On September 20, the T&T Film Festival joined with Sustain T&T's Green Screen for a co-screening of the documentary film The Absent House, at the Little Carib Theatre.
The joint screening also featured a panel discussion on the topic of sustainable architecture.
The film The Absent House (La Casa Ausente) looks at the work of pioneering green architect Fernando Abruña Charneco and his flagship work, a house that is completely self-sustaining, leaving almost no carbon footprint. The house is off the grid, with complete solar power, rainwater harvesting and recycling, as well as a compost toilet. In the ten years since its construction, the Absent House has become a powerful argument for sustainable architecture, a release said.
Green Screen, the Environmental Film Series, now in its fourth year, screens movies on topics like climate change and sustainable development at venues around the country. While this was not the first time Sustain T&T and the TTFF have teamed up, it will be their first co-screening during the festival itself.
After the film, architect Mandilee Newton of the T&T Green Building Council, architect Jenifer Smith and Sustain T&T Advisory Board member architect Gillian Fraser discussed the film with members of the audience.
Sustain T&T director Carver Bacchus also drew a door prize, the winner of which received two tickets to attend the gala launch of Green Screen 2014 on October 28.
Green Screen partners include the German Embassy, Atlantic, the Council for Competitiveness and Innovation and the Economic Development Board. Mandilee Newton noted that most home builders in T&T seek to build large structures. She said if we “live a little smaller,” with an emphasis on less consumption, we can reduce our negative environmental impact. She said instead of viewing the earth in terms of a natural resource, we should consider “natural capital” to better appreciate its precious and finite nature.
Jenifer Smith said there were several buildings in T&T that, like the Absent House, featured rain harvesting and complete solar power. She said the panellists had not heard of Abruña’s work before previewing the film, and noted that Caribbean people could learn a lot from each other as they face many of the same climate challenges, despite speaking different languages.
One audience member made the point that the region’s first inhabitants had found harmonious building solutions that worked well with the Caribbean climate. The designers agreed that older homes featured more of these solutions—like open courtyards, high ceilings and jalousie windows—and were more sustainable than newer constructions that rely on airconditioning. They urged more lobbying for sustainable design on the larger, institutional level, for schools, etc. Newton noted that because electricity is cheap (actually subsidised) in T&T, we do not feel the need to think about solutions for lighting and energy use. Smith said we often do not see how our building choices impact our lives, for example we construct buildings all the way to the edge of our boundaries, then wonder why we suffer from flooding.
The architects urged audience members to lobby for more sustainably built structures, especially in the public sphere.
They said education was key in this regard. Newton said her organisation, the T&T Green Building Council, is involved with I Am, a project involving Standard Three and Four students, along with the Ministry of Water Resources and the Environment. Bacchus said Sustain T&T is also involved with an educational project for schools.
The Green Screen Environmental Film Festival 2014 will run from October 28 to November 7 and will feature free screenings at venues including San Fernando Hill, Digicel IMAX, UWI and the Point Fortin Library.