Goa Environmental Film Festival begins

The first edition of the Goa Environmental Film Festival (GEFF) kicked off on Saturday with the Oscar-winning documentary The Elephant Whisperers.

The three-day event was inaugurated by state Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral. The event also saw the attendance of Secretary (Protocol) and Nodal Officer of G20 (Goa) Sanjit Rodrigues and Chairman of Goa State Pollution Control Board Mahesh Patil.

The festival will have a screening of 50 films. "Everyone should try to protect the environment. I hope we will make efforts in this regard," said Nilesh Cabral .

It may be noted that the festival has been organised on the sidelines of G20 meetings taking place in Goa, however, it will be an annual event from this year.

Films from Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Finland, Ireland, Oman, Portugal, Russia, Spain, and other countries will be screened during the film festival. Noting that various aspects of protecting the environment could be learned by watching these films, he requested the student. "Hence I appeal to the student community and general public to watch these films by participating in film festival," he said.

Sanjit Rodrigues said, "As we are working with such a fervor towards nine meetings of G20 in Goa, we thought that there should be a connection with the local population here and thus the film festival idea was put forward which unites people here. Film is a great medium to bring such awareness to our level, and is a medium which is acceptable to all. And at the same time, we have brought in the local Goan perspective at this film festival. It will help us see how we fare in this medium. I'm happy that the response towards this festival has been overwhelming."