SDGs Film Festival 2020 begins this week in Daimaruyu, Tokyo

The outbreak of COVID-19 has affected people all around the world on how we live and work, perhaps our core values in life too. But some things are not meant to be changed; and one of them may be enhancing social cohesion to achieve a sustainable future.

The three districts in downtown Tokyo, Otemachi, Marunouchi and Yurakucho, are now collectively called ‘Daimaruyu.’ It is the heart of Tokyo, and also the center of Japanese business and finance. Businesses based in Daimaruyu district are now working together to achieve sustainability, and to make Daimaruyu an SDGs Model City. As part of this movement, an innovative film festival will take place at the Daimaruyu district starting on August 31.

Mitsubishi Estate, The Norinchukin Bank, Nikkei Inc., Nikkei Business Publications, Inc., are members of an executive committee that implements a project to accelerate sustainable actions within the Daimaruyu district. The project ‘Daimaruyu SDGs ACT5,’ which started on May 11, defines 2020 as ‘the first year of SDGs’ for the area, and sets 5 themes for this year’s actions. The themes are sustainable food; climate change and resource circulation; WELL-BEING; diversity; and communication. Daimaruyu SDGs ACT5 aims to put these themes into practice, verify the effects and clarify the structural problems of social issues.

As a centerpiece of Daimaruyu SDGs ACT5, the Daimaruyu SDGs film festival 2020 will be held from August 31 to September 5. Notable features of this festival are:

1. The first film festival in Japan that specializes in SDGs.
2.  There will be both online and offline screening.
3. Movies will be shown at various venues within the Daimaruyu district.
4. Tickets will be sold at Peatix, and audiences can communicate interactively by using online surveys before or after watching movies.

The categories and the titles of the 17 films that will be shown are as follows:

• People who sow seeds of hope in conflicts
  – The Price of Free
  – Salam Neighbor
• What is to create a diverse society?
  – The Case Against 8
  – HAFU
  – Independent Living
  – School of Babel / La Cour de Babel
• Learn about sustainability from things around us
  – Wastecooking
  – The True Cost
  – SEED: The Untold Story
  – A Plastic Ocean
  – Artifishal
• Starting from ‘what is happiness?’
  – Happy
  – Little Island
  – Taipei Exchanges
• Learn about climate change multilaterally
  – Before the Flood
  – Climate Warriors

There will also be 7 short films from the ‘Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia,’ a well-known short film festival that was originally established in Japan in 1999.

12 places of 10 buildings within the Daimaruyu district — such as the Marunouchi Hall, stores, atrium, and incubation facilities — will be used as venues to show the films, and proper measures will be implemented at each of them to prevent infection. The official website offers more details on application and purchasing tickets. The Daimaruyu SDGs film festival 2020 will enhance the audience’s sustainability mindset and also promote new measures to hold events amid COVID-19.