A UNESCO film, made by Saransh Sugandh, from The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI),  'Changing Climate, Moving People' has been nominated under the Environment category for the 3rd Woodpecker Film Festival & Forum, which will be held from 17-20 September, at the Siri Fort Auditorium.    The film will be screened at 9.45 am on Friday 18 September 2015. To watch the film kindly register at the Film Festival website and collect your passes at the venue.

The 36 minute long film documents the stories of migrants and their families referring to a spectrum of human mobility issues and giving a clear understanding of migration as an adaptive response to environmental stress.   It discusses how disaster, changing weather and climate conditions have adversely affected the distribution of population and patterns of mobility from three different regions in the country – Uttarakhand, Bundelkhand and Odisha.  These three states are already amongst the leading sources for internal migration and have been hit by extreme weather events like floods (Uttarakhand), drought (Bundelkhand region) and cyclones (Odisha), which are likely to become more recurrent and stronger as a result of climate change. The film is divided in three parts: “A River Comes Down”, “The Dry Heat” and “When a Storm Surges in”.

The film`s objective is to increase awareness, engagement and advocacy on the intertwined and complex linkages between moving people and changing climate, and to support the mainstreaming of migration into climate change policies. The approach of Changing Climate, Moving People is not limited to understanding migration as a demographic process which may be induced by climate change: the film seeks to show how climate change is and will contribute to the multi-causal nature of migration, and establish the triggers behind migrants’ choice to migrate or not to migrate while living in areas affected by environmental change. How do households, communities and individuals decide to migrate? What is the threshold or the build-up of push and pull factors that lead to the decision of migrating? To answer these questions, Changing Climate, Moving People follows the stories of the migrants and their families, to establish the triggers behind their choice to migrate.

About the Festival: 

Woodpecker Film Festival & Forum is India's premier competitive film festival focusing on issue-based cinema. The first edition of the festival was launched in 2013 on the eve of 100 years of Indian Cinema and aims to showcase the new breed of alternative filmmakers, successfully blending entertainment and meaningful cinema.     The Woodpecker Film Festival & Forum highlights key social issues through powerful documentaries and short films, focusing on socially pertinent themes like environment & wildlife, livelihoods, health, gender, education and children. The festival and forum is part of the 'Cinema for Change' initiative of CMSR Foundation, a not-for-profit organization based in New Delhi. 

For more information, contact:

Marina Faetanini, Section’s Chief and Programme Specialist, Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO New Delhi (Ph: 011-26713000 Ext 302)

Mr. Saransh Sugandh, Filmmaker, TERI (Ph: 24682100)