Nanang Sujana, Telapak, Indonesia

Nanang Sujana, born in 1980, works as the manager of the multimedia unit of Telapak, an Indonesian environmental organization. He is an internationally awarded director of environmental documentaries, and through his works he aims to raise the contact between Indonesian nature conservation and ensuring the rights of local people into social awareness. He has a PhD on marine biology and he belongs to the Rejang people. Telapak is a NGO founded by seven environmental activists in 1996, in Bogor. In its actions, the NGO is concentrated in enhancing the sustainable use of natural resources. Telapak urges into community-based resource management, which would help in making the use of natural resources more sustainable and, at the same time, enhance the wellbeing of those who are dependent on the forests and have been impoverished by deforestation. Telapak is especially known from its multimedia utilizing campaigns, with which Telapak tries to influence on the local, national and international levels.

Films on the Festival:
Silence Cry in the Kampar Peninsula, 2009
Forest Guard, 2011


 
Noel Rajesh Daniel, Thaimaa

Rajesh was born in Chennai, Southern India, and now lives in Bangkok, Thailand. He is an author, documentary fi lm director and a researcher, who is specialized in environmental management. During the last 15 years, he has been working, for example, within the fields of ecology and culture, and with ethnical communities and local livelihoods in Thailand and in Mekong area. He has written scripts for and directed many documentaries. He has also written articles and edited several books on cooperation work in the mountains, and on managing forests and waters. His movie “The Mekong: Grounds of Plenty”, which was released in 2011, was filmed in 30 different locations in the countries in the area of downriver Mekong. The movie highlights the signifi cance of fishing to the cultures, food care and livelihoods of local people in
Mekong area.
 
Films on the Festival:
Restless Shores, 2003
The Mekong: Grounds of plenty, 2011


 
Madame Aminata Dramane Traore, Mali

Mrs. Traore was born in 1947 and she is a Malian author, politician and activist. She served as the Minister of Culture and Tourism in 1997-2000. Earlier she also worked as the coordinator of the UNDP in Mali. Nowadays she is the coordinator of Forum pour l’autre in Mali and the coordinator of the International Network for Cultural Diversity. In 2005 she was elected into the board of IPS (Inter Press Service International Association). She is an active opponent of globalization and a supporter of the World Social Forum, and she also organized the multipolar World Social Forum in Bamako, Mali. She has also often promoted the rights of the poor and immigrants. Mrs. Traore has acted in many movies, such as Bamako (2006), Victime de nos richesses (2007), and Une femme du Sahel (1996).

Films on the Festival:
Bamako, 2006
Victims of Our Riches, 200711


 
K.P. Sasi, India

KP Sasi is an awarded film-maker and a social activist. Sasi is known from his incisive analysis and use of many different genres, and his work explores the socioeconomic contradictions and collision between the commercial interests and the lives of the masses as well as the socio-ecological issues that crop up in the name of the so called development. With his work, Sasi wants to challenge the western perception of development. He has made documentaries especially on the Indian indigenous people, the Adivasi, and the problems related to consumption of water and the water systems.

Films on the Festival:
Redefining Peace, 2005
Gaon Chodab Nahin, 2010
Living in Fear, 1985
Development at Gunpoint, 2002
Resisting Coastal Invasion, 2007
The Source of Life for Sale, 2004
Ilayum Mullum, 1993
 
Pablo Martinez, World Rainforest Movement, Uruguay

Pablo Martinez is a retired farmer, who advocates nature and people living in the countryside. However, he still keeps on farming to meet his own needs and, on a small scale, also to help his neighbors to meet theirs. He continues to act as an activist for the World Rainforest Movement. He knows the changes that have happened in the environment and the lives of people living in the countryside during his life. These changes are consequences from shifting into extensive monoculture production. World Rainforest Movement (WRM) was founded in 1986 by activists coming from all around the world and interested in forests and indigenous people. For the first ten years and before it shifted to Uruguay, the headquarters of the network was in Malaysia. WRM works within themes on forests and plantations and supports the right of communities on their forests and lands. It defines itself as an environmental movement which is aiming to a social change. WRM’s forms of activity include spreading information, political actions, and supporting networks. It serves as secretariat for Latin American Network against Monoculture Tree Plantations (RECOMA) and for Network Grupo Guayubira, which works on a national level in Uruguay.

WRM-Films on the Festival:
Women and Climate Change
Stora Enso in Brazil

 

Shriprakash, India

ShriPrakash was born in 1966 in India. He is an activist and a filmmaker, whose expertise is in using video as a tool for social transformation, empowerment of marginalized sections of society and espousing their rights. He has made honest and powerful documentaries capturing the struggles and aspirations of local communities inter alia in Jharkhand, India. His films are brazen narrations of the political and socio-economical struggles of the indigenous communities. He has received several awards.
 
Films on the Festival:
Buru Garra (The Wild Rivulet), 2005
Delayed Justice..? 2009
Eer – Stories in Stone, 2011
Baha (The Tale of A Wild Flower), 2008