Pelicam International Film Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, remaining the only environmental documentary film festival in Romania. The 2021 anniversary edition is dedicated to environmental defenders and their stories.
From 15 to 24 October, Pelicam 2021 will take place in a hybrid format, with free online screenings and a series of offline screenings and events in Bucharest. This year we have 17 films organised in several categories: 11 documentaries in national premieres for the Pelicam Official Competition and the Fresh Perspectives Competition.
For this anniversary edition, the Out of competition section will also include some of the most-loved films screened in the previous years.
Every film in the festival will be available to watch online at the scheduled time. Most of the screenings will be accompanied at the end by discussions or debates. The full schedule including screenings, workshops and related events will soon be available on pelicam.ro
Defending tomorrow
We hope the 2021 selection will leave our audience inspired and outraged, but most of all we hope it will trigger solution-oriented conversations.
This edition’s theme reflects the reality of recent years and brings to the public’s attention what international environmental law organisations have been trying to tell us all along. People are dying fighting for the right to clean water, healthy forests and ecosystems. According to the latest Global Witness report, 212 deaths were reported in 2019, these were all people defending their land and environment. Two of them were forest rangers in Romania.
This year’s edition is about them, the people fighting on the frontline for climate justice. It’s about those who stand up and shout out or sit quietly with a strike in front of a parliament. It’s about those who build mountains in the heart of a European capital and those who defend their waters from poachers’ nets in Cambodia. About communities and citizens’ initiatives that give power back to the people, about decentralisation, about food autonomy and energy cooperatives on all continents. About whistleblowers and troublemakers. About people fighting the system or big corporations for climate justice. In a way, this edition is about David and Goliath.
The list of films in the Pelicam Official Competition
- The white cube (Netherlands 2020)
- Current sea (Cambodia, 2020)
- Once upon a time in Venezuela (Venezuela 2020)
- Lords of Water (France 2019)
- The troublemaker (UK, 2020)
The list of films in the Fresh Perspectives Competition
- Food for change (France 2019)
- Home of snails (Spain, 2020)
- The people vs Agent Orange (USA, France, 2020)
- Making a mountain (Denmark, 2020
- Bread, an everyday miracle (Austria, Germany 2020)
- We the power (Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Spain, UK, USA, 2021)
Pelicam – International Film Festival is organized by Les Herbes Folles Association, with the support of the National Cultural Administration Fund (AFCN).
The main sponsor of the festival : Orange
Partners: Seneca EcoLogos, Digidemat, Seneca Publishing, Green Film Network
Institutional partners: Dutch Embassy in Bucharest, Spanish Embassy in Bucharest, French Institute, Austrian Cultural Forum, Royal Danish Embassy Bucharest, Swiss Embassy in Romania.
Media partners : Radio Guerilla, DOR, Scena9, EduPedu, Hotnews.ro
