IN a bid to raise awareness on the current state of environment to encourage positive action towards preserving the eco-system, retail giant SM Supermalls will host a series of film festivals to elementary and high school students featuring environmentally-themed movies and documentaries.

Dubbed the Green Film Festival (GFF), the project aims to educate and make Filipinos aware to the plight of our earth today through a visual information campaign for eco-awareness. The screenings, which will be for free, will start in June 2015 in 51 cinemas in SM Supermalls and 6 Waltermart all over the country. The Green Film Festival is a project of SM Cares, a Division of SM Foundation and the CSR arm of SM Prime Holdings, Inc. in partnership with the Movie Television Review and

Classification Board (MTRCB). Special screenings will also be held to reach out to the 1.9M out of school youth in the country.

Films in the vernacular are preferred so that the school children will better understand the issues and the concerns facing the Philippines. Partner GMA 7 has agreed to provide the initial materials, two station-produced documentaries entitled “Ground

Zero” and “Pagbangon” in the film festival. The Climate Change Commission has also contributed a 5-min info video on the Top 15 Ways to LEDS (Low Emission Development Strategies).

“Pagbangon” tells the story of how our countrymen recovered and rose from the devastation brought about by typhoon Yolanda, as documented by GMA 7’s Jessica Soho, Jiggy Manicad and Micaela Papa. On the other hand, “Ground Zero” talks about the Philippines being located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, and identifies which cities and provinces are exposed to the natural hazards.

The GFF is to be held every third Tuesday of the month, from 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM, except for the months of March and December which will have special screenings dates on the first Tuesday of the month due to the class schedules.

MTRCB Chairman Eugenio Villaruel said that the new partnership with SM Cares is part of their continuing thrust to help in fostering positive human values to the public especially the young people. He said as part of the partnership, MTRCB will be waiving the review fees for all the films and documentaries to be shown in the festival.

Annie Garcia, President of SM Supermalls lauded the ever-growing partnership the retail giant has with the MTRCB. She noted the first partnership of SM with MTRCB with the first-ever and successful movie screenings for the deaf and blind last year.