Sunchild First Regional Environmental Festival in Armenia

SunChild First Regional Environmental Festival in Armenia Second Part – 24-28 October, 2007

The second part of SunChild First Regional Environmental Festival took place on 24-28 October, 2007. The festival program, as scheduled included the following activities:

 ENVIRONMENTAL FILM PROGRAMS  ENVIRONMENTAL PHOTO EXHIBITIONS  ECO-TOURISM WORKSHOP  NETWORKING WORKSHOP AND NETWORKING PANEL  CHILDREN PROGRAM  LET NATURE SING – ROCK CONCERT

FESTIVAL OPENING

18:30, Opening started at Charles Aznavour Square The festival was opened with GarbageArt open air exhibition. Viewers were surprised to see the huge plastic zoo made by children and youth from SunChild eco clubs under supervision of artists Sargis and Sevak Baghdasaryan. 9 statues were exhibited there picturing rare or endangered animal species in Armenia, such as Bezoar Goat, Armenian Mouflon (wild sheep), Brown Bear, Dappled Deer and others.

19:00, Moscow Cinema, opening ceremony The ceremony started with the performance of SunChild hymn. The lyrics were written by the members of SunChild eco clubs during the SunChild summer school. The music was composed by Susanna Barseghyan. Young singers of Do-Re-Mi studio performed the song together with the eco club members. The director Ruben Khachatryan welcomed the audience and participants and introduced the members of Regional and Children competition juries, one representative from each jury – Sue Daly and Karine Danielyan, on behalf of their juries welcomed the participants and guests. The Deputy Minister of Nature Protection also welcomed the start of the second part of the SunChild and underlined that the ministry highly appreciates this activity and is ready to support the further undertakings and initiatives of the organizers.

After the ceremony the guests and participants were invited to enjoy “Following the Sun” photo exhibition created by members of SunChild eco clubs from 6 regions in Armenia.

SunChild First Regional Environmental Festival, 1 #5 Byron Str, 0009 Yerevan, Armenia Tel/Fax +374 10 56-44-84, www.sunchild.org E-mail: [email protected] ENVIRONMENTAL FILM PROGRAMS

The film section is one of the largest programs in the frames of SunChild. Environmental films from all over the world were included in three film programs:  Regional Film Program  Children Film Program  International Information Film Program 130 films were submitted to the festival. The selection committee watched them carefully and chose 75 to be screened in different programs of the festival. Once the program was made, the program team also started preparations of the catalogue of films and programs for the first SunChild.

Festival screening halls Films were screened in 3 different screening halls. Naregatsi Art Institute – this venue became into the festival centre. The information office of the festival was allocated there. Everyday from morning till late evening the audience could watch films from different sections of the festival film program. All the directors of the 16 films included in main competition program of the festival were invited (13 of them were present at the festival). The directors were also invited to introduce their films to the audience and had “Questions and Answers” sessions after their films. National Art Gallery – jury of Regional Competition Program watched the films in this hall in the mornings, after they had closed discussions regarding the films. In the afternoon the audience was invited to watch the International Information Program here. Children Library after Khnko Aper - special screenings for children were organized here during the festival. During the 4 days of the festival more than 1000 schoolchildren from Yerevan and from Urtsadzor, Dilijan and Garni attended the screenings. The visits of children from region were organized by SunChild eco clubs together with local schools. During these 4 days children had a chance to watch films creates by Armenian children, international children film programs and a special program of educational films created for children. Armenian children had several opportunities to introduce their films schoolchildren of their age, to discuss their films together.

The Juries Two Juries worked hard during the 5 festival days: Regional Competition Jury, which was the main competition jury of the festival and had to watch 16 films included in this competition section. At the very beginning there was made a decision not to invite representatives from the neighbor countries of the region, but from different European countries. Ms. Sue Daly – wildlife filmmaker from Great Britain, laureate of numerous international awards Mr. Bernd-Guenther Nahm – director of Augenweide festival in Germany Ms. Erica Girotto – General Secretary of Cinmemambiente International Environmental festival in Italy Were invited to be the jury of the first SunChild.

Children Jury also had three members: Ms. Karine Danielyan – one of the leading environmentalists in Armenia, Mr. Evgeniy Usov – Head of Greenpeace Russia, wildlife filmmaker Ms. Naira Muradyan – Animated film director, Armenia

SunChild First Regional Environmental Festival, 2 #5 Byron Str, 0009 Yerevan, Armenia Tel/Fax +374 10 56-44-84, www.sunchild.org E-mail: [email protected] The First Winners In the Regional Competition Program, which was the main competition program in the frames of the festival, the Jury was initially suggested to consider three categories: “Best Regional Film Award”, which was the main festival award, and two second prizes for “Best Environmental Film” and “Best Wildlife Film”. After watching the 16 films included in this competition program, the Jury made the decision not to give the “Best Wildlife Film” award to any of films and leave the award for the next year’s award fund.

Jury Special Award – a special diploma was given to Iranian film “The Old Man of Harra” for covering the subject “Man and Nature”

In the category of Best Environmental Film the second honourable award and the money award of 500 Euros went to Armenian film “Shikahogh” (produced by Vem Media Arts studio, director – Nikolay Davtyan)

The main – Best Regional Film award was entrusted to the film “Source”, director – Martin Marecek, (Czech Republic/Azerbaijan). The scriptwriter of the film, Martin Skalsky received the award and the money award of 1000 Euros.

