Blog: Film festivals

Call for Submission – APFF-3/Feb/19
Asia Peace Film Festival - 3rd Edition
Theme:
Localizing Global Goals: Story Begins at Home!
September 2019
Pakistan
Executing Agency: Asia Peace Film Festival
https://asiapeacefilmfestival.com
https://www.facebook.com/AsiaPeaceFilmFestival/
Background:
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. The Global Goals are broad and interdependent, yet each has a separate list of targets to achieve. Achieving all 169 targets would signal accomplishing all 17 goals. The Goals cover ecological, social and economic development issues including poverty, hunger, health, education, global warming, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, urbanization, environment and social justice. The background and explanation are available in the Resolution Adopted by The General Assembly available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld
Localizing Global Goals: Story Begins at Home
The Global Goals provide an indicative agenda for sustainable development that is required to stimulate a series of collective actions to address areas of critical importance for humanity and the habitat. The Global Goals are a large, holistic and long-term set of goals, difficult to distil into simple and compelling messages.
While these Goals are global, their achievement will critically depend on our interest, intention, ability and resources to turn the global social contract based on pressing development commitments into a tangible reality in our homes, communities, neighborhoods, cities, regions, countries and so on. Consequentially, our immediate localities are the primary sites of the compliance of our commitments towards a universal development agenda. Therefore, the story of global goals begins at home and connects to the extended contours of universality. It becomes everyone’s business, leaving no one behind.
Locating Creative Communications: Awareness, Relatability and Reach
APFF believes that contextualization of meta-data is as much important for effective communication as much as localization of global goals are important for any meaningful delivery of development dividends. Policy makers have argued that, “we will only deliver on the SDGs if people know about the goals, demand action, and hold their leaders to their promises.”
From the communication perspective, delivery of development outcomes would largely be determined by the level of awareness, relatability, reach and influence towards global goals. Therefore, creative communications should be aimed at increasing awareness, explaining relatability, enhancing outreach and influencing investments towards Global Goals at immediate locality and beyond. Global Goals are a universal agenda, requiring progress at home and abroad. Experts have suggested that, “our communication should lead to developing political will, involving people to act for themselves locally, and aiming for the goals to become a universal reference guide.”
APFF is seeking to engage creative community of Asian region including passionate storytellers, filmmakers, writers, directors, actors, artists, musicians, singers, social media champions, multi-media creators to develop a communication mix on Global Goals.
Why a Film Festival on Global Goals?
Experience has shown that “the exposure one can get through film and digital content, whether it’s at a film festival, a local cinema screening, through online distribution or educational channels, is magnified compared to many traditional ways we try to impact change.” Festival exposure and awards often bring press attention, which is considered the best amplifier of messages.
A number of studies suggest that “to inspire change, people need to ‘feel’ your story.” Data, research, statistics and trend indicators are important. Data supports and drives decisions every day in what we do. But as they say data alone typically doesn’t reach the part of our brains which can reach complex issues, intuit connections, engage lateral thinking, or move one to action: the emotional brain. ‘Story’ speaks to our emotional brain. Experts suggest: “We have to change the way we communicate. All action is emotional, and in order to get an emotional connection we need to understand what it is.”
APFF considers filmmaking and cinematography as an effective medium of communication to understand, inform, inspire and generate an individual and collective will to act for behavioral and perceptual transformations. Through a thematic cinema, a diverse and larger audiences can be engaged on issues related to SDGs making a complex message simpler, communicative and inspirational. With the extended outreach of digital content, filmmaking has become an effective tool of communication which can be used to strengthen rights-based social movements and development discourses infusing a culture of transformation in societies plagued with hierarchical structures, policies and instruments.
Against this backdrop, APFF dedicates its Third Edition to the Global Goals encouraging film makers to tell stories of their own soil – narrate local stories to the global audiences and bridge the communication gap. Tell others what story you feel for. Lens your own story! You have a space to inspire, now.
APFF is aimed to celebrate 3rd Edition by encouraging production and organizing public screening of the selected Asian short films, documentaries, animations and music videos narrating the stories of struggle and transformations on any of the seventeen Global Goals. However, a particular focus would be laid on subthemes related to: ecological, social and economic development issues including poverty, hunger, health, education, global warming, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, urbanization, environment and social justice.
Reference Material:
• https://worldsbestnews.org/partners-projects/communicating-the-sustainable-development-goals-everyone/
• More than 700 filmmakers across the globe tackled these questions as part of this year’s Picture This Festival for the Planet, a short-film competition for emerging filmmakers hosted by Sony and the United Nations Foundation. These short films explore global goals like clean energy, access to education, and environmental sustainability through a variety of storytelling techniques, including comedy, animation, and documentary interviews. One submission even borrowed from the horror movie genre.
• https://unfoundation.org/blog/post/8-short-films-to-inspire-you-into-sdg-action/
• http://www.un.org/webcast/pdfs/160421pm-sdgs-com.pdf
• http://www.dentsu.com/csr/team_sdgs/pdf/sdgs_communication_guide.pdf
Key Components of APFF - 3rd Edition 2019:
I. Inaugural Session – High profile representation from multilateral, bilateral and governmental fora
II. Screening of selected Asian films (shorts, documentaries, animations, music videos) followed by discussions and Q&A
III. Panel Discussions – 17 parallel panel discussions on 17 Global Goals (moderating conversations between policy and communication communities)
IV. Inter-Governmental Policy Dialogue on Global Goals in Asia
V. Master Classes on A2Z of Filmmaking
VI. Art Exhibition on Global Goals
VII. Musical and Cultural Events
VIII. Networking Dinners
IX. Media Encounters
X. Grand Finale followed by Award Giving Ceremony