16 Sep, 2019

The Most Enriching Environmental Film Festival launched in Kuala Lumpur with Climate Action Theme

======

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 13 (Bernama) — The International Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival 2019 (KLEFF 2019) was launched at Taman Tugu today to celebrate the 12th installation of the film festival with the theme “Climate Action…Now!”.

This year’s theme will explore the stories of people and organizations committed to taking climate action to create maximum impact on sustainable development. The Festival received a total of 233 submissions on environment-themed films from 48 countries and out of these, 86 ground-breaking films of various lengths and genres will be screened throughout the Festival.

“Films are very powerful tools, I want to see how Malaysia can use films to get people to start thinking differently, to spark conversations, to take actions, to make something out of everything…I hope KLEFF in its 12th year, will resonate with the Malaysian public and inspire them to take immediate action for a better and sustainable Malaysia,” said Yasmin Rasyid, KLEFF Founder & Honorary Advisor during her welcoming speech.

Present at today’s launching ceremony with Dr. Yasmin Rasyid were Mr. Fadly Bakhtiar (KLEFF Festival Director), Ms. Stephanie Bacon (Vice President of Malaysian Nature Society (MNS)), Ms. Aina Ahmad (Brand Communications Manager of Kiehl’s Malaysia), Mdm. Elina Jani (Director, Strategic Communications Officer of Malaysian Green Technology Corporation), fellow esteemed KLEFF partners, filmmakers, and collaborators.

“This is the second year MNS has supported KLEFF and EcoKnights, who is a stakeholder in MNS’s EU-funded MY Forest project. Through KLEFF, MY Forest is able to fulfil its tenet of capacity building of non-stake actors in forest advocacy,” said Prof. Dr. Ahmad Ismail, President of MNS.

KLEFF Festival Director Fadly Bakhtiar said, “We are committed to bringing you the most enriching environmental film festival that brings forward the conversation and environmental movement of climate action. Continuously being supported by our notable partners, collaborators, esteemed media and the general public, we hope to continue to prosper and fight for a better world for everyone.”

Continuing its long-serving legacy in the sustainability field, KLEFF will be at two separate events this year with more highlights below:

KLEFF @ IGEM (9th – 11th October)

● KLEFF 2019 Award Ceremony, recognising international and local filmmakers in their effort to drive the environmental stories forward
● An Informative Booth featuring the sustainability efforts and community-centric initiatives by environmental NGO, EcoKnights, and its partners
● Virtual Reality (VR) experience, displaying one of KLEFF’s award-winning films
● 4 Film Screenings of 15 KLEFF films focusing on climate change, science-based and technology-related issues

KLEFF @ Publika Solaris Dutamas (7th – 13th October)

● 12 KLEFF’s Film Screenings featuring 73 ground-breaking environment-themed films
● 3 impact-driven sustainability initiatives under Act4SDGs featuring Earthworm Foundation (panel session and video screening), Society for Conservation Biology (panel session and photography exhibition) and Me.Reka Makerspace (workshop series) highlighting the Sustainable Development Goals
● Virtual Reality (VR) experience, displaying one of KLEFF’s award-winning films
● 17 environment-themed Workshops and Talks
● Fund-Fair consisting of various interactive family games
● 23 Green Market vendors championing eco-friendly products and services in accordance to the SDG Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production

ABOUT THE KUALA LUMPUR ECO FILM FESTIVAL (KLEFF)

The International KLEFF is Malaysia’s first and longest-serving platform promoting sustainable living through showcases of environment-themed films, workshops, talks, exhibitions, Green Market, local performances and other engaging activities. KLEFF features ground breaking films that kindle important dialogues, traversing the relationship between humans and their environments, challenging the way people think about the natural world and inspiring them to discuss, explore and act on important environmental issues.

Let’s take Climate Action…Now! Further information may be found at kleff.my or KLEFF social media pages @kleff_my.

ABOUT ECOKNIGHTS®

EcoKnights® is a not-for-profit environmental organisation that provides and delivers development and environmental interventions to communities, government agencies, learning institutions, and companies to mobilise and catalyse the stakeholders towards sustainable development across trans- and interdisciplinary fields to build bridges towards achieving sustainable communities and companies across five main pillars.

The pillars are CSR and Partnership, Public Outreach, Community Development & Education (CDE), Rehabilitation, Restoration and Conservation (RRC) as well as Youth Development & Volunteerism (YDV), supported by Sustainability Communications. Each pillar helps to strengthen the legacy of EcoKnights as it empowers the Knights to ideate, create, run and organise meaningful projects to impart long-lasting sustainable and economic impact to the country.