07Sep

Borneo Eco Film Festival to showcase 18 films from around the world

KOTA KINABALU: The seventh edition of Borneo Eco Film Festival (BEFF) will be screening 18 films from around the world on Sept 22-24 at Suria Sabah Shopping Mall in Sabah. BEFF director Melissa Leong said among the participating countries besides Malaysia are United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, Myanmar, The Netherlands and Singapore. Melissa said seven short films would be screened during the BEFF ‘365 Fringe Screening’ at selected locations around Sabah throughout the year. “The three-day festival is an annual non-profit event celebrating Borneo’s biocultural diversity through showcasing environmental films and nurturing local community film making. “During the festival, cinephiles are treated to Asian and Southeast Asian premieres of documentaries that highlight a variety of issues from elephant conservation to indigenous land rights,” she said at a press conference here yesterday, adding that all the film screenings were free to the public. Melissa noted that one of the films that would touch the hearts of people in Sabah titled ‘Mount Kinabalu — North Borneo 1961’ and produced by the UK Royal Society was filmed in 1961 on old film reels discovered in the Royal Society archives. Some films highlighted insects as delicacies, how the fashion industry impacts the environment and how cats became an integral part of a city. Besides the film-screenings, the festival would also feature educational talks, discussion panels, workshops and an Eco Art Carnival showcasing eco-themed art installations as well as an arts and crafts market. In conjunction with the festival, BEFF organised the Suara community filmmaking programme with a series of film making workshops since March for the indigenous and local community, whose films would premiere on the final day (Sept 24) of the festival. Further information and updates on the festival are available at www.beff.org.my or on BEFF’s Facebook page. — Bernama Source : The Borneo Post
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10Aug

Film featuring Sabah’s wildlife and rescues showing Sept 16

KOTA KINABALU: Borneo Wildlife Warriors, a six weekly episodes of a film production featuring sun bears, elephants, orangutans and others, on breath-taking rescues and relocations in the state will be released starting from September 16. This will be the second season after the completion of its first 10-episode film production, ‘Borneo Jungle Diaries’. The episodes can be watched online at scubazoo.tv. Scubazoo TV is a new online wildlife channel by Asia’s leading natural history filming and photography company, Scubazoo. Its managing director, Jason Isley, said these episodes will be investigating the threats posed by afforestation, the illegal pet trade and more with Sabah’s Wildlife Rescue Unit (WRU) vets and rangers working to protect endangered wildlife. “There are a few places that evoke the magic and mystery of Borneo: dense jungles packed with enigmatic animals, including orangutans, sun bears and the world’s smallest elephant. However, Borneo’s rain forests – and all that inhabit there are facing colossal threats. Deforestation, illegal wildlife and pet trade and the traditional medicine trade are all threatening the survival of these unique animals,” he said. Isley added the WRU are an elite group of vets and rangers on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to deal with human-animal conflict. Through rehabilitation programmes, relentless rescues and relocations, they are tasked with saving Borneo’s wildlife though their exhausting, often dangerous work is not the subject of the show. “The series shows a real behind-the-scene look at what goes on at our rescues. It is basically a reality show on our wildlife rescues and also portrays the many wonderful characters within the WRU whose great deeds and heroic attempts save the wildlife in Sabah,” he said in a press conference yesterday. All the episodes will also available at SZtv Facebook page. Source: The Borneo Post
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