05/09/2023

Festival screening of films from the project “Environmental response in Timočka Krajina”

Environmental films from the series “Look around you” produced by the Association “Za Drinking Fountains” with the production “Za media”, as part of the implementation of the project “Environmental response to mining expansion in Timočka Krajina”, were shown at the first “Ecological Response” Festival, which takes place at Silver Lake. In the last week of August, the event brought together creators from environmental associations throughout Serbia, who presented the problems of pollution in our country in documentary form.

On the third night of the Festival, the audience at Silver Lake first had the opportunity to watch the animated film “Grey Days”, directed by Stevan Vojvodić. The film, which talks about air pollution in the mining environment through a child’s lens, was already in the official program of one of the oldest film festivals in Europe, the March Festival in Belgrade. The visitors reacted very well to this short animated form, and it was especially interesting that several boys and girls followed “Grey Days” with attention.

This was followed by two more documentaries from the “Look Around You” series, which the Association “Za Drinking Fountains” and the production “Za media” are realizing as part of the project “Environmental response in Timočka Krajina”. The first is the story of the industrial pollution of the River Timok, into which Europe’s most polluted the Borska River flows, and the second film is the story of Rgotsko Lake, which has been an unrecultivated quartz sand mine for four decades. Apart from the local audience who watched these films with interest, we also had the opportunity to ask a guest from England if there are similar problems in his country as well.

“There are certainly polluted rivers in Great Britain, but it cannot come close to the pollution that we saw this evening in the film. As it seems for now, the Serbian government is not stopping the pollution, which could continue in the coming period. If this is the case, the rivers will be so polluted that there will be no life in them,” said Dr Terence Clifford Amos, a former university lecturer in England and a long-time jury member of the International Film Festivals (Silafest) in Serbia.

Every public showing of the video production is aimed at better informing citizens about environmental problems and the consequences for human health and the environment, which is the most important goal of the project “Environmental response to mining expansion in Timočka Krajina”, which is implemented by the Association “Za Drinking Fountains” with partners from Bor and Zaječar, and is financially supported by the EU.

Association “Za Drinking Fountains”

This text was produced within the project “Environmental response to mining expansion in Timočka Krajina” funded by the European Union, and implemented by the Association “Za Drinking Fountains”, the Association of Young Researchers Bor, Civic Library “Europe” Bor and Children’s Center Zaječar. The content of the text is entirely responsibility of these associations and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.