First Annual Environmental Rights Film Festival Announced
BY SCOTTIE KNOLLIN
The nonprofit The Human Family, founded by NDFS’s Sean Coffman, announced today the establishment of the North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival.
The Human Family, organizers of the North Dakota Human Rights Film Festival and the Fargo-Moorhead LGBT Film Festival, recognizes that human rights and the environment are deeply intertwined. To bring awareness to those wide-ranging issues and connections, the Human Family is excited to announce North Dakota’s first film festival dedicated solely to Environmental Rights.
The mission of the North Dakota Human Environmental Rights Film Festival (NDERFF) is to educate, engage, and facilitate discussion around local and world-wide environmental rights, animal rights, or climate change topics through the work of filmmakers and artists.
Over the past five years, the Human Family has worked tirelessly to bring current and relevant human rights and social justice content film to the northern communities of North Dakota. As the North Dakota Human Rights Film Festival progressed, a high number of incredibly important and well-made films about the impacts of changing climates and the connection between the environment and human rights were received. However, to maintain a balance between social justice issues, many of those films, unfortunately, were not selected to screen.
In response, The Human Family crafted an opportunity for
environmental-specific films to have a space of their own – and filmmakers responded. Nearly 100 films and over 90 hours of content were submitted for consideration. The Jury of the North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival selected over 40 films that are absolutely essential viewing for our northern audiences to screen at the inaugural event.
NDERFF will take place leading up to and through Earth Day, April 11-25, 2021. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the festival will stream online using the Eventive platform. Films and panel discussions will be available on-demand, and audiences can experience these important conversations from the comfort and safety of their homes using their tablets, computers, or AppleTV or Roku devices.
The official line-up of the 2021 festival will be announced on Wednesday, March 10. Tickets and passes for the festival will be made available Wednesday, March 31.
For more information about the North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival, visit www.NDERFF.org and follow the festival on Facebook at @NDERFF.
