By Christina Soloyan

Eco-education and raising awareness about the environment and possible solutions. These were the objectives of the SunChild 6th International Environmental Festival held in Yerevan from November 11-14.  

Launched in 2007, the festival afforded an opportunity for people in Armenia to watch important environmental films produced all over the world. The organizer of the festival is the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC).

This year’s SunChild Film Festival presented 38 films. Along with film screenings, the festival included workshops and exhibitions. The exhibition Sustainable Development, preceding the opening ceremony, was organized in partnership with the French Embassy.

“This is an exhibition that the Ministry of Education in France has created with the famous French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand. He took the photographs in different parts of the world on the topic of sustainable development, in order to inform people about what is going on in the world. Especially, youth must be aware, because they are the future of the nation. If they are informed, perhaps, there will be more care about the environment and the animals,” says Natali Tsagris, the French Language and Culture Attaché.

This year, the organizers of the SunChild Festival celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Eco-clubs of FPWC. This is an educational project implemented in the regions of Armenia, which has a goal to provide eco-education to children living in the countryside.

“Children are the basis of development. Educating children is our investment in the future,” said Eva Martirosyan, deputy president of the FPWC. During the eco-classes children get acquainted with the environmental issues facing Armenia. They also shoot films about ecological issues in their communities. Martirosyan said that during ten years, children have shot 40 films, some of them have even won prizes at different festivals.

Armenia’s Ministry of Nature Protection has been a partner of the festival since 2012. Deputy Minister Khachik Hakobyan says that any event promoting environmental safety, and eco-education is important.

“We have created an Eco Education Coordinating Board that has developed a plan to design a strategy for eco education and environmental awareness for the government in 2017. We will use past experience and will rely on current projects to find new strategic solutions to reach a wider audience,” says Hakobyan. He adds that the ministry has organized eco educational programs for more than thousand children in Armenia during the last two-three years.

The competition categories of the SunChild Festival were “Wildlife”, “Environmental Issues” and “Children and Youth”. Jury member and film critic Raffi Movsisyan pointed out that the festival is important for the Armenian audience and the region.

“Documentary films are an important part of Armenian cinematography, but, unfortunately, few environmental films are produced; environmental topics usually are addressed in reportage form. And I know that the SunChild Festival includes those kinds of films as well,” said Movsisyan.

Armenian directors presented four films during the festival.

Zoosh and Toivo is a film shot by TUMO students. It portrays a day of two volunteers from Germany who decided to work in the Yerevan Zoo and dedicate their time to animals.

Unree, the short film of Gev Harutyunyan approaches the issue of tree cutting radically; the film presents parallels between cutting a tree and killing a child.

The film of Seda Grigoryan, #GetRooted: Building Bridges, shows the successful attempts to save the environment in Armenia. The video tells about the program of Armenia Tree project, in which local students and students from USA plant trees in Armenia.

Another Armenian film included in the screenings was Energy Efficiency for a Sustainable Future. The film was produced by the Yeghvard Youth ecological NGO - an organization led by the youth of Yeghvard, city in Armenia’s Kotayk Province.

In an attempt to be eco-friendly, festival awards were fashioned from recycled metal.

“This year, due to financial limitations and trying to reduce the ecological damage to the world we do not have guests. Each airplane flight causes huge damage to the ecosystem,” Martirosyan said.

Landfill Harmonic, a film about a group of Paraguayan children who play instruments made of garbage, closed the 2016 SunChild International Environmental Festival.

(Christina Soloyan is a third-year student at Yerevan’s American University of Armenia. She started her career in journalism at Internews Armenia (Media Initiatives Center). Currently, she manages the independent AUA student newspaper The Bridge and works as a journalist at CivilNet Online TV)