7th CMS VATAVARAN Environment and Wildlife Film Festival and Forum 2014

Yet another screening was held at the YMCA Institute of Media Studies and Information Technology, New Delhi on the 5th December, 2013, as a part of the 10 years celebration. The students that attended this screening were from the department of Development Journalism and Documentary Film Making and TV Production. Three award winning films were screened which were highly appreciated and loved by the films.

The session was started with the first film, "A Second Hand Life", directed by Nutan Manmohan. The second film, "The Last Flight", is also made by the same director. "A Second Hand Life", dealt with the problem of e-waste in India. It follows the story of two children, simultaneously showing the ill-effects of e-waste and the also how technology is helping our country to develop. This film won the Best Documentary Award at the CMS Vatavaran (2005), and along with the help of the Indian Government, it has put an end to sourcing of hazardous e-waste from developing nations into India. "The Last Flight" follows the trail of the mystery deaths of vultures in the country. After 4 years of investigations in all parts of the country, the main reason was found to be a pharmaceutical drug, Diclofenac, present in pesticides. The 3rd film, "Chasing Water", directed by photographer / Film Maker Pete McBride, follows the Colorado River, which supports almost 30 million people across 7 states in the USA. Today, this resource is fast depleting.

The speaker present at the screening was Ms. Nutan Manmohan. Ms. Manmohan is a freelance director and journalist. She also heads the production house, All Time Production which has made films for channels like the National Geographic and Discovery. An interactive session was carried out where she shared her stories about the two films and answered to students' questions and queries.

The session was ended by a vote of thanks by the Director, Mr. Dalip McCune where he stated that CMS Vatavaran is a very good initiative started by the Centre for Media Studies. He also said that this festival is becoming more like a movement in order to bring forth the problems that is prevalent in our environment today. This festival is helping educate the people to work towards a better world throught the powerful medium of cinema.