Children films As promised, the premiere screening of children films made in the frames of “Following the Sun” environmental- educational program under the “ViveCell and children for the Nature” slogan took place during the Opening ceremony of the festival. Later on, the Children Jury watched the films carefully and after long discussions decided to handle special certificates to all the participants underlining special values for each of the films:

“Silent Scream” – made by Urtsadzor “SunChild” eco-club, diploma for “the original view of the place of the human in nature” “Our River” - made by Yerevan “SunChild” eco-club and “Manana” educational Centre, diploma for “The Original Idea and successful debute” “Voghjaberd” - made by Garni-Goght “SunChild” eco-club, diploma for “The Creative approach to the Problem” “Inside the Circle” - made by Dilijan “SunChild” eco-club, diploma for “The Successful discovery of the Spirit of Nature inside the Human” “Beside the Tracks” - made by Gyumri “SunChild” eco-club, diploma for “Humanity”

Special Screenings Special screening of film series by British wildlife filmmaker Sue Daly was organized in the frames of the festival on October 26. Films by Sue Daly have been screened at many international film festivals and received numerous awards, they have been also broadcast on such TV channels and National Geographic and BBC. It was a huge success that the Armenian audience also had the chance to watch these films, and with the filmmaker’s permission the films were dubbed into Armenia for the audience. The director of the festival Ruben Khachatryan introduced Ms. Sue Daly before the screening and underlined about the importance of having these films screened in Armenia. After, the Ambassador of Great Britain Mr. Anthony Cantor greeted Sue Daly in Armenia. The film series entitles “Wild Islands” consisting of 5 films “Wild Harbours”, “Wild Invaders”, “Wild Alderney”, “Wild Sark” and “Wild Spring” were screened in Naregatsi Centre and National Art Gallery.

SunChild First Regional Environmental Festival, 3 #5 Byron Str, 0009 Yerevan, Armenia Tel/Fax +374 10 56-44-84, www.sunchild.org E-mail: [email protected] TV films on Environmental issues Already in April the organizers of SunChild together with ViveCell Company announced about special competition for Armenian TVs. After 6 months promotion activities only 2 TV films were submitted to the festival for this competition. Because of such limited selection the organizers decided to postpone the program for the next year trying to encourage more journalists and TV companies to submit their products and maybe even to make new films on environmental issues.

ENVIRONMENTAL PHOTO EXHIBITIONS

“Following the Sun” photo exhibition Three photo exhibitions were opened in the frames of the first SunChild. One October 24, right after the opening ceremony the exhibition created by Armenian children in SunChild eco clubs was opened in Moscow cinema. The exhibition was entitled “Following the Sun”. The children together with their trainers were happy to introduce their activities to the audience and answer their questions.

Jacob Majarian’s first individual photo exhibition On October 25th Australian-Armenian photographer Jacob Majarian’s first individual exhibition was opened in Naregatsi Art Institute. Jacob Majarian is well known in Armenia due to his books, publications, album and calendars of Armenian nature. Since 1999 he has been traveling throughout Armenia and taking photos, after all this was his first individual exhibition and everyone was happy that it was organized in the frames of SunChild festival. During the evening a big surprised was open – together with the organizers of the festival Jacob decided to donate the latest issue of his calendars to secondary schools in the regions of Armenia and the members of Hay Raiders bikers club agreed to help distributing the calendars. During the closing ceremony of the festival a Special SunChild diploma for “Discovering the Beauty of Nature” was handled to Jacob Majarian.

Hrachik Ghazaryan’s exhibition On October 26th in the frames of the festival Hrachik Ghazaryan’s photo exhibition and presentation of his book were organized in Avantgarde Folk Club. The Ministry of Nature Protection of RA handled a Diploma of Honor to Hrachik Ghazaryan, and promised that the Medal of Honor of the Ministry will be ready by the end of the year and it will also be entrusted to Hrachik, the acclaimed biologist and photographer.

WORKSHOPS

Eco-tourism Workshop On 25-26 October Eco-tourism workshop was held in the frames of the festival in the Conference Hall of Armenian Marriott Hotel. German expert Dina Bauer and Mr. Alan Saffery conducted the workshop, which was accompanied with hot discussions and debates, and had wide feedback. Participants from Armenia and Georgia attended the sessions. The representative of the Ministry of Nature Protection of RA presented the current possibilities and tendency of development of eco-tourism in Armenia.

SunChild First Regional Environmental Festival, 4 #5 Byron Str, 0009 Yerevan, Armenia Tel/Fax +374 10 56-44-84, www.sunchild.org E-mail: [email protected] Networking Workshop and Panel The number of participants for Networking Workshop and Networking Panel, held on 27-28 October, overcame all the expectations of the organizers. Among participants there were such organizations as: Greenpeace Russia, European Film Festival Network (EFFN), South Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), and Documentary Filmmakers Association in Turkey, Armenia Tree Project, WWF Armenia, and many others.

CHILDREN PROGRAM

The October part of the festival was also the time to summarize the results of the first year of implementation of “Following the Sun” environmental educational program. After months of trainings, practical lessons, April environmental activities and the summer camp the children had a chance to present the results of their activities to public and to international guests of the festival.

Right after the festival children photo exhibition “Following the Sun” started traveling to several international Galleries. In November it will be exhibited in several cities in Germany.

Several international film festivals invited the children film program to their festivals in 2008 in a special film program by Armenian children.

LET NATURE SING – ROCK CONCERT

On 25-27 October in the frames of SunChild every evening rock concerts were organized in Avant-garde Folk Club. During these three days rock bands from Armenia and Georgia joined the festival playing their music for the environment, promoting environmentally-friendly lifestyle. Special videos were made to be screened during the concerts. Hundreds of young people joined these concerts every evening.

SunChild First Regional Environmental Festival, 5 #5 Byron Str, 0009 Yerevan, Armenia Tel/Fax +374 10 56-44-84, www.sunchild.org E-mail: [email protected]