#pif2018

Pay Ink Forward 2018

CANCERVANTS PH

Sun, 9 December 2018

ECO-HEROES

Presented each year at the Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival toCanadian and International individuals whose work has had significant impact on raising awareness of environmental issues through artistic expression.

Planet in Focus Eco-Hero Awards are generously sponsored by: 

ANNE INNIS DAGG2018 Canadian Eco-Hero

In 1956, four years before Jane Goodall ventured into the world of chimpanzees and seven years before Dian Fossey left to work with mountain gorillas, in fact, before anyone, man or woman had made such a trip, 23-year-old Canadian biologist, Anne Innis Dagg, made an unprecedented solo journey to South Africa to become the first person in the world to study animal behaviour in the wild on that continent. When she returned home a year later armed with ground-breaking research, the insurmountable barriers she faced as a female scientist proved much harder to overcome. In 1972, having published 20 research papers as an assistant professor of zoology at University of Guelph, the Dean of the university, denied her tenure. She couldn’t apply to the University of Waterloo because the Dean there told Anne that he would never give tenure to a married woman. This was the catalyst that transformed Anne into a feminist activist. For three decades, Anne Innis Dagg was absent from the giraffe world until 2010 when she was sought out by giraffologists and not just brought back to into the fold, but finally celebrated for her work. Read More

When: Thursday, October 18, 2018

Where: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema at 7pm

JOHN FRANCIS2018 International Eco-Hero

In the early 1970s John Francis gave up using motorized vehicles after witnessing the devastating effects of an oil spill in San Francisco Bay. Soon Afterwards he took an even more radical step: a vow of silence that lasted 17 years, during which he undertook a pilgrimage by foot across America on behalf of the environment and world peace, earning his Ph.D. in environmental studies along the way. Through his silence and walking, he learned to truly listen, both to other people and the world around him. Since ending his silence in 1990, Francis has served as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environmental Program, contributed to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Oil Pollution Act of 1990. He relates the experience of his quiet protest in his book Planetwalker: 22 Years of Walking. 17 Years of Silence. In March 2011, National Geographic published his second book, The Ragged Edge of Silence: Finding Peace in a Noisy World. Last year he was elected to a four-year term as one of three commissioners of the Borough of West Cape May, NJ, where he lives. 

When: Closing Night, Sunday, October 28, 2018

Where: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema at 6:30pm

RACHEL PARENT2018 Rob Stewart Youth Eco-Hero

This is not your average teenage girl. She’s not drawn to designer labels. She’s drawn to food labels. At 11 years old, Rachel began researching for a school project and became alarmed by what she learned about GMOs. This gave her the spark to become an activist fighting for our right to know what’s in our food by making GMO labeling a law in Canada. That spark evolved into what’s now known as Kids Right To Know, a not-for-profit organization that she founded to inform the public, especially other children, about food safety.

In Memory of Rob Stewart

The Planet in Focus staff and board are heartbroken at the news of losing such a young and incredible force. We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his friends and family during this difficult time. Rob was not only a friend of the festival, but a worthy Eco-Hero, honoured at the Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival where bothSHARKWATER and REVOLUTION have screened in the past.

Help Rob’s legacy live on by ensuring his latest film SHARKWATER: EXTINCTION is completed and shared with the world. Please donate through the PayPal link on the Official Sharkwater Website.

Make a Donation in Memory of Rob Stewart