Arboraceous Goes To Japan

Project 2013-07-18 04:35:58 +1200

Arboraceous is a 4 minute short film by 17 year old New Zealander Natasha Bishop. It has been nominated for the prestigious Japan Wildlife Film Festival (JWFF).

Natasha is the youngest film-maker to have a film nominated in the 20 year history of the JWFF, which is the largest event of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region.

Arboraceous was made last year as an entry to The Outlook for Someday sustainability film challenge for young people, where it won the Department of Conservation Big Picture Award and was also honoured as The Body Shop Standout Winner.

We need your help to get Natsaha and the director of The Outlook for Someday, David Jacobs to Japan for the festival.

Air New Zealand is supporting the cause with one return ticket to Japan. JWFF is covering all transport and accommodation in Japan. So all we need is the second airfare to Japan and we’ll be sorted.

The Outlook for Someday

Now in its 7th year, The Outlook for Someday is New Zealand’s sustainability film project for young people. It includes an annual film challenge and a national series of sustainability film-making workshops.

The objective of the project is to help grow a generation of sustainability storytellers.

The Outlook for Someday film challenge asks young people aged up to 24 to make a short sustainability-related film of any genre, filmed with any camera and any length up to 5 minutes.

598 films have been entered into the challenge since it began in 2007. In 2012 a record 191 films were entered and 955 young people took part in The Outlook for Someday project.

Each year 20 Winning Films are chosen by a judging team of media, education, government and business people. In 2012 the Winning Films were made by individuals and teams from 7 to 24 years old from all over New Zealand, tackling subjects ranging from climate change and recycling to the sustainability of language and culture.

34 workshops are being held this year between May and August, supporting more than 700 young people, teachers and youth workers to grow their skills and knowledge as sustainability film-makers.

The culmination of The Outlook for Someday project each year is The Someday Awards red carpet ceremony, which for the last two years has been held at the Aotea Centre in Auckland and attended by more than 350 people of whom half were young people.

Project Director David Jacobs says sustainability is about balance and respect.

“It’s about having an awareness of environmental and health issues, social and economic development, culture and heritage, human rights and peace. Our relationships with each other and our planet are at the forefront of this project.”

www.theoutlookforsomeday.net

Japan Wildlife Film Festival

Receiving over 400 film entries from more than 50 countries, the biennial JWFF is attended by 40,000 members of the public, who come from all over Japan to watch high quality natural history films over the four-day event. The festival screens nominated films at theatres that open to the public free of charge.

This year the festival will be held on 8 - 11 August in Toyama.

Arboraceous will compete with 42 other films made by the likes of the BBC, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) and other international broadcasting giants. 

www.naturechannel.jp/JWFF2013

Arboraceous

Arboraceous is a four minute animation that expresses a profound truth with sweet simplicity. It ingeniously takes us on a journey into the future and returns us to ourselves.

Natasha Bishop wrote, directed and animated Arboraceous herself. She also composed and performed the film’s music, enlisting the help of her younger brother Tye for vocal effects.

“When I started to make this film I thought about the word sustainability and what it means to me. It’s about renewing what we have. And I wanted to get the message of sustainability across without using any dialogue so that people can hear it whatever language they speak.” – Natasha Bishop

This is the second time a Standout Winner of The Outlook for Someday film challenge has been nominated for a major international film festival.

“International acclaim like this for young New Zealand film-makers shows how they can be successful doing what they love, making films about what they believe in.”

“As we work to support this generation of film-makers, we don’t just see them as creating products. Film-making is about culture building, being a citizen and contributing to national and international dialogue. We are encouraging young people to make films as cultural acts.” – David Jacobs

Arboraceous can be viewed here: www.theoutlookforsomeday.net/films/2012/182

What will we do in Japan?

While she is in Japan Natasha will be networking madly with other film-makers and animators. This is a huge opportunity for her to further her career as a young New Zealand film-maker.

David will be there to support Natasha, to grow the international profile of The Outlook for Someday and to meet with potential partners for the project.

At the festival Natasha and David will be running 3 seminars about their work for delegates and the general public.

The Outlook for Someday is proud to be supporting Natasha and other young film-makers in getting their films made and appreciated by audiences in New Zealand and around the world.

Please help us to do that.

Why $2350?

The return ticket we need costs $1977. The costs of the rewards for pledges will be about $200. And we need to add 8% for the PledgeMe success fee and costs. So that’s how we got to $2350.

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