ECOVERSE: The Seoul International Eco Film Festival 2022
We are living at a time where eco-friendliness is not a choice but has become a must. Now, the question is how to inspire people to be concerned in the environment, change their perceptions and take action.
There was an event held to discuss the environmental crisis in films of various genres; the Seoul International Eco Film Festival (SIEFF). SIEFF is an annual event held in honor of World Environment Day.
This year marks its 19th anniversary which was hosted by the Korea Green Foundation and sponsored by Seoul Metropolitan Government, Korea Ministry of Environment, EBS and more. This event took place both online and offline through Megabox, Seongsu, and digital theaters from June 2 to Jun 8, 2022.
(The 19th Seoul International Eco Film Festival official poster | image: SIEFF Official Website)
SIEFF , calls for action beyond appreciation
‘Ecoverse’ is the slogan of this year. The word Ecoverse is a portmanteau word of eco and universe meaning “to build a future-oriented eco-worldview (ecological worldview) based on environmental values that have become ever more important.”
The opening ceremony was at Seoul Forest in Seongdong-gu on June 2 with actor Kwon Yul, who has been a host of the festival for 5 consecutive years as an ambassador of SIEFF since 2018, and a few members of the officials. The ceremony was live streamed on the festival’s YouTube channel, as well.
(At the opening ceremony | image: KBS Entertainment)
In an effort to lead positive actions for the environment through the powerful influences of movies, SIEFF organized festivals to discuss a harmonized coexistence with humanity and earth and to cultivate youth as green leaders.
This year, befitting its reputation as Asia's largest and one of three of the world’s largest eco film festivals, a total of 3,578 films were submitted from 123 countries, the largest collection in the festival’s history, and 73 films from 25 countries were invited for premiering.
The films of this year’s selections were: “Hope in the Time of Climate Crisis,” “ESG,” “ECOmmunity,” “Generation Extinction,” “Trash Flow, Plastic Oceans,” and “Animal Liberation.” And this year’s opening film was “Animal,” a French documentary film directed by Cyril Dion, who is also a writer, poet and an environmental activist.
This film introduces the message of how protecting the ecology of the earth is the only way to avoid extinction of wildlife through a journey of 16 years olds, who believe that their future is threatened by climate change, travel around the world to discover that humans and other living species are deeply interconnected that saving the planet is saving themselves and their future.
A film festival that motivates the environmental action
One of the specialties of SIEFF is variety of post events followed by premiere, such as Guest Talk (GT), Eco-Talk (ET), Eco-Forum (EF) and ect., to hear behind stories of the films in person from the directors and to have a conversation of various views with environmental experts.
rePAPER had an opportunity to attend Eco-Talk: Let’s Put an End to Plastic Pollution! This event was followed by the premiere of “The North Drift,” a German documentary film of the director and his friend following the journey of wastes, directed by director Stefen KRONES.
<at Eco-Talk | image: Korea Green Foundation Blog>
Environmental experts, Hong Soo-yeol, director of Resource Circulation Research Institution ; Cho Seong-min, director of Hansol Paper Co.; and Lee Jong-hyeok, vice president of SK Geo Centric Co., attended to introduce plastic alternative materials that are multi-usable and recycling technologies. During the talk, NGO Environmental activist Ko Geum-sook said “Individuals should endeavor re-using rather than recycling, and companies should avoid creating excessive plastic packaging during manufacturing.”
In response to an audience’s question, “How do we convince people to become eco-friendly when they don’t think about our environment?”, director Hong Soo-yeol said, “It is important for society to give consumers options to choose zero waste consumptions.” And there were various comments on practical ways to protect the environment.
Management’s sincerity towards the environment
At many eco-friendly events, it’s ironic to see souvenirs made of plastics, such as bags, badges or fans, or seeing people having lunch on plastic plates. On the other hand, to suit the name, SIEFF practiced sustainable eco-friendliness that can be implemented throughout the event in five areas; energy, production, waste, rights and education. Additionally, all the power of equipment and lights were shut off when not operating and selected eco-friendly materials as much as possible to minimize the impact on the environment when disposing of it.
SIEFF may seem as a modest film festival but the effort to persuade the intentions and actions was highly appreciable.
Realizing destroying today is destroying our future…
It’s not a secret that environmental destruction and pollution is happening everywhere and something that we should not evade from.
Though the fact that this year has the largest submission in the history of the eco film festival tells us of the grown stature of the festival, it may be showing us the sign of increasing number of environmental destruction and pollution.
