This year for the fifth time with many insipiring films, live discussions and skype calls with film makers, bicycle-cinemas and a bicycle-disco, Greenmotions Film Festival hosted 1870 people in different locations in Freiburg.
We would like to thank to all our volunteers, our sponsors, partners and all that participated to make this years wonderful festival possible.
As the last two years, prior to the festival we organized several bicycle-cinemas in Goethe Gymnasium and evangelischen Montessori Schulhaus with our partner Solare-Zukunft. The students from 5th to 8th grades created the power to screen 5 short films from this years festival. In both schools the students voted for the film „Unterwasserweltencamp 2017“ from Daniel Bichsel as their favorite.
On the 15th of November the festival started in our main festival location Kommunales Kino Freiburg with the opening film “Zeit für Utopien” from Kurt Langbein. The film showed many different inspiring examples how ideas and sense of community can lead to sustainable lives. After the movie, Kurt Langbein was present over Skype for a fruitful discussion. The first day was closed with the movie “Free Lunch Society” from Christian Tod.
The next day was dedicated to our special topic of the year “Millennials in Motion”. Many inspiring films were screened where the young generation took the lead for a better future. Luciano Ibarra and Silvain Darou from “Disobedient” was present at the festival. The movie “Das Stille Leuchten” from Anja Krug had immense attention from the audience and the tickets were sold out. However, with the dedicated young and aware residents of Denton “Don’t Frack with Denton” from Garrett Graham won the special topic jury prize.
We closed Friday night with our legendary bicycle-disco in ArTik organized with music from KopfKino and the bicycle cinema of Solare Zukunft. For the first time in our bicycle-powered events history the party enthusiasts cycled so much that the battery was loaded 100% and they needed to stop cycling!
Saturday started early with “Saving the Dark” from Sriram Murali. Through the day our audiences enjoyed the french fries from “Zusammen kartoffeln”. Stefan Samuel the director of “Energy Pioneers” was present at the festival for a rich discussion.
The highlight of the day was the skype discussion with the filmmaker Lindsey Grayzel and Ken Ward the protagonist of “Reluctant Radical”, the winner of jury and audience awards. Talking to Lindsey and Ken and acknowledging their dedication to fight against climate change in person was priceless. Amazing moments!
This years bicycle cinema was organized at Katolische Akademie on 18th of November. The audiences cycled to power the screening of the movie „The End of Meat – Eine Welt ohne Fleisch“ from Marc Pierschel. More information about our Bicycle events can be found here. While the bicycle cinema came to an end in Katolische Akademie, the screening of the film “Im Abseits von Green City – Die Bauern vom Dietenbach” from Bodo Kaiser and Georg Löser had already started in Kommunales Kino. After the movie the controversial topic of the planned housing in Dietenbach was discussed with the filmmakers.
The day continued with the inspirational movies and discussions with the filmmakers. The filmmakers from “Ernten was man sät” and “Klimakiller Holzkohle”, Christian Beyer and Johannes Bünger were present at the festival.
The festival came to an end with the Greenmotions classic: International short movie competition and award ceremony. First the selected 5 short films were screened with the moderation of Bernward Janzing. Finally, the winners of the four competition were crowned at the end of the ceremony. More information about the winners can be found here.
All filmmakers and guests were invited to celebratory drinks at the ‘Galerie’ accompanied with the pleasant rhymes of Pablo Penas guitar to finish off and celebrate this incredible weekend.
