Doha film festival highlights environmental films

Rafea: A Solar Mama, a documentary about a Jordanian Bedouin mother who leaves her desert home to travel to India to attend the Barefoot College which trains women in the technology of solar energy, is part of a 'green film' competition at the ongoing fourth Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF).

The film by Jehane Noujam and Mona Eldaief is competing in the Arab Film Competition, which highlights the sustainability narrative.

More than Honey by filmmaker Markus Imhoof, screening in the Contemporary World Cinema line-up, is another meticulously researched documentary which takes a new look at the now.

Also placing immense emphasis on environment sustainability is Lucy Walker's The Tsunami and The Cherry Blossom, in the Special Screenings segment, narrating the story of survivors in the areas hardest hit by the recent tsunami in Japan and their search for courage to rebuild their shattered lives and community when the cherry blossoms come into bloom.

Akihito Izuhara's Li Li Ta Al, also part of the Special Screenings, uses animation to depict a meaningless poem contrived based on the nature and the beauty known by humanity.

With an expanded Festival format this year, DTFF 2012 will showcase over 87 films from across the globe under distinct themed sections.

Four films, screened in various segments of the DTTF, highlight the evolving trend across the world of committed filmmakers leveraging the power of cinema to raise awareness about environmental sustainability and climate change.

The festival has also joined hands with Ernst and Young's Clean Energy and Sustainability Services (CEaSS) initiative to evaluate the festival's carbon footprint.