What is your favourite movie genre? Horror? Drama? Romance? My personal favourite is romantic comedy. A little bit of drama and a little bit of romance, just the perfect combination. As the audience, we sit and criticize the technicalities of the film that we watch. From dialogues to script to music. However, what we don’t criticize is the impact film production has on the environment. An average of 2840 tonnes of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere with every blockbuster film production. All these toxic gases emitted for a 2–3 hours of viewing time. Is it really worth it? Rather than promoting big budget movies that have an environmental, social, and economic impact, there are several “green” films that are hardly ever in the limelight of this vast industry.
The UK Green Film Festival showcases and promotes the best green documentaries and movies from across the country. This year, these documentaries range from the Arctic islands to Canada’s forest to Brazil’s violent borderlands. The aim of this festival is to bring forward urgent, debated, and misunderstood topics like climate change, energy resources, corruption, etc. They partner up with several organizations that also support and work towards the common cause. Green film making is an upcoming initiative that several production companies are adapting to ensure a lesser release of harmful gases into the environment and try to make every aspect of the production eco-friendlier.
Is Green Film used as a tool?
Yes, Green Film is also a form of tool and evaluation system used to rate and promote sustainability for audio-visual productions. There are many evaluation criteria's that a film needs to meet to be certified as a Green Film. The first criteria revolves around how energy efficient the movie is and limiting carbon emissions and wastage of energy resources. The second criteria are regarding transportation and accommodations. There are plenty of steps a production team can take to reduce fuel consumption through vehicles. For instance, switching to electric buggy cars instead of diesel-driven ones is one step in the right direction. Other criteria's like waste management, material selection, etc are also taken into consideration during the evaluation process to ensure that the film is not only entertaining for the audience but also has a positive impact on the climate.
To be honest, after reading about these films, my preferences regarding my favourite film genre may have changed. Personally speaking, I am going to give these green films a shot and do my bit towards reducing global warming. What about you? Let me know if you have watched any environmental-friendly movie.