Now in its third year, the Planetary Health Film Lab is an interdisciplinary program featuring a week-long intensive workshop designed to provide participants with the knowledge, skills, and tools to make short documentary films for the United Nations.

The 2022 edition of the Planetary Health Film Lab is an intensive program designed for Indigenous youth from Ecuador and Costa Rica who have a story to tell about climate change and health and want to do so through film.

During a week-long virtual workshop, participants will learn to effectively tell stories from their communities that communicate data, research, and life experiences related to global and planetary health. The workshop teaches specific theories, techniques, and modes of social issue filmmaking and provides hands-on experience with new digital technologies and platforms.

The participants’ documentary short films will be featured on the websites of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, and the Youth Climate Report—an influential platform used as a resource by policymakers. The films will also be presented at this year’s UN climate summit, COP27, to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, near Cairo, Egypt (pandemic permitting). A series of press conferences and side events will highlight the films, which will directly contribute to progressive policy creation on a global scale.

Learn more about the Planetary Health Film Lab here: https://www.yorku.ca/dighr/project/planetary-health-film-lab/

Participants

This year’s Planetary Health Film Lab is designed for Indigenous youth in Ecuador and Costa Rica who are interested in using their filmmaking skills (videography and film editing) to tell stories about the impact of climate change on planetary health as well as on human health and wellbeing in their communities.

We want to bring together Indigenous youth from Ecuador and Costa Rica with a diversity of lived experiences and perspectives. We will encourage the participants to use their communities’ Indigenous languages along with English titles, subtitles, and credits.

Above all, we are looking for youth with a passion for storytelling through film who are experiencing the urgency of environmental impacts in their home communities.

Eligibility Criteria

• Indigenous youth 18 to 30 years old, residing in Ecuador or Costa Rica
• proficiency in written and spoken English
• experience producing videos using their own cell phones or video cameras
• experience editing videos using their own computers and editing software
• ability to complete their projects by the program deadline

Important Dates

Call for participants: February 14, 2022

Application deadline: April 12, 2022

Participants notified of acceptance: April 20, 2022

Introductory Zoom session: May 1, 2022

Production: May 2 to June 30, 2022

Post-production: July 1 to 25, 2022

Community Elder approval: July 31, 2022

Workshop (virtual and/or in-person): August 15 to 19, 2022

Micro Film Festival (virtual and/or in-person): September 9, 2022

UN approval: September 10 to 17, 2022

Upload to UNFCCC website (YCR): September 18, 2022

Submission to international film festivals: September 19, 2022

Presentations at UN climate summit, COP27: November 7 to 18, 2022

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