Sustainable Living Film Festival took place at the Italian Cultural Institute, November 26-28, 2008, every day from 10:00 to 22:00. There were 25 Turkish and foreign documentaries and animations screened in their original language with Turkish subtitles. Festival entrance was free of admission.

Sustainable Living Film Festival was organized for the first time by Sustainable Living Collective in collaboration with British Council, aimed to make visible the dominant global system we live in, which is not sustainable by definition and practice. Festival also highlighted the new emerging citizens movement all around the globe to create a sustainable world and the solutions available. Documentaries on various subjects – from agriculture to water, from energy to economy, from food to mining – under the sustainable living heading screened during the festival.

Different from other environmental film festivals, Sustainable Living Film Festival, with its holistic approach to sustainable living, aimed to reveal the mechanical and fragmented world view and its product of a system that consumes life. Festival also invited people to hope and common sense by sharing with them the movements, practices, teachings, approaches to sustain life from all around the world and by sharing the emergence of a higher consciousness and a sustainable living vision, we hoped to encourage and empower the audience to find their authentic power and expression from within.

Among the festival films were Future of Food which exposes the consequences of GMO food, Choropampa: The Price of Gold which tells the story of a town sufferinig from a mercury spill from a gold mine, Thirst which critisizes privatization of water and the World Water Forum which will take place in Turkey in 2009, Drowned Out which tells the drama of a village flooded by a dam, The Power of Community which documents how Cuba survived peak oil in the beginning of 90’s, Learning from Ladakh that offers an insight into a sustainable community and Semillas Sagradas, a story of potato farmers from Andes which was also shown at the Slow Food Film Festival in Italy in 2007. Besides the film screenings, there were talks, live music and little surprises about sustainable living.

Sustainable Living Collective was born with the purpose of co-creating projects of life affirming nature collectively by a group of individuals from different disciplines that came together with the intention of sustaining and regenerating all life, living systems and the Earth. It is an informal group with no legal form. Along with awareness raising projects such as “sustainable living film festival”, SLC plans to work on projects such as permaculture practices, creating an urban community garden, natural building and sustainable social design, addressing real needs in the local community.

For more information and festival program: www.surdurulebiliryasam.org

You can contact Sustainable Living Collective at info@surdurulebiliryasam.org