screened; 2) ONGC Lawn where film screenings with open forums with film makers & experts is scheduled; 3) Japan Lawn is situated in the amphitheatre and will host all the important thematic sessions; 4) UNDP & GIZ Lawn for Coastal and Marine Biodiversity will have screenings and thematic discussions; 5) CMS lawn will have discussions and media interactions; 6) Young Champions Lawn is a special lawn  dedicated section solely for the youth with activities such as film screenings for children, interactive sessions with filmmakers, workshops on  puppetry  and paper mache & crafts, painting competition, and biodiversity games.

The festival hosted a high profile Inaugural Ceremony on the evening of Jan 30, 2014.Mr. K.S Rao Union Minister for Textiles graced the occasion as the Chief Guest.  Dr Karan Singh, MP and President, ICCSR and Ms. Lise Grande, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in India was also present at the inaugural ceremony. Mr. V B Mathur, Senior Professor & Dean, Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Mr A S Panneerselvan, Executive Director, PANOS South Asia were among the special invitees.

Ms. Vijaya Mulay, veteran documentary filmmaker was awarded with the CMS VATAVARAN Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding contribution in filmmaking. CMS VATAVARAN Prithvi Ratna Award was given to Mr. Sanjay Barnela, filmmaker for outstanding contribution to nature and conservation filming throughout their career which has resulted in bringing change in perception, practice and policy with regards to environment.  CMS VATAVARAN also presented the PSA CMS Media Excellence Awards for excellence in environment reporting. This year, the awards was  presented to Ms. Juhi Chaudhury (CNN IBN), Ms. Chandan Haygunde (Indian Express, Pune), Amantha Perrera (Sri Lanka) and Subhra Priyadarshini (India)

The festival also promises Along with film screenings and thematic discussions there will also be book launches, live demos on aerial photography, exhibitions, film booth, food court, green haat (shopping), music festival, interesting art installations, 40 ft life size whale shark & Gaju on display for promoting environment sensitivity at scale.

‘Kalpvriksh’ directed by Manika Sharma and starring Shabana Azmi will be screened at 4:30 pm the 7th CMS VATAVARAN – Asia’s largest film festival and forum on environment & wildlife. Noted film actor Shabana Azmi was present in the forum. The film session also had producer Raajaysh Chetwal and its director Manika Sharma for an open forum.

The festival theme this year is mainstreaming biodiversity conservation at different levels to promote living in harmony with nature. Based on this theme, three schools in Delhi (The Shri Ram Schools, Sri Venkateshwar International School and Bloom Public School) are decorating the entire venue with their art, crafts and sculptures.

In all, during this five day festival, these specially designed and constructed thematic lawns will showcase 150 films and more than 70 eminent speakers in various 48 thematic sessions and expert discussions. Organisations and individuals working across the country on various biodiversity conservation efforts will be participating in this festival. Renowned conservationists, policy makers and the concerned communities will also be engaged in deliberations and discourses on the range of the sub themes and cross cutting issues.  Amol Palekar (actor and director),  Shabana Azmi (film actor), Belinda Wright (founder of WPSI), Bahar Dutt (environment journalist), Shekhar Dattari (wildlife filmmaker), Dr Raghuwat Chundawat (conservation biologist), Sunita Narain (activist), Kartikeya Sarabhai (environment educator), Ranjit Lal (children’s author and columnist); Vivek Menon (conservationist);  are some of the confirmed speakers at this forum.

Celebrate diversity in nature in Asia’s largest film festival & forum on environment and wildlife !

To participate, register online -  http://www.cmsvatavaran.org

About CMS VATAVARAN: The rich experience of CMS in environmental issues & development communication sowed the seeds of CMS VATAVARAN, India’s only International Environment & Wildlife Film Festival and Forum. In its decade long eventful journey from 2002 – 2012, CMS VATAVARAN has become a movement and inspired many organisations / individuals to use films and film festivals as a medium to catalyse change. It has created a strong network of Indian and International filmmakers, policymakers, academicians, research think tanks, environmentalists, journalists, students of all streams, defense & paramilitary forces and nature enthusiasts.  The festival has an International recognition and till date 39 festivals have been organised across 26 cities of India.

CMS VATAVARAN remains resolute to encourage environment films and forums resulting change in perception, practice and policy.

For more details contact:

Ms Indira Akoijam, Media Coordinator – CMS VATAVARAN

E: Indira@cmsindia.org, Cell: 9899979161, Phone – 011 26864020 / 26851660

CMS, RESEARCH House, Saket Community Centre, New Delhi 110017