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Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

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een organised by FoE since 2000,<br />

but <strong>the</strong> festival started back in 1993<br />

as a public meeting on wood-chipping,<br />

organised for <strong>the</strong> Wilderness Society by<br />

independent filmmaker Gary Cagan<strong>of</strong>f. It<br />

was held at <strong>the</strong> Teacher’s Federation in<br />

Sydney and consisted <strong>of</strong> speakers such<br />

as Bob Brown (<strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>n TAS Greens MP),<br />

Clover Moor (Independent NSW MP),<br />

Peter Thompson (Radio National) and<br />

Peter Treseder (a well-known adventurer).<br />

The night was used to launch “Tarkiner<br />

Paner”, a film Gary Cagan<strong>of</strong>f created for<br />

<strong>the</strong> World Heritage proposal <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Tarkine<br />

Wilderness in northwest Tasmania.<br />

A similar meeting was organised again<br />

<strong>the</strong> following year at <strong>the</strong> National Maritime<br />

Museum in Sydney. These two public<br />

meetings were named Wild Spaces. It<br />

was only after <strong>the</strong> second meeting that <strong>the</strong><br />

film festival idea began to take shape, with<br />

organisers realising <strong>the</strong> need for a vehicle<br />

that would carry all <strong>the</strong> environmental and<br />

social justice films that weren’t making<br />

it into <strong>the</strong> mainstream media. Gary<br />

contacted festivals in Sydney and around<br />

<strong>the</strong> world, ga<strong>the</strong>ring information and<br />

sourcing films. It eventually took a year<br />

and a half to see <strong>the</strong> first `Wild Spaces<br />

Environmental Film Festival’, screened<br />

in a converted Warehouse in Newtown,<br />

...................................................................................................................................................................................................<br />

Sydney in June 1996. It attracted almost<br />

600 people.<br />

Word <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> festival travelled around <strong>the</strong><br />

country and within six months Wild Spaces<br />

had screened in Melbourne, Byron Bay<br />

and Newcastle. The1998 Festival was<br />

held in Sydney at <strong>the</strong> <strong>Australia</strong>n Museum<br />

and attracted over a thousand people.<br />

The festival continued to grow and in 2000,<br />

<strong>Friends</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Australia</strong> became<br />

<strong>the</strong> national co-ordinating organisation<br />

with <strong>the</strong> help <strong>of</strong> many environmental and<br />

social justice groups, student networks<br />

and individuals taking on <strong>the</strong> role <strong>of</strong> coordinating<br />

Wild Spaces screening events<br />

in <strong>the</strong>ir own regions. The national coordination<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> festival was based in<br />

Melbourne from 2000 to 2002, and has<br />

been in Brisbane since 2003.<br />

The festival continues to expand, and<br />

in 2003 <strong>the</strong>re were over 30 screenings<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Wild Spaces program in all states<br />

and territories and covering a range <strong>of</strong><br />

cities and regional centres. In early 2004<br />

<strong>the</strong> decision was made for Wild Spaces<br />

to go bi-annual, allowing more time and<br />

energy to be put into <strong>the</strong> preparation and<br />

fundraising for <strong>the</strong> national festival.<br />

FoE 30 <strong>Years</strong> 126

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