MFG News Item:
Call For Entries: Environmental-Comedy Filmmaking Contest - ÒIn
The CanÓ
From: Jon Rondeau, Comedia/Just For Laughs, MFG Member
Email Address: jon.rondeau@youtheatre.ca
Comment: See press release below
CONTACT: FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Deborah Kaplan
416 365 7557, ext. 23
THE ENVIRONMENT:
ULTRA-FUNNY FILMS
IN THE CAN, CRITICS DONÕT TRASH THAT GARBAGE
The First-Ever
Annual Comedy Film Competition About Piles of Garbage
to Motivate Masses for Massive
Environmental Change: Audiences Will Chuckle At Garbage Not Chuck It
Toronto, ON November 28, 2005 – Zerofootpirnt
(0footprint.org) and Just For Laughs (hahaha.com) announced today a new and
exciting collaboration. For the first time a revolutionary environmental
enterprise and a leading entertainment brand have come together to launch
the first annual Out of the Can,
a comedy short film competition on trash reduction and sustainable business
practices that uses humor to explore the messy world of garbage and what we can
do to clean things up.
These comedic films must be between one and five minutes in
length and must be about garbage generated by a typical high rise office tower,
characteristic of any urban setting.
Dr. Ron Dembo, Founder and
CEO of Zerofootpirnt, explained "imagine a large building in downtown
Manhattan. And then picture what happens to all the garbage generated from
that building over one monthÉthe mountains of Styrofoam packaging, plastic
wrap, cutlery, bags and straws, and so on. It gets moved to landfills and
can sit there polluting our environment for hundreds of years. A bottle
of water that takes just a few minutes to drink takes several lifetimes to
disappear! Recycling and using biodegradable products will help
create a sustainable future. The future of the Earth is in jeopardy, if we
continue down the path that we are on. Getting this message out is top
priority. ThatÕs why this project is so important."
Each film submitted will use humor to highlight the
disastrous situation created for our environment by the office towers. Jonathan
Rondeau of Just For Laughs said "we expect the competition to become one
of the foremost forums for exploring the intersection of comedy and the
environment." One enthusiastic filmmaker said ÒI
am going to make garbage the subject matter for a slapstick
caper. I hope that by depicting how patently absurd our current
lifestyle is we will be able to inspire companies to create and promote
recycling and influence their suppliers to start using biodegradable and
recycled products."
Animation,
documentary or narratives are all accepted. Submissions can be shot using film
and/or video methods. The top five films will be featured in a special screening in
COMEDIA, the famous Just For Laughs film showcase, in Montreal in the summer of
2006. Cash prizes will be awarded
to the winners and the film that takes first place will be entered into the
world-renowned Sundance Film Festival.
The competition submission
deadline is May 31st, 2006. All entries will be juried by a programming committee featuring
members of the film, comedy and sustainability communities.
Submissions should be sent to:
Zerofootpirnt, Out of the
Can
862 Richmond Street West, Suite
302
Toronto, ON, M6J 1C9
# # #
For more information about Out
of the Can, a comedy short film
competition or Zerofootpirnt please call Deborah Kaplan at 416 365-7557, ext.
23 or email deborah.kaplan@0footprint.org.
For more information about Out
of the Can, a comedy short film
competition or Just For Laughs contact Jonathan Rondeau at comedia@hahaha.com.
This is a non-MFG event posted by the Montreal Film Group
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