by Laura Dowrich-Phillips

Carver Bacchus started the Green Screen Environmental Film Festival in 2011 to make the messages about climate change more palatable to the layman.

The idea, he said, was to disguise the message in the form of an entertainment product that would bring people together to debate, discuss and review.

He was inspired to bring this concept to life based on what he experienced in the United Kingdom while attending film school. There, he said, discussions about climate change were the norm.  People would stop him in the street to talk about climate change and then UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown lead the discussion at a Government level, talking about climate change in the context of its impact on trade and the economy.

“Moving back to Trinidad there was no discussion about climate change at all, so the idea was that I really need to couch this in a Trinidad and Tobago context that would make sense and wouldn’t make people’s eyes glaze over,” he explained.

Asked how he has measured the impact of his quest to educate citizens about climate change and jumpstart the conversation, Bacchus said they have run various surveys and perception exercises over the last ten years and results showed by the fifth year there was an understanding of the issues the festival brought to the fore.

“Another measurable that is as important is the size of the audience and reach. We started off with maybe 100 people and last year we had close to 2000 people. A very large component is the high school programme. We have been engaging with high school students from the start and a lot of them are adults now,” he said, noting the importance of capturing the youth to influence change through their adulthood.

To ensure that the messages reach to everyone, Bacchus did try taking the screenings to communities such as Mayaro, Toco, Blanchisseuse and in Tobago but, he said, it takes time and energy to build up good relationships and earn trust as well as a lot of expense.

“A pivot for us trying to reach communities was really to develop a programme that would democratise this film thing and that is where the Very Short Shorts Mobile Film Competition comes in,” he said.

The Very Short Shorts Mobile Film competition, sponsored this year by Lead Sponsor NGC and  SWMCOL, allows participants to tap into their imagination to capture a particular theme.

This year the theme is “The New Normal” as it encourages participants to explore the effects of the Pandemic which are unfolding every day.

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