Attention Artists: SEADocs 2012 – H2O: Sink or Swim

SEADocs – The Southeast Asian Student Documentary Award calls for application
Deadline in Vietnam: 03 Aug 2012

From Goethe Institut:

SEADocs – The Southeast Asian Student Documentary Award is a competition to encourage the art of documentary filmmaking in the region as a platform to engage with pressing social and environmental issues.

The 2012 competition invites students aged 18 – 28 in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam to submit a portfolio of their work and a motivational essay (pitch) on making a film under the theme “H2O: Sink or Swim” by Aug 03, 2012.

Theme Outline:

Water is the most abundant compound on Earth. And yet water, as one of our most important natural resources, presents one of the most pressing ecological and social challenges of the 21st Century with growing constraints on the availability, quality, and use of freshwater resources.

The United Nations states that each year more than 1 billion of our fellow human beings have little choice but to resort to using potentially harmful sources of water and up to 1.8 billion people may be living with absolute water scarcity by 2025 with two thirds of the world population potentially subject to water stress. With recent events such as the terrible drought in the Horn of Africa or the devastating floods here in Southeast Asia, it has become acutely clear what severe impact water has amidst our changing global climate patterns. This essential dependency is why the United Nations designated 2005 – 2015 as the International Decade of Water and why it is the focus subject of SEADocs 2012.

Increasingly in recent years, countries in Southeast Asia have been required to cope with the challenges of water amidst sharply changing relationships between societies and the environment, whether through excessive flooding or fresh water scarcity. The factors causing these conflicts are sometimes natural, sometimes human-made, but in all cases they need to be met with creative and sustainable responses by individuals and communities. The time to confront these issues is not in the future, but today – it is indeed time to act, to ‘sink or swim’ as the expression states.

We are asking students in Southeast Asia to view the diverse and complex relationships with water in this region through their unique filmmaker’s eyes. The competition invites aspiring documentary directors to look beyond the obvious and to seek captivating stories under the motto of “H2O: Sink or Swim”.

Submission Guidelines:

1) Eligible applicants are enrolled students aged 18 – 28 before the application deadline. Only one representative student per film. Professionals in television and film are not entitled to enter the competition.

2) The online application form must be filled out atwww.goethe.de/sciencefilmfestival with acknowledgment that the submission guidelines have been read and understood. Submission deadline is Aug 03, 2012.

3) Eligible entries must include a portfolio of past work on DVD/Data DVD or as data download, as well as a motivational essay (pitch) of max. 300 words in English.

4) Entry materials must arrive by Aug 06, 2012 or earlier.

5) Please either send a download link for videos in your online registration form or alternatively mail examples to:

Vietnam:
Goethe-Institut Hanoi
SEADocs Competition
56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Ba Dinh, Hanoi

Schedule:

Aug 03, 2012   Deadline for Submissions
August 10, 2012  Announcement of Shortlisted Candidates
November 09, 2012  Submission of Competition Films by Shortlisted Candidates
December 10, 2012  Announcement of Regional Winner

For full information visit the competition’s website.