The fifth edition of the International Green Film Festival will be revived in January 2016 after nearly a ten-year hiatus under the directorship of renowned screenwriter Farhad Tohidi.
In a ceremony held recently at the Film Museum of Iran, Tohidi was granted the official permit in the presence of head of the Department of Environment (DoE) Masoumeh Ebtekar and director of Iran’s Cinema Organization Hojatollah Ayyoubi, ISNA reported.
The international Green Film Festival is the celebration of environmental films from around the world and its first four editions have been held.
“In spite of the huge interval in observing the festival, we are happy to revive and reinstate the event supported by its enthusiasts,” Ebtekar said.
Noting environmental degradation over the past years and the plunge in the national Environmental Performance Indexes (EPI), she referred to cinema “as the most influential tool to cultivate awareness on environment protection, and said the impact of films on people is inevitable as well as irrefutable.”
In his speech Tohidi said man used to talk the language of nature in the past and protected it as the most valuable creation. “That is however, not the case anymore with the growth of urbanization and alienation from our roots. Art may be the interpreting medium that we need,” he said.
Concurrence of nature and art is not unusual or off-beat as they are both of the same essence.
Artists including Rambod Javan (actor and director), and Marzieh Boroumand (actress, puppeteer, screenwriter and director of TV series and films) and environmental activists who attended the ceremony planted saplings taking the number of trees planted at the festival to 110.
