Film Festival 2004

Today the word 'environment' cannot be thought of to only mean being clean, green or to protect a pristine wilderness experience. Over the past two decades, conflicts over natural resources have sharpened and multiplied. In popular terms, their complex dynamics have been framed in easy terms as 'people vs. wildlife', 'dams vs. development', or 'industry vs. people'. Wild life, people and nature have been treated as separate categories. Yet on the ground their complex interplays have resulted in very real struggles and questions the very essence and ethics of how we define ourselves as a society. In all instances, violence of one sort or another is inflicted, often upon those who are least powerful or voice less. We listen less to the Earth itself and rather towards the jumbled cacophony of ideas surrounding conservation and the environment in our own communities. At Toxics Link, we see this disparity and wanted to create something to try and show a more complete picture of environmental issues in India and the world. “Quotes from the Earth,” our new bi-annual film festival, is the outcome.

This film festival package hopes to image the stark environmental challenges and conflicts facing us now more realistically through the powerful medium of films and to improve our understanding of these issues. The package includes 18 films on:

• * Water
• * Hunger
• * Survival