Logo_S8_XIV-05
Logo_S8_XIV-05
Logo_S8_XIV-05

SUSTAINABILITY

Since its outset, the (S8) International Peripheral Film Festival (Mostra Internacional de Cinema Periférico) has kept up a commitment to environmental and economic sustainability in various ways, such as recycling and reusing materials, furniture and structures from one year to the next, the agreement with public transport bodies, and more. 

Such activities have always been a part of the Mostra’s good practices. In recent times, (S8) has been drawing up an ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY PLAN with clear GOALS and PRINCIPLES:

    • To reduce, prevent and offset our ecological footprint, taking on a series of commitments that comply with the following principles.
    • To reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources.
    • To lower the generation of waste and pollutants.
    • To prevent the environmental, cultural and social impact arising from holding the event in A Coruña, but also on a nationwide, European and global level.
    • To raise awareness about environmental problems related to climate change, desertification and global environmental changes.
    • To encourage the use of sustainable transport and consumption in a responsible way as regards our environment.
    • To foster environmental awareness among our audience.

In addition to the aforementioned activities, there will be other new ones that have been introduced into our plan to continue implementing them in the upcoming festivals. 

Furthermore, our programme includes a film series for schools each year, which during the month prior to the festival seeks to raise awareness of the environmental problem among the youngest and stimulate debate about it in subsequent talks.

Raising awareness about the issue among the adult audience at the festival is also an ongoing task, not only via the films, but by teaching DIY practices and the principle of degrowth. Such activities include:

  • The development workshop with flowers (green process), free of polluting chemicals, given by Phil Hoffman (2018)
  • The film workshop with no camera by Madi Piller (2019).
  • The online workshops by Richard Tuohy and Dianna Barrie (2020) who taught, for example, how to make a pinhole camera at home with recycled materials.
  • In 2022, Dianna Barrie & Richard Tuohy attended. The filmmakers came from Australia to use their DIY philosophy to give a workshop in which they taught us, for example, how to build a simple home laboratory to develop our own films ourselves. 

All of this enables us to free ourselves from depending on large laboratories, and to save a significant carbon footprint in bulky shipments and developing chemicals.

At (S8) in 2023, new activities are also being introduced, such as:

  • Reusing canvases and banners from previous (S8)s in a project to recycle and manufacture textile tools, household items and accessories that will be put on sale, coordinated and created by the designer Melania Freire (Mercedes-Benz Fashion Talent Award 2019) in collaboration with Aida Mosquera (Stylist and Art Director), and manufactured by members of ADCOR – Fundación Adultos Discapacitados de A Coruña (Disabled Adults Foundation of A Coruña). This is an original way to lend new life to these materials.

  • The “SUSTAINABILITY IN FESTIVALS” panel will be held with representatives of different festivals in Galicia, united by their participation in the SUSTAINABLE CULTURE AGREEMENT. 

GENDER EQUALITY

(S8) is a cultural event programmed, organised by and starring women.

This has an impact both in the way of working and functioning as a team, as well as in creating the programme. In the very essence of the festival, “peripheral”, it is our intention to foster a free and independent cinema. This is a kind of cinema that is difficult to distribute, due to its avant-garde nature that places it outside the commercial circuits, but also due to the matter of gender bias.

The result of this commitment to gender equality can be seen in the activities that the festival carries out every year, such as fostering a diverse audience (age, nationality, identity…), the use of non-sexist language, free of stereotypes and prejudices, and the presence of women in drawing up the programme (artists, directors, groups of/with women, presenters…). But above all, it is evident in the way responsibilities are distributed, since not only is there a team with gender parity (60% women; 50% men), but all the (S8) teams are led by women (management, programming, production, education, technique, press, sponsorships, guests and activities).