Post by Plastic Oceans International

From Screen to Local Action in Iceland Films have the incredible power to touch deeply into our hearts, sparking crucial dialogue and driving tangible action in our communities. This transformative power was clearly demonstrated during the recent local festival hosted by SEEDS Iceland as part of the Trees and Seas Film Festival The screening of the film Salmon Secrets directed by Jeremy Mathieu, proved to be the most successful event, drawing in a large local community audience far beyond SEEDS ' international volunteers. Its high engagement was directly attributed to the film's relevance to a critical local issue in Iceland: open net salmon farming. Clayoquot Action The film acted as a powerful catalyst for community engagement, especially after a guest speaker with Jon Kaldal, strategist and spokesman of the Icelandic Wildlife Fund (IWF) spoke about the local reality, deepening the audience’s involvement and leading to focused questions. The audience was deeply concerned about what they could do to fight the farming of salmon in Iceland. This discussion included the idea of the consumers as an important part of solutions. The immediate, actionable step that resonated widely was for consumers to influence the market by simply asking restaurants where their salmon comes from. This demonstrated how local actions can be active in fighting this environmental problem in their daily lives. To illustrate the severity of the issue, Jón used an analogy to visualize the carbon footprint and unsustainability of farmed salmon. This cycle involves growing feed in South America, shipping it across the world to Iceland, growing the fish, and then shipping the fish all the way back to markets, such as in America. This visual representation helped make it very clear why this global food production system is polluting and harmful for the environment. This successful local festival was part of broader engagement efforts in Iceland, showing that focusing on local context drives maximum participation. Read full story in our blog section or in the following link: https://lnkd.in/ezHr5yEG Plastic Oceans Europe