Presenting our work at the EnviroFest Eco-marketplace was transformative for our organisation. The supporters, opportunities and media coverage gained are enabling us to work in new directions and on a much larger scale.
Informing minds, engaging hearts, changing behaviour
Established in 2018, our Tunisian Film Festival has delivered annual screenings to an audience of over 9,000 people, partnering with over 80 organisations, and catalysing the ground swell of engagement on environmental issues, including playing an instrumental part in the banning of single use plastics in Tunisia.
Festival Overview
EnviroFest International partnered with Hisham Ben Khamsa and the Tunisian Cinema Foundation (TCF) team to deliver EnviroFest Tunisia, our pilot festival.
With an opening night at the prestigious Cité de la Culture in Tunis, the festival spans four days with film screenings, debates, workshops, cultural events and the eco-marketplace. It continues with a roadshow visiting some 15 additional cities and towns, and an educational programme with local schools, universities and summer camps.
In 2021 EnviroFest Tunisia ran its first independent festival, working successfully within local Covid guidelines.
Lasting Impact
In 2018/19 EnviroFest was at the forefront of the fight against plastic pollution in Tunisia. With the aim of accelerating understanding and action on this issue, we ran 25 events screening 2 powerful documentaries on plastic pollution.
Partners ranged from the British Embassy and the Ministry of Environment to grass roots organisations, high schools and the general public. In addition, we facilitated technical meetings between British and Tunisian waste management experts.
Attendees and partners in these events went on to launch their own plastics campaigns (including the filming of a Tunisian documentary on plastics) which bolstered the ground swell of political and public opinion that resulted in the passing of a bill to ban single use plastics in 2020.
Festival Outcomes
New Audiences
Award-winning documentaries
- 100% of the films we screen are national premieres and during the Tunisia Festival 75% were Africa wide premieres.
- Typically around 75% of the films are translated into native languages, maximising the films potential reach.
- Following the Tunisian pilot, 83% of survey respondents found the films highly relevant, engaging, and entertaining.
Maximising Partner outreach
Audience engagement
- The Eco-marketplace provides a unique platform for partners to reach new and motivated audiences. Building on theories of social change, this platform maximises active audience participation on any given issue.
- In the 2018 festival 100% of marketplace participant organisations experienced substantial increases in outreach and engagement.
- Post-screening panel debates provide a bridge between the public and key influencers, experts, diplomats and elected officials, as well as helping to break down silos that tend to separate those same experts, diplomats and officials.
Amplifying local voices
Media: national and local
- In 2019, EnviroFest events and partners caught media attention in newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, and television spots on over 40 local and national platforms.
- The Eco-marketplace exposes the messages of local partner NGOs to new audiences and the media, with 30% on average receiving media coverage for the first time, creating a lasting legacy.
- Media workshops with international guests build capacity for students and civil society groups to engage audiences through visual media.
Grass roots to grass tops
Collaboration across sectors
- Collaboration is at the heart of every event. A typical festival involves 150 people from over 80 partner organisations: filmmakers, environmental experts, ambassadors and journalists to civil society groups, students and city mayors.
- This diversity delivers new audiences and new partnerships for local stakeholders and international organisations alike. These relationships lead to project partnership opportunities.
Climate change and the environment rarely feature in Tunisian media....EnviroFest gives them something to write about!