Green Film Festival

Organized by : MIT Inst. of Design
Venue : NFAI
Date : 18th to 22nd Jan, 2008
Timings : 3:00pm- 6:00pm

"Youth for Environment" was the title of the Digital Film Festival held at the NFAI by the MIT Institute of Design.
Attending the screenings on the 2nd day to a rather sparse audience of mainly students, among others, I watched a documentary on how Cuba adopted an effective way to tackle their energy crisis, after the collapse of the USSR, through a community centered approach.
The documentary was well received by the audience judging by the response, by way of queries to the architect Mr. Sharad Mahajan, founder of 'Mashaal'. Mr Mahajan professes to follow the footsteps of Laurie Baker, the famous architect who successfully designed low-cost eco-friendly housing (without compromising on aesthetics) in Kerala.
The waking upto a crisis situation was evident in the imploring tone of Mayor Vandana Chavan, who is quite articulate and sensitized to the relevant issues. She admitted that the citizens had a tough battle ahead as they were facing 'powerful lobbies' with 'vested interests' (in reference to a solution to the transportation problem).
Dr. Oza from the PMC gave some mind-boggling statistics related to the overgrowing traffic, pollution levels and their associated cost.
The second documentary by TRIPP, IIT Delhi on how cities across the globe implemented different public transportation schemes and the pros & cons thereof.
Pune is, we're told, at a unique crossroads in it's development history where it can choose effective solutions to it's civic problems.


References:
http://www.communitysolution.org/problem.html#1
http://www.communitysolution.org/poc.html
http://punecorporation.org/informpdf/transport/Tran_Pol_Eng.pdf