Aranyam Environment and Wildlife Film Festival

 ANGELS IN TIGERLAND

Directed By:   Suresh Elamon 

Periyar Tiger Reserve is one of the best protected areas of India. Other than larger mammals like the Tiger Asian Elephant, Leopard, Wild Dog, Guar, Sambar, Nilgiri, Langur, Liontailed Macaque, Giant Flying Squirrel, etc. the reserve is also a sanctuary of hundreds of butterfly species, some of them as spectacular as those found anywhere in the world. More than three -fourth of the total 334 species so far recorded from southern Indian can be seen in Periyar.The film takes the viewer on an exciting excursion into this interesting and colourful world of butterflies, introduces him to a brief biology of butterflies including the complete metamorphosis of the largest butterfly in India, the Southern Birdwing (Troides Minos) with stunning visuals. Thereafter the viewer gets a glimpse of the various types of predation in the world of butterflies.The film ends up with the first ever video footage of the extremely rare and legendary butterfly of the Indian subcontinent TRAVANCORE EVENING BROWN (Parantirrohea Marshalli) which was thought to be extinct for a very long time but was rediscovered from Periyar Tiger Reserve in the last decade. This butterfly is so rare that only very few people have seen it in the wild so far. The film not only shows it as a live specimen but also its early stages, its pupation and final emergence as an adult

 THE FRIDGE

Directed By:  Lucie Stamfestova  

 The Fridge is an animated "Parable about planet Earth" - technically creative and very captivating. Operating on several levels, it achieves high standards in terms of visual presentation and story-telling. Story-telling is often at its best when it seems the most effortless. This is the case here. Through animation the audience is given the possibility to confront the horror and devastation of an overheated world. Carefree chickens stay in denial until they are fried to carbon. (And we know that also less carefree chickens might face the same bleak future.) The scariness of the film is carried by its wit and energy. This energy is also needed for action.

TIGER THE DEATH CHRONICLES

Directed By : Krishnendu Bose

Tiger, the symbol of India. One of the most charismatic animals to walk the face of the earth. Faces it’s most severe crisis today. Its prey, habitat and the animal itself are being decimated.

Tiger-the death chronicles, explores this crisis. Traveling through tiger hotspots like Sariska, Panna and Buxa, the film attempts to unravel the nuts and bolts of the crisis. It looks at states like Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Goa and how they maybe trading their tigers and their forests, for more economic revenue. The film maps the curious case of a mining project in the heart of a tiger habitat in Orissa. It
also highlights the positive work being done in reserves like Corbett and up in the BR Hills, of Karnataka.

Tiger- the death chronicles in 63 minutes, encapsulates 30 years of conservation attitude in this country. For the first time ever, a film joins diverse voices, from tiger scientists and conservationists to ordinary citizens, to attempt a brutal and an honest assessment of the present and the future of the Indian tiger and it’s habitat.

CONCERT FOR INDIA’S ENVIRONMENT

Directed by Chinmaya Dunster

  This short documentary film is 48 minutes long and blends footage from a series of multimedia concerts recorded live at the Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environmental Education and Awareness (BVIEER), Pune, India in 2004 with:
*Poems on nature, composed and read by Indian schoolchildren
*Interviews with environmentalists and educators
*Stunning footage of scenery, wildlife and peoples from all over India.
It aims to evoke feelings of reverence for the wonders of India’s nature, and respect for the peoples who have lived alongside them and preserved so much of them over countless generations.

SACRED GROVES, focusing on the tradition of preserving forests as sacred to a local deity, is the second part of the film.

 A GREEN AGONY

Directed By: Geeta Singh

Each morning as the rays of the sun sift through the leaves, the forest awakens to the sounds of lapping oars. Cruising through a maze of creeks and rivulets, boats small and big, negotiate their way to start yet another day of their lives. A life of constant struggle, struggle to stay afloat, struggle to find a space, struggle to simply survive. Along the borders of India and Bangladesh, where rivers meet the ocean, lies a world that knows no boundaries. Where man, mangroves and wild life are forever trying to hold their ground. A world that bows to none, but the vagaries of nature.This is the story of the Sundarbans … a world living in Agony.A Green Agony explores the unique ecosystem of the Sundarbans, the only mangrove Tiger land in the world, and analyses the impact of Global climate change on all the inhabitants of the region.

Produced By : Dox Productions  

Evidence of the previously unknown phenomenon of Global Dimming, one that scientists believe could dramatically alter global temperatures

Climate scientists have discovered a phenomenon that threatens to disrupt our world. It may already have contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands through drought and famine. Unchecked, it will strike again. The good news is that there is a cure. The bad news is that the cure may be worse than the disease. If scientists are right, then we may be about to unleash a climate catastrophe on our planet the like of which it hasn’t experienced in its 4 billion years. This is a film about stark choices and about the dawning realisation that all our predictions about the world’s climate may be wrong. At its heart is something that scientists are calling “global dimming”.