<From “Magaluf Ghost Town” | image: SIEFF Website>
SIEFF constantly portrays our future by gathering various films for environment and humanity directed by zeitgeisty artists to warn us how earth has been treated, threatened and damaged.
As an attendee of the event, I hoped for more youth participants. If they watched <The North Drift>, they might come to realize that we who are the perpetrators might be the victims in the future. Then, would they still act the same way they do now?
Through SIEFF’s “meaningful calling,” let’s hope for more and more people to act with care.
‘Ecoverse’ is the slogan of this year. The word Ecoverse is a portmanteau word of eco and universe meaning “to build a future-oriented eco-worldview (ecological worldview) based on environmental values that have become ever more important.”
The opening ceremony was at Seoul Forest in Seongdong-gu on June 2 with actor Kwon Yul, who has been a host of the festival for 5 consecutive years as an ambassador of SIEFF since 2018, and a few members of the officials. The ceremony was live streamed on the festival’s YouTube channel, as well.
(At the opening ceremony | image: KBS Entertainment)In an effort to lead positive actions for the environment through the powerful influences of movies, SIEFF organized festivals to discuss a harmonized coexistence with humanity and earth and to cultivate youth as green leaders.
This year, befitting its reputation as Asia's largest and one of three of the world’s largest eco film festivals, a total of 3,578 films were submitted from 123 countries, the largest collection in the festival’s history, and 73 films from 25 countries were invited for premiering.
The films of this year’s selections were: “Hope in the Time of Climate Crisis,” “ESG,” “ECOmmunity,” “Generation Extinction,” “Trash Flow, Plastic Oceans,” and “Animal Liberation.” And this year’s opening film was “Animal,” a French documentary film directed by Cyril Dion, who is also a writer, poet and an environmental activist.
This film introduces the message of how protecting the ecology of the earth is the only way to avoid extinction of wildlife through a journey of 16 years olds, who believe that their future is threatened by climate change, travel around the world to discover that humans and other living species are deeply interconnected that saving the planet is saving themselves and their future.
A film festival that motivates the environmental action
One of the specialties of SIEFF is variety of post events followed by premiere, such as Guest Talk (GT), Eco-Talk (ET), Eco-Forum (EF) and ect., to hear behind stories of the films in person from the directors and to have a conversation of various views with environmental experts.
rePAPER had an opportunity to attend Eco-Talk: Let’s Put an End to Plastic Pollution! This event was followed by the premiere of “The North Drift,” a German documentary film of the director and his friend following the journey of wastes, directed by director Stefen KRONES.
<at Eco-Talk | image: Korea Green Foundation Blog>Environmental experts, Hong Soo-yeol, director of Resource Circulation Research Institution ; Cho Seong-min, director of Hansol Paper Co.; and Lee Jong-hyeok, vice president of SK Geo Centric Co., attended to introduce plastic alternative materials that are multi-usable and recycling technologies. During the talk, NGO Environmental activist Ko Geum-sook said “Individuals should endeavor re-using rather than recycling, and companies should avoid creating excessive plastic packaging during manufacturing.”
In response to an audience’s question, “How do we convince people to become eco-friendly when they don’t think about our environment?”, director Hong Soo-yeol said, “It is important for society to give consumers options to choose zero waste consumptions.” And there were various comments on practical ways to protect the environment.
Management’s sincerity towards the environment
At many eco-friendly events, it’s ironic to see souvenirs made of plastics, such as bags, badges or fans, or seeing people having lunch on plastic plates. On the other hand, to suit the name, SIEFF practiced sustainable eco-friendliness that can be implemented throughout the event in five areas; energy, production, waste, rights and education. Additionally, all the power of equipment and lights were shut off when not operating and selected eco-friendly materials as much as possible to minimize the impact on the environment when disposing of it.
SIEFF may seem as a modest film festival but the effort to persuade the intentions and actions was highly appreciable.
Realizing destroying today is destroying our future…
It’s not a secret that environmental destruction and pollution is happening everywhere and something that we should not evade from.
Though the fact that this year has the largest submission in the history of the eco film festival tells us of the grown stature of the festival, it may be showing us the sign of increasing number of environmental destruction and pollution.
<From “Magaluf Ghost Town” | image: SIEFF Website>SIEFF constantly portrays our future by gathering various films for environment and humanity directed by zeitgeisty artists to warn us how earth has been treated, threatened and damaged.
As an attendee of the event, I hoped for more youth participants. If they watched <The North Drift>, they might come to realize that we who are the perpetrators might be the victims in the future. Then, would they still act the same way they do now?
Through SIEFF’s “meaningful calling,” let’s hope for more and more people to act with care.
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