RFC film screening brings to focus humanity’s impact on planet

AMMAN — The award-winning documentary film “Anthropocene: A Human Epoch”, screened at the Royal Film Commission (RFC) on Wednesday, highlighted the effects of human activity on the planet. 

The film was screened as part of the “Films about Humans and Our Plant” project, which is a collaborative effort with Greener Screen, an initiative providing workshops on sustainable production for filmmakers and sponsored by the Abul Hameed Shoman Foundation.

According to the RFC website, the 2018 Canadian documentary is an “intersection of art and science which depicts humanity’s massive re-engineering of the planet”.

Abeer Bayazidi, the Impact and Training Director at Greener Screen, told The Jordan Times that the reason they decided to show the documentary is because it helps viewers “see the bigger scale of things”. 

She added, “As humans we use earth as an economic resource, which it can be, however we are not using it sustainably.”

The RFC website also states that, “The filmmakers travelled to six continents and 20 countries to document the impact humans have made on the planet.” 

The documentary addresses a range of environmental issues, such as ivory trade, terraforming, deforestation and mineral extraction. 

Commenting on Jordan’s efforts towards sustainability, Abeer Bayazidi stated, “The Kingdom is moving towards a more sustainable energy grid year on year, but we must keep in mind the mineral extraction projects and the cost they have on not only Jordan’s microclimates, but on the world as a whole.”

The screening was also followed by a discussion where attendees were able to give their own insights on the climate crisis and discuss it with relevance to Jordan’s environment.

Zaid Ashour, a 19-year-old medicine student at Jordan University, attended the event and told The Jordan Times: “I think that it’s important that all of us take action against the climate crisis”, and also said, “personally, I think that as a country we need to change the way we use plastics”.

Jordan’s ranked as 2nd in the region, and 81st globally, on the Environment Performance Index (EPI) this month.