News……………………………………….
Our
yahoo club has seen some action of late and is becoming an interesting discussion forum cum notice board. Those of you who are not yet members are invited to become members of this group. Let me remind you about our ownweblogtoo,
which lets you keep a diary of jottings about issues which interest you / bother you. I find it convenient to write my jottings on river-linking projects. This seems to be the least reported yet most earth – shaking project India has undertaken. Through the
jottings I try to reassure myself that things will work out fine. Any opinion? Please feel free to add to myweblog.
And Views………………………………….
“I clearly recall my first visits to Wildscreen '84 and '86: I felt like a complete outsider. At the time I was a team member on the BBC's first environment series - "Nature" on BBC2 - ----------------The industry was almost entirely
'blue chip' - pure unadulterated wildlife, mainly 'life stories' and 'place' films, with the emphasis on escapism and beautiful photography. Our 'people' stories were looked down upon from a very lofty eyrie indeed. We felt (and were treated) like journalistic
young bulls in the Miessen china shop, pushing our issue-led (and often very un-pretty) films at an unwilling audience.
Then things began to change. I remember Jim Murray, executive producer of CBC's "The Nature of Things", talking about his series " Sea of Slaughter " at Wildscreen '90. These films openly tackled thorny issues of over-fishing and the in-humane and wasteful
practices that had led to the near-extinction of many whale and fish species. They were not easy viewing, and Jim's openly ecological and 'political' agenda sharply divided opinion at the festival - some delegates felt such films didn't have a place there
at all. Others, like myself, felt it was an awakening. We may look back now on "Sea of Slaughter" as a blunt instrument - worthy and evangelical, with not an ounce of lightness or entertainment about it - but these films were without doubt a turning point
for Wildscreen: passion about conservation had been let loose.
Fast forward 17 years...
Today's festivals are sprouting with ecologically-minded, globally-aware awards. At Jackson Hole there are now "Best Environmental" and "People and Animal" awards, at Wildscreen there are now four separate categories, from the "Filmmakers for Conservation"
Award to "Best Campaign", the "Television Trust for the Environment" Award and "One Planet". At Missoula , Montana , this year they had the poetically named "Hands around the World" award.
It's not only the awards that reflect changing times. Today's keynote speakers have become global conservation leaders - Ed Wilson and Jane Goodall, Richard Leakey and Bob May. The celebrities who attend are no longer John Denver and Stephanie Powers, but the
environment ministers from Brazil and Gabon .
If I have any hesitation in all this, it's a small, personal - and perhaps slightly perverse - one. Having started as an 'outsider', wanting to bring more environmental awareness to the festivals, I now find myself feeling almost protective toward that original
'blue chip' purity which we've been diluting. I didn't start out as a campaigner; I started out loving nature, wanting to spend time in wild places, feeling that sense of absolute humility and irrelevance which comes from total immersion in wilderness. It's
a sort of escapism, I guess, a basking in beauty and landscape, often in solitude. I hope we never lose those beautiful, celebratory films which best reflect that simple wonder at nature, because crucial as it is to talk about conservation, we mustn't lose
touch with all those wonderful things we're trying to conserve.
-Brian Leith, Head of Granada Wild