Film Makers Must Now Think About Environment-Sandeep Marwah

‘Rapid growth of population, discoveries and inventions, industrialization and urbanization has lead to environmental problems. It has effected the land and wild life and lead to water and air pollution” said Sandeep Marwah founder of film city Noida, film producer and educator at the opening of Wild Screen Film Festival at British Council New Delhi. The Wildscreen Festival was founded by Sir Peter Scott in 1982 and has been organised every alternate year for the past 25 years. It is the world’s largest and most prestigious wildlife and environmental film festival. The festival was inaugurated by actor Kunal Kapoor. The two-day festival screened six movies, including the BBC Life Series. It opened with the screening of ‘Can We Save The Planet Earth’, a 2006 movie presented by Sir David Attenborough. The screening was accompanied by seminar that focused on ‘Trends in wildlife & environmental filmmaking’ The movies screened in two days festival included ‘Extreme Ice’, on glacier melts from US directed by Noel Dockstader; ‘The Man Who Stopped the Desert’, a West African tale of greening the desert by Mark Dodd from Britain; and ‘The Wild Meat Trail’, an account of wild meat hunting and eating in northeast India directed by Rita Banerji and Shilpi Sharma. Other films included ‘North-Eastern Diaries: Seeking Wildlife in the Eastern Himalayas’ from India by Sandesh Kadur, ‘How Earth Made Us: Human Planet’ from Britain by Matthew Dyas, ‘Wild: The Coral Gardener’ from Britain by Emma Robens, ‘Green’ from France by Patrick Rouxel and the BBC Life series on environment. Chief executive of Wildscreen Festival, Richard Edwards, said I am happy to see the large involvement of public this time. Rob Lynes, director of British Council in India, said: ‘The British Council actively engages with environmental filmmakers as they play an important role to shape public opinion on key issues like climate change.’ Sandeep Marwah invited film makers to come forward with new and interesting ideas where Marwah Studios will support their projects.