CSE film on harvesting rain wins Green Oscars nomination
New Delhi: Rainwater Harvesting,
a 90-second public services advertisement produced by Centre for Science and Environment
(CSE), New Delhi has been nominated by the Wildscreen 2004 Panda Awards for its Campaign
Award category. The United Kingdoms Wildscreen Awards, dubbed the Green
Oscars, is among the most prestigious in wildlife and environmental filmmaking.
Rainwater Harvesting, which won
the best documentary prize at the Vatavaran 2003 film festival in New Delhi, has been
directed by noted film star Nandita Das. Exquisitely crafted, the advertisement promotes
rainwater harvesting by focusing on the concept of catching rain where it falls in a
neighbourhood. Using a medley of emotions ranging from wonder to comic and even the
absurd it subtly weaves in the idea that rainwater harvesting is a community
effort. The film was shot over just two days in Kolkata.
More than 400 entries from 43 nations
were received for this years Wildscreen Awards. The Campaign Award category is a new
entry in the Awards. Three films, besides Rainwater Harvesting, were nominated in
this category two from the US and one from the UK. Each production, according to
the organisers, was "judged on its ability to identify and target its audience, give
a clear message and a direct action that the viewer could take". The nominations will
be considered for the awards in October, just before the festival.
Rainwater Harvesting is
part of a unique collection of films and photographs that is housed in CSEs Audio
Visual Resource Centre (AVRC). With more than 1,00,000 photographs and slides and over 600
documentaries on environment and sustainable development in its collection, the AVRC is
one of the finest repositories of its kind in India. The Centre also specialises in
preparing customised slide shows, photo exhibitions and archived footages for its clients,
and offers consultancy and training for management of similar centres across India.
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