Costa Rica hosts environmental film festival

Mike McDonald September 3, 2010

Costa Rica will host the first international environmental film festival in its history, from Sept. 25 through Oct. 1 in La Fortuna de San Carlos, at the foot of the Arenal volcano in north-central Costa Rica.

The Criterio Ambiental Film Fest will bring together 50 filmmakers from Europe, the United States and Latin America, whose works advocate the protection of the natural world.

The festival is sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and organized by Costa Rican filmmaker Gustavo Solís-Moya.

The event will include screenings, debates and round-table discussions with participating filmmakers and environmental experts from around the globe.

For Solís-Moya, Criterio Ambiental is an opportunity to educate the world’s populace.

“We hope that this effort allows us to generate a greater consciousness in our country as well as the population of Latin America and the entire world to unite ourselves and work together in the construction of a cleaner, more sustainable planet,” he said.

The event’s supporters include the San Carlos Municipality and several other Costa Rican governmental agencies and ministries, including the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry and the Costa Rica Tourism Board.

Anyone interested in more information can visit the festival’s website at: http://www.criteriofilmfest.org/