Using Cinema to ‘Open Minds’ on a Greek Island Ravaged by Wildfires
variety.comChristopher Vourlias Though the devastating wildfires that swept across Greece’s second-largest island last summer were the impetus for the Evia Film Project, an environmentally focused event organized by the Thessaloniki Film Festival, it’s with the future squarely in mind that festival leadership launched the inaugural edition, which ran June 15 – 19.To that end, a series of workshops throughout the five-day event were designed to educate children of all ages about both cinema and our relationship to the environment. “Through the medium of cinema, we are going to try to sensitize the kids to environmental issues,” said Elise Jalladeau, general director of the Thessaloniki Film Festival.Among the sessions held last week was a workshop hosted by Rancheros, an animal-rescue farm in the village of Agia Anna that rescued hundreds of animals during last year’s wildfires.
Young participants visiting the farm collaborated to shoot a short documentary film about the rescue work being done there. Another workshop, presented in partnership with the educational association Cinemathesis, taught kids about environmental conservation and sustainability and culminated in the creation of a stop-motion animated short.
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