01 Jun ‘Message from a bottle’ @ CINEMAMBIENTE film festival 2019
Kickoff for my Ethiopian documentary about plastic pollution. Shootetd in 2018, Message from a bottle portrays the misknown yet raising environmental awareness in the Souther region of Ethiopia of Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region. Hawassa is a 160.000 citizens town on the shores of the namesake lake, in the Great Rift Valley. The lake is a natural sanctuary, shelter for hippos, flamingos, marabuts and baboons. The people of the lake had traditionally lived on the lake fishing during thousands of year. Now the delicate environmental balance of this treasure is under the threat of Chinese industrialization, global warming and plastic pollution. NGO Cifa have fostered a project to turn this huge problem into an economic asset for the local community by installing a PET recycling plant and organizing a net of official collectors.
Out of the 8.3 billion tons of plastic produced since 1950, only 9% was recycled. Every year at least 8 million tons end up in the sea. How to reverse the course of this announced disaster? Message from a bottle tells the simple yet innovative experience of recycling PET in the Ethiopian city of Hawassa. A chain of positive reactions that can infect an entire continent.
The documentary was produced thanks to the financial contribution of the European Union with the grant Frame, Voice, Report!
It has been a wonderful expedition, perfectly organized by the local staff leaded by Silvia Vanzetto. I want to thank all the local collborators of the project and my travel companion Alessandro Lercara (www.alessandrolercara.com), freelance photographer, author of the gorgeous pictures that I’m using on this page. Great job Alessandro, thanks for all the kind support and the complicity in the project.
In coLlaboration with COP Piemonte and Cinemabiente, the screening will be hosted @Centro Studi Sereno Regis, Turin, Italy, ON JUNE the 1st, at 6pm. I’ll be introducing the screening and attending the q&a with Marco Pastori, Projects coordinator of CIFA.
To know more about the reportage please visit its page LINK
Here is a video teaser for Cifa social networks (Facebook LINK)
LINK to Cinemabiente’s page for showtime and schedule
About the project 100%Plastic by Cifa LINK
