SGEFF

Zero Waste SG

Tue, 29 Aug 2017 07:19:04 -0700

One of our new SGEFF Partners is Zero Waste SG – a non-governmental organisation

committed to helping Singapore, move towards a circular economy and eliminate

waste once and for all.

They work with everyone – from individuals to business organisations, to

educate, spread the environmental message and implement ways to reduce

Waste.

Eugene Tay, director of Zero Waste SG, has spent many years working on waste

management, and the issue is very close to his heart. Zero Waste SG encourages

the 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and emphasises the importance of

understanding that waste can always be repurposed somewhere else. In

particular, they hope to inspire people to take action.

“It’s not wishful thinking but crucial in ensuring our survival. It’s going to take

much time, commitment and efforts to move towards zero waste, so it’s

important to start now and build the momentum for change,” said Eugene.

On Sun Sept 3, Eugene will be speaking on the panel after Racing to Zero, “a quick-moving, upbeat documentary presenting new solutions to the global problem of waste”. More details on the screening here: http://racingtozero.peatix.com

On why SGEFF is important for their cause, he said, “The power of stories is

an effective way to enable the public to understand and more importantly to feel

about environmental issues such as zero waste, and to nudge them to take action

after watching the films.”

We feel the same way too. Thanks, Eugene and welcome to SGEFF!

On why SGEFF is...Read More

Introducing: Robert!

Tue, 04 Jul 2017 18:35:42 -0700

I race sailboats as a hobby and regularly travel through some of the worlds most pristine and remote environments. On a recent adventure through the Southern Ocean I witnessed an orange star Venus rise above the horizon.

The next day I witnessed another amazing sight. I had to sail through an area of human plastic waste that covered the ocean surface for more than 100 square miles. At that moment I realized I had to get involved to educate, share and engage with a community of people that wants to change our behavior.

What better way to do this than through film and stories! So when I heard of SGEFF I knew I found the right forum and decided to help Jacqui & the team make this a roaring success.

- Robert van Paridon, Chairman of the Advisory Committee for SGEFF

Why I am involved in SGEFF 2017

Fri, 30 Jun 2017 10:06:08 -0700

Hi all! I am so incredibly excited to write this blog post, and I must admit, I have been putting it off for a while because I wasn’t sure how to articulate all of my excitement. I’m this years Festival Manager, which means I’m doing a little bit of everything and anything.

So, why am I excited to be here? Probably a million and one reasons, the movies, the people who are going to leave so inspired, the INCREDIBLE team behind the scenes, I could go on. However, it showcases my first love/passion: the environment. Not only have I studied the environment/been in the sustainability field for the last 5 years. I believe that we need to educate and empower people in this field, so that in the next 10 years there won’t be the whole concept of “Sustainable Singapore", it will be events like this that would make it just Singapore.

So, as you must assume there is a lot to get done, and should you want to get involved (there really isn’t a good reason as to why you wouldn’t) please sign up here :)

NEW* SGEFF Themes & Documentary Films

Mon, 30 May 2016 00:03:37 -0700

Updated SGEFF Themes!

Jacqui, Adeline, Rachel (the newest SGEFF member on board!), the 350 Singapore group, and the Yale-NUS Sustainability Movement, recently caught up for lunch at The Spiffy Dapper to finalise the SGEFF themes and catch up on each other's environmental sustainability projects. We also met Aaron Packard, the 350.org Climate Impact Coordinator, who had a stopover in Singapore before making his way to the World Humanitarian Summit.

Pics or it didn't happen!

The film festival will take place in November and the finalised SGEFF themes are as follows:

1. Consumerism & Waste

2. Farming & Food

3. Climate

4. Air Quality & Haze

5. Wildlife & Conservation

We are excited to have finalised these themes because the filmmakers from http://goneadventurin.com (Jacqui, Rachel, Victoria, and Abishek) are in the process of producing documentary films on sustainable fashion and packaging, water pollution, haze, and conservation with our community partners for the film festival.

