GREEN CROSS ITALY HONOURS TWO FILMS AS BEST ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTARIES

Green Cross Italy honours two films as best environmental documentaries

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Green Cross Italy awarded two films with the special prize for the Best International Documentary dedicated to the environment at the 13th annual CinemAmbiente Environmental Film Festival in Turin on World Environment Day. Among the 12 films up for the award, the films Cities on Speed – Bogotá Change and The End of the Line were selected for best illustrating the environmental and social sustainability challenge facing governments around the world.

Cities on Speed – Bogotá Change

“We have the privilege but also the difficult task of evaluating and promoting the documentaries that best represent the topics of sustainable development and more generally, man’s relationship with the environment,” said Green Cross Italy President Elio Pacilio. “Since the movie industry today is used as a catalyst to transmit messages, it is important to give the greatest support possible to events like CinemAmbiente.”

This year the jury was made up of filmmaker and director Claudio Bonivento; TV presenter Tessa Gelisio, journalists Federica Cellini, Marco Gisotti and Antonella Tagliabue; and documentary filmmakers Maurizio Paffetti and Gianfranco Pannone.
The first winning documentary, Cities on Speed – Bogotá Change, focuses on two former mayors of Bogotá that were able to turn one of the more dangerous places in the world into one of the better places to live.
“A true story that uses vivacity and humour to demonstrate that another world is possible, thanks to the intelligence and sane madness of two men who have decided not to resign themselves to conformity and instead come up with innovative policies,” noted the jury. “In fact, if all big cities were governed in a similar manner as that by Antanas Mockus and Enrique Pealosa, we could finally talk about eco-sustainable societies and demonstrate that another world is possible.”
The End of the Line

The second award was given to The End of the Line, which tells the dramatic story of the devastating effects of over fishing on the ecosystem of seas and oceans. “The documentary succeeds in comparing the beauty of images of marine biodiversity, usually seen in a more pleasant context, to the seriousness of exhaustion of fish stocks,” said the jury. “It is a problem that is becoming the emblem of the ecological crisis on the planet, accurately representing on screen the global clash between nature, following the fixed rules, bad politics and obeying the rules of particular interests.”

The aim of the film festival is to use cinema to promote a positive environmental culture at both the national and international levels.

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