ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATES Reaching Towards Humanity (EARTH)-UST, the prime university-wide environmental organization of UST, is currently anchoring an open-to-all online competition dubbed “Sinelaysay: Kabatiran sa Balangkas ng Kapaligiran,” where aspiring student-filmmakers can use their craft to educate viewers about environmentalism.
In partnership with the Artlets Student Council (ABSC), together with other organizations from various universities, EARTH-UST hopes to bring out the best films that will leave an impact big enough to compel its viewers to act toward solving environmental issues.
In an interview, Ernest Vincent Guillarte, the project administrator of Sinelaysay, explained that EARTH-UST is now reaching out to more people since strength in numbers is very much needed in this time of crisis.
“This year of the global pandemic, we have decided to widen our reach to spread our advocacies since everything now is online,” Guillarte told The Flame.
“We are exploring more ways to tell about the things we stand for, and organizing this contest is one of them,” he added.
As an aspiring filmmaker himself, the 3rd year architecture student firmly believes that film is the perfect medium to address environmental issues.
“Film has a charm of creating metaphors and symbols for the lessons it wants to pertain. A simple scene can tell so much already to its viewers. I have this quote from Alfred Hitchcock, ‘If it is a good movie the sound could go off and the audience would still have a pretty clear idea of what was going on,” Guillarte said.
The auditor of EARTH-UST is enthusiastic about his thoughts of fellow young Filipino filmmakers.
“Filipino youth filmmakers nowadays are very brave and strong in their ‘attack’ when it comes to their approach [to] making films. There are many hidden gems out there that need more attention, and hopefully through this project, we can help aspiring filmmakers by giving them a platform,” he said.
Sinelaysay covers the organization’s annual themes #b3ONEwithEARTH and #DefendersResist. The contest proper runs from Oct. 20, 2020 to Jan. 4, 2021. F
