The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital is the world’s premier showcase of environmentally themed films. Since 1993 their mission has been to celebrate Earth and inspire understanding and stewardship of the environment through the power of film.
This year in its 29th edition DCEFF was brought to you virtually. The ACF Washington was proud to have two Austrian films in the program: EARTH (Nikolaus Geyrhalter) and WOOD (Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Michaela Kirst, Ebba Sinzinger).
More information on the festival, its full schedule and how to get tickets is available here.
EARTH
Directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter
Austria, 2019
115 min, German, English, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, with English subtitles
When: March 23, 2021 | 8pm
Where: online | Eventive LIVE
Ticket: Free admission for the first 600 viewers, registration obligatory
ABOUT THE FILM
We walk all over it every day of our lives. We plow it, we dig it and we drill it; we cover it up with concrete. We map it and we measure it; we draw our borders onto it; and we imagine that it belongs to us. We live by what it produces and we bury our dead in it. We take its existence for granted; it seems invincible, indestructible. If we consider our planet to be an organism, its crust – just 40 kilometers thick – is its most delicate organ by far. Austrian film maker Nikolaus Geyrhalter observes people, in mines, quarries and at large construction sites, engaged in a constant struggle to take possession of the planet.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Photo © Philipp Horak
Director, producer, writer and cinematographer, Nikolaus Geyrhalter was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1972. Geyrhalter’s static-camera, well-paced observational films tackle their subjects head-on, whether it’s exploring the terrain in Chernobyl, Ukraine (Pripyat), tracing the route of the Dakar Rally (7915 Km), or investigating the production of processed foods (Our Daily Bread).
WOOD
Directed by Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Michaela Kirst, Ebba Sinzinger
Romania-Germany-Austria, 2020
97 min, English, Romanian, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, with English subtitles
When: March 19 through March 28, 2021
Where: online | Eventive
Ticket: Free admission for the first 400 viewers, registration obligatory
ABOUT THE FILM
From the Taiga in Siberia over the primary forests of Romania to the primeval forest in Peru: around the world, billions of dollars are made from illegal logging. First World consumers are happy about low prices at the hardware and furniture stores, but would doubtlessly be shocked if they knew the origins of these goods. Alexander von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor's great-great-great-nephew, has been on the timber mafia's trail for years. As head of the Environmental Investigation Agency in Washington DC, he tirelessly takes to the road. He doesn't shy from changing persona and appearance and employing concealed technical means to bring illegal activities to light. He knows the swamp of crime can't be drained while corrupt politicians and idle authorities remain indifferent to these illegal activities. So for Alexander von Bismarck, an essential part of his work, over and above his detective activities, is creating political and public awareness of the disastrous consequences of forest depletion – as the state of the planet's "green lung" has long since assumed dramatic proportions. This wake-up-call documentary follows Von Bismarck and his comrades into the hell of profit-lust and back again.
Join a pre-recorded Q&A with all the filmmakers and Alexander von Bismarck moderated by the ACFDC Director Eva Schoefer directly after the streaming of the film.
ABOUT THE DIRECTORS
MONICA LĂZUREAN-GORGAN
Photo © Wildart Film
Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, based in Bucharest, was the delegate producer of Adina Pintili's Golden Bear Winner TOUCH ME NOT. With her newly established company Manifest Film, she produced ACASA, MY HOME, which won an award at Sundance 2020. She also successfully directed A MERE BREATH (2016), which won Best Documentary at LET'S CEE Film Fest and in Sarajevo.
MICHAELA KIRST
Photo © Wildart Film
Michaela Kirst worked for many years as a journalist in New York and has headed the Berlin office of Sagafilm since 2011. She realizes documentaries for TV and cinema as director and/or producer. Her films like DISGUSTINGLY HEALTHY, BROWN BABIES – GERMANY'S LOST CHILDREN or CRIME SCENE RAIN FOREST have won many awards.
EBBA SINZINGER
Photo © Wildart Film
Ebba Sinzinger is a producer, scriptwriter and director in Vienna. Films she produced and coproduced like BROTHERS OF THE NIGHT and DOMAINE by Patric Chiha, THE FORGOTTEN SPACE by Noël Burch and Allan Secula or PIANOMANIA, have won awards in Berlin, Venice and Locarno. For her directorial work, she received the Upper Austrian Cultural Award for Film in 1997.