7th Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary moves online  

The seventh edition of the Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary (BIFED), normally taking place in Turkey's beautiful Aegean island, is being held online Nov. 2-8 this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Over 500 documentaries and films from every continent have applied to the festival, which has been organized by the Bozcaada Municipality, directed by Petra Holzer and coordinated by Ethem Özgüven. The number of applicant countries for this year's festival is 75.

The festival presents impressive productions in three categories: International Competition, Panorama and Turkey Panorama. Fifteen documentaries from 15 countries made it to the finals in the International Competition category. The documentaries will be evaluated by a jury of seven, comprising of screenwriter Necla Algan; director and lecturer Ilknur Ulutak; director and producer Emre Şahin; Slovenian director Sonja Prosenc; Scottish film executive and festival curator Rachel Caplan; Blagota Marunovic, the director of the Green Montenegro International Film Fest, and Mariano Pozzi, the project developer of the Human Rights Film Festival of Buenos Aires (FICDH) and the Environmental Film Festival of Buenos Aires (FINCA).

The movies vying in this section are “Ever Slow Green” by Christoph Pohl, “Green Blood” by Arthur Bouvart, Jules Giraudat and Alexis Marant, “Passion-Between Revolt and Resignation” by Christian Labhart, “Spoon” by Laila Pakalnina, “Titixe” by Tania Hernandez Velasco,” Aether” by Ruken Tekeş, “The Red Line” by Karin De Miguel Wessendorf, “The Atom: A Love Affair” by Vicki Lesley, “The Days and the Year” by Othmar Schmiderer, “Grief” by Andrea Culkova, “Trustwho” by Lilian Franck, “Artifishal” by Josh Murphy, “Amussu” by Nadir Bouhmouch, “Northern Forests” by Julia Lazarus and “The Fever” by Katharina Weingartner.

The Panorama section of the festival screens films focusing on the world’s problems and riches. Claudio Cruz’s “What About Our Future,” Nicky Milne’s “Green Gold” and Marci Isensee e Sa’s “Grazing the Amazon” are prominent examples from this section.

The Turkey Panorama Section of the festival enables directors from Turkey to present works on various issues like ecological problems. Films like “Sınırların Ötesinde” (“Beyond Borders”) by Eylem Şen, “Ege’nin Son Baharı” (“The Last Autumn of Aegean”), “Anadolu’nun Meşe Ormanları” (“Oakwoods of Anatolia”) and “Çan: Bir Termik Kasabası” (“Çan: The Town of Thermal Power Plants”) introduce beautiful attractions of Turkey while highlighting ecological problems.

Festival Director Holzer noted that the some of films shot by activists and defenders, in which they detail their own struggles, are quite remarkable. Pointing out that the festival also features films for children about real, domestic and clean food and drawing attention to their carbon footprint, he said: “There are also a lot of movies about nuclear weapons. A wide variety of productions from many countries have applied. We have also received about 80 film applications from Turkey.”

Emphasizing that they have been pondering “what to do amid the pandemic” since the beginning, Holzer stated: “We have decided to hold the festival online amid the pandemic in an environment where even interprovincial travel is challenging. Hopefully, next year we can get back to a physical festival again. We will strike a deal with a professional platform and screen the films this way. In addition, we will screen a few films in the main hall, albeit symbolic, for the island’s residents. We will also make frequent broadcasts on our YouTube channel.”