Edinburgh Green Film Festival : Finlay van der Vossen
05 December 2020
By Karina Caulfield
The Edinburgh Green Film Festival formed in December 2019, made up mostly of Edinburgh Napier students and alumni. Their first official event planned to go ahead this July however COVID-19 stepped in their way.
The festival leader is Finlay van der Vossen, a 3rd year film student at Edinburgh Napier. He was inspired to set up the organisation after attending the Wilderland Film Festival in Musselburgh, an event showing films focused on animal conservation. However, Finlay felt, “it didn't broaden the spectrum of all the environmental issues that we are facing.”
Finlay continued to do research, finding a lack of environmental institutions in Scotland: “So it was just the case of, well why not…because there's such a scope and engagement in Edinburgh. I feel like so many people are passionate about what they can do for the environment and how they can get involved and I think this would be a great way to get together those kind of people.”
Edinburgh Green Film Festival Instagram
The festival leader’s role involves making the decisions, contacting the venues, and having final say on what films will be part of their programme. However, Finlay acknowledges the hard work put in by his team who he “wouldn't be able to do it without.” They have included “the 2 biology students that have created our whole environmental policy and making sure we are keeping on track with everything we can be doing for the environment as well.”
The future aim of the festival would be to provide a platform for Scottish filmmakers, to be able to showcase their environmental work.
Their first official event was due to run from the 23rd till the 24th of July this year before COVID-19 put it on hold. They planned to show around 8 films as well as holding various events alongside it; a “fairly ambitious” approach, says Finlay for their first run.
"I feel like so many people are passionate about what they can do for the environment and how they can get involved"
The Edinburgh Green Film Festival go through a platform called Festival Scope which allows festival organisers to contact filmmakers directly and have access to their work.
Some of the films which had planned to be part of their programme this July (and now hopefully in the future) is The Pollinators by New York filmmaker, Peter Nelson: “It's all about bee conservation in America and how the decline in the population is having huge environmental effects that aren't really getting recognised, especially in the States.”
Another included a film about a multi group defending the Amazon via a guerrilla militia.
“We were hoping to have kind of smaller, lesser known films to try and promote these filmmakers that they have worked so hard to push their environmental methods.”
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The Pollinators Trailer
Alongside this, they planned to showcase larger films such as 2040 by Damon Gameau or David Attenborough’s A Life on our Planet, to “get a more general amount of eyes onto the festival.” Finlay hopes people would then, "be interested in the kind of things we are showing as well.”
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Around March, Finlay was in discussion with the Picturehouse production team, revealing, when cinemas were still open there was, “a lot of uncertainty about what was going on and we said, ‘we can't commit to putting on our event anymore because we wouldn't feel comfortable.’”
The Edinburgh Green Film Festival were hopeful the first national lockdown would be very impactful with cinemas being able to reopen for good. However, COVID-19 has forced setbacks to the festivals running order. Currently, they are working with around “half the funding” they are needing.
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A Life on Our Planet Trailer
“With the Cameo cinema, the deal that we had was almost too good to be true which essentially said, ‘we love the idea of the festival, we are happy to run it, you have no upfront costs, you don't have to pay for the venue, all we are asking for is a cut of the tickets’, and we were like, that is perfect for us.”
After the company that owns both Cineworld and the Cameo closed their doors; their once secured venue is now on uncertain grounds.
“…we had such a great relationship with them.... So that's been the hardest hit…we had these ideas, we had these relationships with filmmakers…but it's like, what platform can we use?”
Instead they were looking to get in touch with the Filmhouse who alternatively have “strict degrees” on the amount events pay for their venue hire: “we were about to approach them…then the news had come that they had shut down again and it's frustrating, really frustrating.” Filmhouse was one of the last local cinemas to close on November 2nd.
"...we said we can't commit to putting on our event anymore because we wouldn't feel comfortable"
Other festivals in Edinburgh have alternatively delivered their programme online however, Finlay feels this only works if you have an “established platform already that people know to look for.” He acknowledges if you are running an event for the first time online, “you are going to have a really tough time getting people to engage in it and getting people to see it.”
Finlay continues, saying, “Online, it's so saturated and so difficult to set it up and…It's almost equally as expensive than using a venue in person.”
In contrast, holding the festival at the Filmhouse would provide great exposure as “there is so many people that are going to engage with that.”
"there is so many people that are going to engage with that and people go to the cinema anyway to come across it"
In the future, Finlay hopes the Edinburgh Green Festival will receive additional funding from organisations such as BFI or Filmhub and will have the opportunity to work with UK environmental charities and local businesses.
“…once we have that in place, we are then able to go to the Filmhouse and say look ‘we have the scope to provide you the money to run this event’, which I hope they would kind of jump on because for them, it should only be positive
Edinburgh Green Film Festival Facebook
The Edinburgh Green Film Festival’s goal is to be able to run next summer however unfortunately, it is completely COVID dependent.
Although they have faced many setbacks, Finlay admits he does like problem solving: “I do like finding solutions to things. I've seen something kind of come together…I'm so proud of what we've got so far.”
Finally, being able to see the event go ahead, is what Finlay feels, “will be the most fulfilling part of it.”
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The Pollinators: Interview with Peter Nelson
A Life on Our Planet full film