Green Drinks Singapore Meet Up

Last Wednesday, Rachel and Adeline attended a talk on Singapore's mass fish deaths organised by Green Drinks Singapore at the SingJazz Club. We had an engaging conversation with Ria Tan, a volunteer who has been monitoring Singapore's shores for 15 years, and Joseph Wee, a fish farmer who shared his experience on the causes and effects of pollution and poor water quality on the fish farming industry, the existence of Harmful Algae Bacteria (HAB), and his own initiatives in using carbon to dissolve oil in seawater.

Photo taken by Olivia Choong from Green Drinks Singapore.

The filmmakers team at Gone Adventurin' is working hard and are excited to produce a short...Read More

Updates from JAKARTA!

Wed, 11 May 2016 09:12:21 -0700

Recently, I was lucky enough to attend the Responsible Business Forum in Jakarta, and took the opportunity to meet one of our regional partners; In-Docs!

In-Docs creates breakthrough programs that improves the capacity of Indonesian filmmakers, improves access for Indonesian audience to watch documentaries, and connects documentary films to strategic partners that help the films achieve strong impact in the society!

And if that wasn't cool enough, In-Docs is proud to host the first ever Good Pitch² Southeast Asia!

Good Pitch² Southeast Asia is a satelite event of Good Pitch, contextualize for Southeast Asia. The program itself, Good Pitch, is originally conceptualized by BRITDOC and Sundance Documentary Institute, and has been running for years, in global and many regional level. And for the region of Southeast Asia, this will be the first time, and organized independently by In-Docs.

The essence of the program is to connect documentary filmmakers with the right funders and partners in order to amplify the impact of the selected films. They are highly interested and committed to forge coalitions and campaigns for the contemporary social issues raised in the selected documentary films to create mutually beneficial partnerships that is good for the film, good for the partners, and good for society.

To find out more about the Call-for-Entries, please visit this page OR email goodpitch@in-docs.org.

Thank you SO MUCH to Amelia & Suryani for spending the time with me to chat about SGEFF and future collaborations! Exciting things lay...Read More

WE LOVE our new logo!

Wed, 20 Apr 2016 19:34:14 -0700

We've been getting a lot of amazing people contacting us on this website to see how they can be a part of SGEFF. It's so inspiring to see the momentum building and the community coming together!!

One of the people who contacted us was the inspiring Angela Chng, a videographer and programmer of Voice of the Earth, a project that supports the Jane Goodall Institute.

"Sharing a vision of harmony between people and nature through art, music and poetry" -

Voice of the Earth is a collaboration to co-create something meaningful. It all started when a girl named Fumika wrote "Message from the Crickets" and the friends decided to design a t-shirt and then next came along a song!

When we met with Angela, she said she would ask their amazing designer, Jeannie Neo, to see if she was interested in helping us build a logo for SGEFF.

The idea of having a pangolin in the SGEFF logo was one that we had from our very first meeting. However, none of us had the necessary skills to design!! So when Angela suggested to help, we immediately asked for help with a pangolin logo!! They agreed, and Jeannie Neo didn't take very long to "combine the pangolin to a film reel and add a leaf in the 'e' in "Eco", leading to the final design :)"

The final version we settled on is pretty much the first version Jeannie sent us. All we really wanted was to change the colour and add more scales to the little pangolin (cleverly incorporated into the film reel). We feel extremely lucky and excited to present our fantastic new logo here:

We got to meet Angela for the first time at our most recent team meeting a few days ago, where we got a little closer to finalizing our shortlist of...Read More

A Trip across the border: Meeting up with KLEFF &TRCRC

Thu, 17 Mar 2016 22:52:44 -0700

Recently a few of us descended upon the Grumpy Cyclist for a meeting with the KL Eco Film Festival team. We had been talking to Yasmin, the founder of EcoKnights (which runs the KLEFF), since last May about a partnership. With SGEFF preparations moving along, we decided it was time to visit them in KL and say hello in person!

2 hours flew by starting with introductions, details of our partnership and in between a lot of good advice (both practical and technical) from Fadly, the programme director of EcoKnights. Over coffee, we discussed how to cross-advertise and participate in each other's festivals. Now in their 9th year, evaluating the impact of KLEFF has become more important than ever, and for us a great opportunity to learn from them and incorporate these methods into our festival!

