A whole series of events at festival locations will underscore the need for preserving the environment.
Cinehill Motovun Film Festival will move from one greenery-enshrined area to another. This year, the verdan landscapes of central Istria will be complemented with a real mountain setting of the mountain top Petehovac in Gorski Kotar. In such a leafy environment, the festival itself must be “green” as well, so a whole host of side events will be dedicated to environmental protection.
The motto of the new festival is ‘leave no trace’ so the organizers will actively encourage visitors to preserve the pristine and untouched beauty in which they will be immersed. In charge of a responsible attitude towards nature will be Cleaning Bears, a civic environmental clean-up initiative launched by Perica Štefan, a communication specialist and historian, and once also a member of our festival team. During the pandemic, he noticed that the nature around his home town of Nova Kapela in Brod-Posavina County was peppered with trash so, in his spare time, he and his friends started a praiseworthy clean-up campaign, which eventually spread to numerous other of counties.
From their “den” up on Petehovac, the Cleaning Bears will offer informative talks, as well as carry out preemptive actions with a special focus on plastic and cigarettes. They will invite the visitors to join their cleaning campaigns, which will also include prize contests. Every day before the evening screening they will inform the audience about the results of their campaigns.
In addition to educational information on waste sorting and recycling, there will also be an eco-friendly workshop on ashtray-making. Cigarette butts are actually a particular threat to nature many people are not aware of. In order to raise awareness that they’re in fact not biodegradable, the viewers will be invited to vote for the best film by throwing cigarette butts into large transparent jars which will be weighed after voting.
In addition to the Cleaning Bears’ participation, the festival will highlight ecology and coexistence with nature in different ways. Waste separation bins will be placed throughout the location, and once again, only reusable cups made of hard plastic will be used. Also, we have prepared seat covers at the outdoor cinema made from recycled textiles, in cooperation with socially engaged NGO Humana Nova. Also, visitors who opt to arrive by train as a green mode of transportation will receive a discount on trips from Zagreb or Rijeka to Delnice, upon presentation of a festival ticket. For those who desire to commune with nature more directly, a mountain campsite will be organized at the Petehovac ski slope, where they will be able to experience life in a highland forest.
Visitors will be able to learn more about nature and the mountain ecosystem at educational events about animals and their habitats – in which we are merely visitors. In cooperation with the association Biom and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, we have prepared workshops about birds, insects, reptiles and large animals such as bears, wolves and lynx that live in Gorski Kotar. Festival goers will also be able to take part in daily walking tours and yoga workshops.
This year’s “green” festival takes place 22 – 24 July in Motovun and 26 – 29 July in Gorski Kotar, with the support of the Kvarner Tourism Office, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and Istria County. Tickets for the film program are already available in presale: https://motovunfilmfestival.com/en/tickets-2/
