2024 Deep Blue Shorts Competition Winners
Filmmakers of the HIFF44 Environmental Shorts Program
The Hawai’i International Film Festival is proud to unveil the winners of the 2024 Deep Blue Shorts Competition Presented by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office. This new competition with a $5,000 cash prize pool aims to raise awareness about and promote the development of water power for a reliable and sustainable source of energy.
Eligible films had a subject matter about emerging technology in water power such as next-generation hydropower, pumped storage systems, marine energy, or stories about the people involved with the technology. The top two films also screened at the HIFF44 Fall Festival presented by Halekulani as part of the Environmental Shorts Program.
1ST PLACE
LOVE THE ISLAND
Director: Isabela Alves
For more than 30 years, fisherman João Alfredo da Silva, 63, has dedicated his life to collecting garbage from the Billings Reservoir, one of the most important water reservoirs in São Paulo. Tracing his work and personal life, the film explores the importance of preserving the environment in the peripheries and the complexities that surround the protagonist’s life.
2ND PLACE
GREEN OCEAN GOLD
Director: Olaf Lawrence
Producers: Charlie Greaves, Olaf Lawrence
Cinematographers: Finlay Apps, Osker Carmichael, Olly Gambie
This film explores Seaweed plastics, a nuanced technology that is on the brink of transforming an industry and could potentially solve the a devastating problem that impacts our oceans every day. These bio-plastics can degrade naturally with no trance within 4 weeks if they end up in the ocean. This saves animals, habitats and ultimately could save us from being exposed to microplastics which Is a growing concern. We filmed with a family and community driven company in the Wales, UK that is pioneering seaweed plastic technology in the UK. The film also talks to one of the world’s leading scientists in this niche field. Despite creating a genuine research doc that has the power to convey a groundbreaking solution, we attempted to explore these issues on a deeper, more human level in an attempt to make the problem more relatable, entering the lives of three people who live and breath the ocean everyday exploring why this is issue and really effect us all.
3RD PLACE
SIDRAPONG HYDEL POWER : A UNIQUE HERITAGE
Director: Jayashri Mukherjee
Cinematography, Editing, Sound Design, & Graphics: Sanjoy Kumar Dutta
Voice: Shaona Ganguly
Sidrapong Hydroelectric Power Station of beautiful Darjeeling town is the oldest Hydel power station or hydroelectric power plant in India. Commissioned on 10 November 1897, its original capacity was 2 × 65 kW, which was expanded in phases for increased demands to a total 1000 kW in 1916. Having reached the limit of the water supply, the machinery was replaced in 1931 for more-efficient triple-phase transmission.
The station uses water from the Jhoras (Nepalese for ‘streams’) Kotwali, Hospital and Barbatia, channelled through a network of flumes to reservoirs, then passed down 220-metre (720 ft.) penstocks to the generators.
West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) took over operation of the station when it absorbed Darjeeling Electric Supply in 1978. In the 1980s, the station was damaged due to a landslide and remained closed for a decade, but was revived in 1997 to mark its centenary. The station has been accorded cultural heritage status by the central government
The documentary is a search of this eco-friendly, indigenous, non-conventional Sidrapong Hydel Power Station & its heritage.
