- #HGWORLD
- #HGCREATORS
- #HGEXPLORE
- #HGVOICES
- #HGSHOP
- CAREERS
- ABOUT US
- CONTACT US
The All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (ALT EFF) has long been a fertile ground for stories that make us confront ecological collapse through the lens of human experience. Entering its fifth edition, ALT EFF is dedicated to making stories resonate deeply across communities and borders. By bringing together a diverse collection of films that spotlight environmental challenges, solutions, and the intricate relationship between humanity and nature, ALT EFF provides a platform where narratives catalyze change.
This year’s festival kicks off on November 22 at Mumbai’s iconic Liberty Cinema. With over 100 live screening events planned across India and a global reach that spans countries like Ireland, Chile, Costa Rica, and the USA, ALT EFF disrupts the traditional idea of a localized festival. It reshapes community engagement through a decentralized, borderless model that embraces audiences everywhere while democratising access to stories that matter most to our shared survival.
For 2024, among many others, it turns its attention to the theme 'Cost of Growth', a powerful exploration of how our relentless pursuit of economic development comes at a price — often at the expense of our environment, communities, and even our very identity.
In its lineup of films that encapsulates this theme is ‘Demon Mineral’ by Hadley Austin, which delves into the pervasive impact of uranium mining on communities across the American Southwest. The film unveils a haunting legacy of radioactive exposure that lingers long after the boom has gone. Through moving testimonies, it reveals how ‘growth’ fueled by the mining of a precious resource can leave behind an insidious cost: contaminated lands, unfulfilled promises, and generations battling illness. Austin’s approach lays bare the fragility of progress built on extraction, and compels viewers to ask — who truly bears the brunt of our so-called advancement?
Similarly, ‘Plastic People’ by Ben Addelman and Ziya Tong turns the lens on our fixation with plastics, capturing how this synthetic material has become a double-edged sword in our quest for convenience and innovation. We see a world teeming with plastic waste — landfills, oceans, and even our bodies becoming hosts to microplastics. It’s a critique of industrial growth run amok, and of a society blind to the collateral damage inflicted on environment and human health. Yet, the film also brings hope by highlighting grassroots efforts that challenge us to rethink and redesign a future less dependent on plastic.
Where Demon Mineral and Plastic People depict industrial expansion’s legacy, ‘The Climate Baby Dilemma’ by Victoria Lean invites us into the deeply personal arena of family planning in a warming world. Against the backdrop of rising temperatures and ecological instability, this film confronts a question that mirrors the macro-issue of unchecked growth: should one bring a child into a world seemingly on the brink? By blending climate science with individual stories, Lean paints an emotive portrait of resilience and fear, demonstrating how the cost of growth extends beyond environmental degradation — it seeps into our most personal decisions and future aspirations.
Beyond these narratives, the festival also features ‘Jamna - The River Story’ and ‘A River in Trouble: The Fragile Gori Basin’, offering an urgent call to protect rivers. They remind us that our waterways, lifelines for countless communities, are buckling under the weight of development projects and pollution. Through stunning cinematography, these films show rivers as both victims and symbols of resilience, urging viewers to protect the fragile threads that bind ecosystems and livelihoods.
The tension between tradition and industrial encroachment is explored in ‘Nenets vs Gas’ by Sergio Ghizzardi. It captures the lives of Siberia’s Nenets, an indigenous people grappling with the encroachment of gas industries on their ancestral lands. Their resilience in the face of climate change and cultural erosion becomes a metaphor for the broader struggle many communities face — how can one safeguard their way of life against an unstoppable machine of profit-driven development?
Similarly, ‘Kenya’s Desert Alert’ by David Owino highlights the growing crisis in regions facing desertification due to climate change and unsustainable practices. It brings to light the lives of communities on the brink, questioning how we balance growth and survival in a warming world.
Finally, ‘Gutter Ki Machhli (Fish from the Sewer)’ by Natasha Sharma turns a keen eye on urban sprawl, exploring how economic ambitions in densely packed cities lead to marginalized communities bearing the consequences of inadequate infrastructure and hazardous living conditions.
These films together challenge our notion of what it means to grow — and at what cost. As we immerse ourselves in their stories, we are invited to reflect on a sobering reality.
ALT EFF 2024 demands that we rethink our collective definitions of progress, and prosperity, challenging us to imagine — and enact — a future that nurtures all living things. The festival’s unique community-based screenings exemplify a necessary step in fostering collective dialogue and transformation, reminding us that change begins with a call to action that resonates deeply — everywhere and all at once.
Check out ALT EFF here.
