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| (Image Source: Facebook/Batangas Provincial Information Office) |
The United States Embassy in partnership with SM Cares, SM Cinema, American
Film Showcase and the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) held a
special screening of the documentary film A Plastic Ocean inside one of the
cinemas in SM City Batangas last June 28, 2019 in celebration of World Oceans Month.
The event is also part of SM Cares' Green Film Festival, a series of free screenings
of educational films and documentaries about the environment, climate change
and disaster risk reduction.
As reported on the official Facebook page of the Provincial Information
Office by Mark Jonathan M. Macaraig, the screening was graced by students and
teachers from different schools in the province of Batangas and representatives
of non-government organizations and local government units as well as officials
of the Batangas Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office, Provincial
Environment and Natural Resources Office and Provincial Information Office. It culminated
with an open forum moderated by US Embassy Cultural Affairs Specialist Florabel
Aureus and US Embassy Environment Expert Marian Cruz which shares insights on
awareness and the importance of environmental activism.
A Plastic Ocean is a documentary film that revolves around the
alarmingly negative effects of plastic consumption around the world, especially
the oceans and marine animals. The film showcased how plastic affects the food
chain which led to the surge of new human health-related problems as well as
the effects of plastic from food packaging to smoke coming from burned plastic.
The audience was awed and saddened by the death of animals living in ocean beds
and near the ocean floor after eating plastic as the film strongly shows pieces
of plastic found in the stomachs of dead animals based on extensive research.
The last part of the documentary film tackles the importance of recycling as it
features a new modern process called Pyrolysis where plastic waste can be converted
into sources of energy.
