Green Movie Award for Italian films

On the occasion of the 12th Rome Film Fest, the 2017 Green Movie Award was given out to the Italian-German Writer/Director Renzo Carbonera for his sustainably produced feature film Resina as well as to Chiara Bellini for Gli anni verdi. In this documentary, the filmmaker follows three retired persons who discovered toxic waste, illegal landfills and uncontrolled hazmat at the countryside of Frosinone in the Lazio region. The toxic beta-hexachlorocyclohexane, a byproduct of the production of DDT in the town of Colleferro, seriously sickens the local residents. The chemical is causing oxidative stress and is damaging the brain’s dopaminergic system.

For her research, Chiara Bellini collected transcripts of trials, documents, photos and articles. “This documentary is telling the story of the commitment of a whole community, the only real defense against the many threats to environment. I believe that this push from below is the key of the green revolution that everybody hopes for”, says Marino Midena, director of the Green Movie Film Fest that awards eco prizes to sustainably produced films as well as to movies with a green storytelling approach.

For the production of the dramedy Resina, the first-time director Renzo Carbonera decided to adopt various green measures that included the use of renewable energy right off the grid, electric bikes instead of automobiles, waste management and recycling. When implementing this best practices, he production received support we from the local community as well as from the Trentino Film Commission.

Resina was the first green production in Trentino that was shot before the T-Green Film Rating System was launched. The T-Green Film Rating System guides production companies to work towards a more environmentally friendly approach that also pays off financially. In Resina, a young musician returns from the big city to her small mountain village where she reunites a disbanded male choir. The film will be released in Italy in spring 2018.