Hi Everyone,
I wanted to share with you exciting news about the film, "Saving Jaguars and Ourselves"! The 20-minute short documentary has now been accepted to 4 film festivals. It has been accepted into the Global Peace Film Festival located in Winter Park, FL, but you can watch it free in the online as part of the "Free for All Shorts Festival" starting September 25-October 1. It is a hybrid festival with feature films in person the first week and short films online the second week. I am very excited! I am putting the links at the bottom of this email.
Abbie and I were interviewed recently by the Global Peace Film Festival about the film and in the interview we shared a good bit of information about the Pantanal and I also shared how we can move our money out of fossil fuels by using local banks and credit cards, and moving money out of car and homeowners insurance that invest money in fossil fuels. Links are on the film website:
https://www.savingjaguarsandourselves.com
—to find websites where you can find out if your bank, etc. invests in fossil fuels (most of the big banks do—and they often invest in deforestation.) Our interview is on the festival website and on their YouTube channel and on my film's website.
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves" will be shown IN PERSON at the Gateway Theater in Ft. Lauderdale on November 7 at 3 pm as part of the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, November 3-16, 2023! The film will also be shown in January 2024 in theater as part of the Central Florida Film Festival in Mt. Dora, Florida! The film was awarded the second highest honor (out of 7 levels)—Outstanding Excellence by the Docs Without Borders International Film Festival last February (this version of the film was 15 minutes.)
Also, I am on Greenfaith Climate Finance volunteer committee and we met Friday and it was a really uplifting meeting with people sharing what different groups are doing! Two people attended the climate march in New York last Sunday and photos were shared—and they said it really felt for the first time like a Climate Movement! Also, I watched the United Nations Climate Summit 2023 LIVE online all day last Wednesday and it was very encouraging to see so many nations commit to cutting their fossil fuel use in half by 2030. Some nations in the Global South have been able to swap debt for protecting their biodiversity. Canada is eliminating subsidies for fossil fuels! Anyone can watch the COP 28 on the United Nations site live!!!!! I did not realize that! A LOT of good things are happening that we don't hear about in the news in the U.S.!
The U.S. and China were not invited because we have not made reasonable commitments to eliminate fossil fuels and move forward. The meeting was for those countries who were first actors in solving the climate crisis—and there were MANY nations there. Australia is helping Tuvalu build structure to protect it from sea level rise. MANY nations said that financial reform is needed in order to fund the climate transition needed. President Lula da Silve was ill and could not attend, so Marina Silva, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change in Brazil spoke and shared his speech. She expressed concern about mining for minerals in Brazil, especially concerns about mining in Indigenous lands, but also elsewhere. The Global North is responsible for most fossil fuel emissions, but the Global South is suffering from climate change the most. The Global South requested grants, loan forgiveness, and debt for biodiversity swaps so they don't have to choose between climate change and food. Secretary-General Guterres also said that he wanted all nations to have early warning systems set up by 2025, (I think.) He also said that phasing out fossil fuels is going to become mandatory in the future. Gavin Newsome from California (which gets its oil from Amazon Rainforest) has set the 2030 goal for California to phase out about 40% of fossil fuels or more—and Jay Enslee from Washington state was there with good climate commitments—both representing their state—not the U.S. as a whole.
So, I just wanted to share that there are many wonderful things happening with the film and in the world.
Thank you for being subscribers!
Here are the links below—
Take care,
Susan
This is the interview on the Global Peace Film Festival site:
https://peacefilmfest.org/gpff-lives-online-2023-filmmaker-interviews/
This is where you can watch my short film starting September 25-October 1:
https://peacefilmfest.org/2023-free-for-all-shorts/
2023 ‘Free for All’ Shorts – Global Peace Film Festival
This is my film's website which also has the interview on it and a Take Action page with Daily Actions we can do regarding climate change: