The First Challenge for a Blue Planet! ... 'Hanappunin Jigu Film Festival' Opens on the 11th

Building Public Consensus on the Climate Crisis and Promoting the Spread of Green Living Practices

Poster for the "1st One and Only Earth Film Festival".

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Busan City will hold the ‘1st One and Only Earth Film Festival’ from August 11 to 15 at the Busan Cinema Center and Busan Citizens Park area.

This film festival is hosted and organized by the Right to Nature and sponsored by Busan City.

The festival consists of ▲Environmental Film Festival ▲Creator Environmental Film Festival ▲Environmental Content Promotion ▲Exhibitions and Experiences ▲Conference, among others.

The opening ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. on the 11th at the outdoor theater of the Busan Cinema Center. Mayor Park Hyung-joon, Choi Jae-cheol, Chair of the International Bureau of Expositions General Assembly, and Philip Turner, New Zealand Ambassador to Korea, are expected to attend.

▲The Environmental Film Festival is the world’s first film festival focused on the climate crisis, inviting 41 works from 20 countries. Most of the works are composed of content that raises awareness of the seriousness of the climate crisis.

The opening film is “All That Breathes” directed by Jennifer Abbott from Canada, which contains vivid testimonies of people experiencing disasters caused by the climate crisis. The closing film is “Burning Water Paradise, Pantanal” by Lee Jung-soo, a KBS producer, highlighting the triple hardships of drought, floods, and wildfires faced by the world’s largest wetland, Brazil’s Pantanal.

At Dasom Square in Busan Citizens Park, outdoor screenings will be held once a day from 8 p.m. between the 12th and 14th. Watching films in the tropical night will provide an opportunity to directly feel the seriousness of global warming and the climate crisis.

▲The Creator Environmental Film Festival will take place on the 13th and 15th at the outdoor plaza of the Busan Cinema Center and the Cinematheque Hall. Professional creators will participate directly in talk shows, film screenings, and dialogues with the audience.

A total of 37 works were submitted to the ‘Global Environmental Video Contest’ held since June, and the outstanding works will be screened at the closing ceremony on the 15th.

▲For promoting environmental content, a ‘Global Environment Poster Contest’ will also be held. Over a month since June, 280 works from kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school students were submitted, and those that passed the first internal screening will be exhibited at the Busan Cinema Center during the event. The final outstanding works will be selected through a second on-site audience vote.

From the 12th, the ‘Green Life Show’ exhibition and experience event will be held at the outdoor plaza of the Busan Cinema Center. Seventy eco-friendly companies and organizations will participate, allowing visitors to see various eco-friendly products in one place.

The ‘White Elephant Market,’ a recycling direct transaction market where seldom-used items are sold and shared, and various experience programs will also be held, expected to help cultivate easy and fun green lifestyle habits in daily life.

▲An ESG International Conference themed ‘The Role of ESG in the Era of Climate Crisis’ will also be held.

The conference, held on August 12 at the Centum Campus Convention Hall of Dongseo University, will feature presentations and discussions by distinguished domestic and international figures such as Martin Wolf, Professor at Yale University; Philip Turner, New Zealand Ambassador to Korea; Thomas Polow, former Citibank Asia-Pacific Regional President; and Kim Hyo-eun, Climate Change Ambassador of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They will discuss global climate change policies, correct perceptions of social value management (ESG), and ways to spread these locally.

Lee Geun-hee, Director of the Environmental Policy Office of Busan City, said, “Natural disasters caused by rapid climate changes such as droughts, heavy rains, heatwaves, and wildfires continue worldwide, and new infectious diseases threaten our lives. Since empathy and awareness improvement are important for changing our behavior, I hope this Earth Film Festival will be a good opportunity to raise citizens’ awareness of the climate crisis and spread green living practices in daily life.”

Tickets can be reserved through the Busan Cinema Center website or app, and detailed information is available on the One and Only Earth Film Festival website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.