This week, the University of Toronto will again open its doors and theatre for a long-running environmental film festival. Many of the screenings will take place at Innis College Town Hall.
From Oct. 24 to 28, the eighth annual Planet in Focus film festival will features films such as Bushman’s Secret by South African filmmaker Rehad Desai, who travelled to the Kalhari desert to meet a Khomani San healer struggling to live close to nature despite centuries of colonial exploitation of San Bushmen and their lands. The film details the Khomanis’ present state of poverty and the loss of their hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
The Bushmen rely on a natural appetitive-suppressant called Hoodia—you may have seen it in the aisles of health shops and even Wal-Mart. North Americans with hefty appetites use it to trim their waistlines, but the Khomanis use it to survive.
Other films of note include The Edge of Eden, which focuses on a Canadian in eastern Russia who takes bear cubs back into the wild, hoping to prove that the animals are not as dangerous and unpredictable as most think.
Toronto director Barry Cohen’s Toxic Trespass takes a look at toxic contaminants that make their way into our bodies, while the eponymous hero of Mr. Wong’s World spends much of his time in Shanghai, buying buildings that would otherwise be torn down—an attempt to preserve some Chinese heritage from the bulldozers.
“It is really important for the festival to have people come to see the films and then feel moved enough to then get engaged in the issues around them. And it is one of the reasons that the festival is set up,” said organizer Andrew Male noted.
The full festival schedule is available online at planetinfocus.org.