We also had some new friends from the Tropical Rainforest Conservation and Research Centre join our meeting with KLEFF. Since we spent most of our time talking about films and festival planning, after coffee we stopped over at their office, which was just down the road, to find out more about their projects on seed banks, living collections and reforestation. We're looking forward to visiting and filming their projects, but mostly, we were impressed by their beautiful garden (jk guys! ;)

It was a long intense afternoon and well worth the short trip to KL. We'll be continuing to shortlist our films with the help of KLEFF, and you can be sure to expect KLEFF and TRCRC participating in some way at our film festival this year!

You can see TRCRC in Action here:

Keep in touch for more updates soon!!!

Update by Read More

Announcing the Themes of the Festival

Fri, 26 Feb 2016 08:00:00 -0800

So! It's only been a couple of weeks since the idea turned into a reality - but things are going ahead super well! Today we had an awesome meeting with Adeline, Jac, Abi, Natalia and two new volunteers Irene a local documentary filmmaker and Celine from the Peoples Movement to Stop the Haze!
We wanted to make sure, that before picking out which films to screen, we secure 7 important themes that we want to cover that is both important, relevant and interesting for the event!

After a big brainstorm listing all the ideas, we grouped the ideas together under 7 main catagories:

Form here, our Curation team will select 7 amazing films to be screened, and the rest of the team will start to plan different activities and workshops to coincide with the screenings!
We discussed what we feel the opening film should be and watched this great trailer:
HOWEVER! We want to keep the opening night film as local as possible, so the decision has not yet been made. We want to screen something a bit closer to home.
Some people wanted to screen "Wild City" (( and tweet to David Attenborough to attend!) but maybe the opening night should be something new. TO BE CONTINUED!
We also discussed how we can measure the festivals impact afterwards and see if we can really make a difference. So some of the team will begin looking into evaluation and how we can measure results and track our progress to protect the environment!
All in all, we're super excited to keep things moving! Some Grant & Partnership proposals have been sent,...Read More

Announcing our Venue & Community Partner !

Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:00:00 -0800

WOW WHAT A MONTH!

Since our initial meeting, a lot has been happening for team SGEFF! But the biggest announcment so far is the confirmation of our Venue & Community partner; HUB Singapore!

With 2 stages / screening spaces, room for over 10-20 community partner "booths" and other areas for workshops & talks - the HUB is the perfect Venue. But it's not just about the space, the hub brings with it a vibrant community of people in Singapore which means we will be able to reach out to a massive audience!

SO! With a venue, comes the date confirmation: 21st October will be the official opening night, with 22nd - 23rd the full day festival. PUT IT IN YOUR CALENDARS!
Instead of a traditional film festival, the two-day event will also include workshops, forums, children's activities, talks & panel discussions, environmental clean-ups and more. All activities held throughout the festival will aim to engage participants creatively on how they can affect change locally and globally.
There is also a strong commitment to showcase local filmmakers and creatives, with the launch of the "Singapore Environmental Film Award" given to the best local short environmental film. Prizes and details are still in discussion so stay tuned!

We are also...Read More

It's happening!

Sat, 30 Jan 2016 08:00:00 -0800

It's been a topic for a long time: when is someone going to kick off the first ever Singapore Environmental Film Festival?
Well, 2016 is the year.

After a few initial emails back and forth suggesting that the project come to life, shared around the environmental community in Singapore, a group of 12 passionate people came together meeting at the HUB Singapore and got the fire started.

In our fist meeting, we settled on a tentative date, format and team, which was enough to get us to the starting line.

Next step: it's time to bring the community together to get the word out! Olivia Choong (from Green Drinks) and the team will start selecting the films we will be screening, speakers that will be attending, workshops we'll be running... and so much more!

Meanwhile Adeline Seah (from Biodiversity Connections) will begin to actively seek some support & partnerships to bring the whole event to life.

Abi s going to get started too, first to reach out to all the other Environmental Film Festivals around the world and let them know we're ALIVE! Hopefully we can get some other countries to join in virtually and share their advice!

Over the coming months, we'll try keep this blog up to date with stories about the rest of the organising team, our community partners, and set up our other online platforms so everyone can get connected and take action to protect our environment!

A BIG thank you to everyone who attended our first meeting or has shared interest already online!

Cheers,

Jacqui
Read More