This year, Pelicam International Film Festival of Environment and People celebrates its 7th edition and takes place in Tulcea between 21st and 24th of June.

One of the novelties of this edition is the collaboration between Pelicam and Greenpeace Romania, which are releasing together, during the festival, a new song using the sounds of the forests, part of the campaign The Forest Is Not a Silent Film, which can be followed here or on Uncut.ro. Moonlight Breakfast will release this song, written for Uncut.ro, during their concert within the festival.

Uncut.ro is a platform of Greenpeace Romania, developed in collaboration with Kinecto Isobar Bucharest, which offers to the public an ambient mix of real sounds recorded in the virgin forests of Romania, gathered under the album Uncut. This platform is part of Greenpeace Romania’s forest campaign; its main objective is to promote a future in which we have more and better forests than today.

The 2018 Pelicam Festival features the following sections: Fresh Perspectives, Feature Films, Short films, Black Sea Docs and Out of Competition. The six films included in the main competition of Pelicam will challenge us to question our role in this world. More information about the productions included in these sections can be found right here. And if you want to find out more about the life and nature in the Danube Delta, Bosporus Strait or the immense Siberia, you have to attend Pelicam.

The list of films which are part of Black Sea Docs section features: Delta (dir. Oleksandr Techynsky),  Bluefish (dir. Mert Gökalp), Brothers of Silence/ Birayên Bê Dengî yê (dir. Taylan Mintaș), Braguino (dir. Clèment Cogitore), Kolyma – Road of Bones / Kolyma – Straße der Knochen (dir. Stanislaw Mucha). These movies will present us the world around our sea.

As per year, Pelicam is much more than film screenings. The festival tries to find the answers to some of the issues raised by the films included in the programme. Therefore, we are invited to attend Pelicam Talks, which focuses on three important issues like climate change, waste management or the price of nature. You can find out more about Pelicam Talks here.

This year’s programme also includes two additional exhibitions:

• Ecosystems – WWF Romania (Jean Bart Cultural Centre, June 21-24), which illustrates the main ecosystems we find in Romania and the services they offer.
• Mining in Gorj County (Avramide House, June 21-24)

We were curious to find out more about this year’s edition of Pelicam, and Anca Caramelea (guest manager and catalogue editor) took time to answer our questions:

How did Pelicam Festival start and what is particular about it?

The story of Pelicam started in 2011, based on the Benjamin Ribout’s affinity for cinema, environment and young people, and combined with the talent and expertise of Corina Moldovan-Florea. They created this festival, which had its first edition in 2012. Pelicam is the only festival from Romania dedicated to the environment, and it is part of Green Film Network, an international community of film festivals focused on our habitat. They turned their attention on Tulcea in order to highlight both the potential and threats regarding the Danube Delta, but also to diversify the regional cultural activity because Dobrogea did not have many cinematographic events. Being a festival dedicated to documentaries about environment and social issues, its uniqueness comes exactly from the theme. But, it is special mostly because of the friendly people and good vibe. Pelicam is about a dedicated and curious team, which is more like a united and eccentric family.

Which are the film highlights of this year?

The 2018 Pelicam features a diverse selection of films. I have to mention the opening film, Genesis 2.0, a challenging documentary about genetics and scientists who try to bring the extinct wholly mammoth back to life, directed by Christian Frei (nominated at The Oscars from War Photographer)and Maxim Arbugaev. The film raises terrifying questions about ethics and the essence of life. Another highlight is The Age of Consequences (directed by Jared P Scott, creator of Requiem for an American Dream), a persuasive documentary about the obvious and direct consequences of the climate change on the global conflicts and stability. The film is an extremely rigorous example of visual research, with a captivating and dynamic directing style. Another courageous production is The Congo Tribunal, signed by theatre director Milo Rau. This is an experimental documentary which investigates the long and bloody conflict from Congo, presenting a horrible image of the post-colonial African world.

Which are the additional events of the 2018 Pelicam Film Festival?

As usual, we prepared numerous additional events, from photography exhibitions to debates focused on contemporary issues of our society and environment. A not to be missed event is Pelicam Talks, especially the discussion about the price of nature, ethic and conservation problems which appear together with the economic valorization of the habitat, but also the advantages that this represents. Another important moment is the Moonlight Breakfast concert and the release of the song created by them for the Uncut.ro platform, which is an initiative of Greenpeace Romania that wants to highlight the national problem of the forests. I want to also mention the photography exhibition called Ecosystems, created in partnership with WWF Romania, dedicated to the main ecosystems we find in our country and the services they offer. Last but not least, the festival is a space for dialogue and socialization, and we would be glad if the attendees will interact with the team, guests, festival volunteers, while enjoying local food and drinks.

What can you tell us about the jury of Fresh Perspectives?

The jury Fresh Perspective is a natural step of the festival in engaging the local young people. The section focuses on new approaches of the environmental cinema, and the jury is formed of high-school teenagers from Tulcea, coordinated by a filmmaker or activist, with the purpose of connecting the teenagers with specialist and films. This year, the team is coordinated by Vlad Petri, director and photographer, author of the documentary called Where are you, Bucharest?, and is formed of five young members passionate about film and environment protection. We are happy to see that Pelicam volunteers started to be more interested in the habitat documentaries and are now part of the Fresh Perspectives jury.

The festival takes place between 21st and 24th of June, in the most important locations of Tulcea: Jean Bart Cultural Centre, Museum of Art, Avramide House, Civic Square and Pelicam Camping, on the shore of lake Ciuperca. More information about the festival can be found on the official website.

Romina Banu

Photographer and editor; she co-founded Dissolved Magazine together with Melissa. For Films in Frame she gathers film and TV series recommendations for lazy weekends and she writes about interesting projects from the film industry. Other than that, she likes traveling, chilling with her cats and sleeping.