Organised by
Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP), www.panap.net
Public Media Agency (PMA), Malaysia, www.publicmediaagency.net
TVE Asia Pacific (TVEAP), www.tveap.org
WINNING ENTRY:
SRI - Challenging Traditions, Transforming Lives
YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELG3E9mXTdg
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Press Release - 8 April 2010
INDIAN FILM-MAKER BAGS THE FIRST ASIA PACIFIC RICE FILM AWARD
A film-maker from Haryana , India , has won the first ever Asia Pacific Rice Film Award (APRFA).
Gautam Chintamani’s winning entry, titled “SRI – Challenging Traditions, Transforming Lives”, focuses on the benefits that a new method of rice cultivation – called the system of rice intensification (SRI) - has brought to the lives of rural Indian women in the hill state of Uttarakhand in India.
The APRFA was created and launched in 2008 by Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP), Public Media Agency (PMA) and TVE Asia Pacific (TVEAP) with the aim of showcasing RICE in a creative manner through film. A total of eight entries was received for this first round from various countries in Asia , and they may be viewed at http://www.panap.net/aprfa along with details of the award. The second and third placing are held by Shahjahan Siraj of Bangladesh (Saving Rice, Saving Seed - Grassroots Movement of Bangladeshi Farmers) and Dede Ariwibowo of Indonesia (Kisruh Benih Padi / “Supertoy HL2” ), respectively.
The winner was selected by an independent regional panel of judges comprising journalists, film makers and development professionals from China , India , Korea , Malaysia and Sri Lanka , and a rice farmer-leader from the Philippines.
PAN AP launched the SAVE OUR RICE CAMPAIGN with its network partners in Asia in recognition of the critical role of rice, the world’s most important and political crop and the staple food of half its population. The foundation of the Campaign is the "Five Pillars of Rice Wisdom": (1) Rice Culture, (2) Community Wisdom, (3) Biodiversity-based Ecological Agriculture, (4) Safe Food and (5) Food Sovereignty. The Campaign is dedicated to saving traditional local rice, small rice farmers, rice lands and the rice heritage of Asia through defending and advancing the cultural and food sovereignty of the grassroots and opposing the powerful threats to rice. It spearheaded the Asia Pacific Rice Journalist Award (APRJA) in 2007 with the International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ) and the APRFA in 2008 with PMA and TVEAP.
Chintamani wins USD 2,000 with the award which will be presented soon in India.
CONTACT DETAILS:
Ms. Clare Westwood
THE SAVE OUR RICE CAMPAIGN
Asia Pacific Rice Film Award Secretariat
Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific
P.O. Box 1170, Penang 10850 Malaysia
Tel: 60 4 657 0271 / 60 4 656 0381
Fax: 60 4 658 3960
Email: panap@panap.net
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Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) is committed to the empowerment of people especially women, agricultural workers, and peasant and indigenous farmers and dedicated to protecting the safety and health of people, and the environment from pesticide use and genetic engineering. http://www.panap.net |
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*Television for Education – Asia Pacific*, trading as *TVE Asia Pacific*(abbreviated: *TVEAP*), is dedicated to communicating sustainable development, humanitarian and social justice issues through the audio-visual and new media in the Asia Pacific region, home to half of humanity. http://www.tveap.org |
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Public Media Agency (PMA) is a citizen design and communication group impelling communication for a sustainable cultural change. It supports all initiatives for a sustainable, peaceful and humane future for all. http://www.publicmediaagency.net |
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Related Blog Post:
Moving Images, Moving People!
by Nalaka Gunawardene
Asia Pacific Rice Film Award 2008/09 – And the winner is…
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Riceis Asia’s most deeply revered treasure. It is central to the Asian way of life; its culture, spirituality, traditions and norms. The staple food of three billion people, most of whom live in the Asian continent, Rice is Life to the people of Asia.
This precious rice heritage is, however, under threat from corporate/industrialized agriculture, neo-liberal globalization, private control of the rice seed, and genetic engineering of the rice genome. In addition, rice lands are being torn away from small rice farming communities in the name of “development” projects such as special economic zones, cash cropping, and agrofuel plantations.
Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific has for the last 17 years championed the food sovereignty of the grassroots, namely, farmers, agricultural workers, indigenous people and consumers and launched the SAVE OUR RICE CAMPAIGN in 2003. With like-minded and people-centred organisations, TVE Asia Pacific and Public Media Agency, we have collectively decided to put Asia’s Rice on film for the world.