Peat, Palm, Haze documentary selected for top environmental film festival DCEFF
Congratulations to Isaac Kerlow, Principal Investigator and Executive Creative Director at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, whose documentary Peat, Palm, Haze has been selected for The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital. This festival, also known as DCEFF, is the largest environmental film festival in the United States, presenting more than 100 films to an audience of over 30,000 people. It is a world leading forum conservation-sustainability issues through filmmaking with a mission “to celebrate Earth and inspire understanding and stewardship of the environment through the power of film”. The movie screenings are complemented by topical discussions held at various public places such as libraries and museums. In addition to Mr Kerlow and his Art+Media Group, several ASE students have made substantial contributions to the making of the documentary; congratulations to you too!
The film has won several awards including Best Feature at the 2018 Kuala Lumpur International Eco Film Festival, in Malaysia, the largest and most established festival of its kind in Southeast Asia. The team received the award from the country's Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change. Peat, Palm, Haze is an abbreviated version of the documentary Haze – it’s complicated, also directed and produced by Isaac Kerlow. Based on the scientific facts behind haze pollution caused by burning peat in Southeast Asia, the film visualizes the complexity of the issue, including the perspectives of local and regional stakeholders through interviews. The effects of peat fires and consequential haze pollution on human health and economy poses significant challenges, and though the problem has been less imminent in recent years, the film emphasizes that achieving a lasting solution of this issue is quite complex indeed.
The work of the Art+Media Group is highly interdisciplinary, with artists and Earth scientists working together to communicate connections between human life and civilization with Earth and Nature. In a time when scientists are struggling to communicate messages on environmental issues and their urgency to the general public as well as policy makers, photojournalism plays and important role attracting audiences with stimulating visual images. A video or a photo depicting man’s influence on the natural world, such as land transformations or sea level rise can say more than a thousand words and reach a very wide audience through various media channels.
Above: Still photos from the documentary.
Find a description of the film Haze – it’s complicated, including a trailer here
Read more about the Art+Media group here
Read about The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFF) here