HÀ NỘI — The annual Science Film Festival is bringing 19 science films mostly targeting young people in Việt Nam’s big cities, with screenings beginning this month and running until December 7.

Organized by the Goethe Institut since 2005, the event supports film screenings in 23 countries across South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. This year’s theme, “Anthropocene: Welcome to the Age of Humans”, aims to help audiences explore the past, present, and future of humanity. In cooperation with local partners, the festival promotes science literacy and facilitates awareness of contemporary scientific, technological and environmental issues through films and television content with accompanying educational activities.

This year’s festival, run by Hà Nội Goethe-Institut in collaboration with THD Education Solution Compnay, is the seventh in which Việt Nam has participated. Last year, over 35,000 people attended 300 screenings across the country. The festival focuses particularly on films for children and adolescents.

A jury of three viewed the Festival’s 67 film offerings to select 19 suited to Vietnamese audience and the particular issues facing the country, said Hoàng Dương, one of the jury members. Dương noted that this year’s theme is particularly important because of the growing threat human activities pose to climate stability.

Hands on: Junior students participated in science experiments at the Science Film Festival last year. — Photo organisation

"The main theme of this year’s festival is the anthropocene. The term refers to the fact that for thousands of years, humans have made their impact on nature, and have changed nature,” Dương said. “Today, we experience [the manifestation of] anthropocene through climate change. Our world with plants and animals is facing a crisis. The film programme reflects on these problems but also shows us the beauty and vulnerability of the ecosystems on our earth."

From October to December, the festival will come to schools and culture centres in Hà Nội and the northern provinces of Thái Nguyên and Vĩnh Phúc, the central cities of Huế and Đà Nẵng, and HCM City and the provinces of Quảng Nam and Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu in the south. 

In addition to watching films, audiences can participate in discovery workshops, games and experiments. Organisers hope that films and experiments will encourage young peoples’ curiosity and expand their knowledge.

The festival includes nine films for kids under 12 years old with Vietnamese voice-over and six films for ages 12 to 16 with Vietnamese subtitles. Four feature-length films will be shown on October 11, 18, 25 and November 1 at the Goethe Institut in Hà Nội and HCM City only. — VNS