Making a splash at Copenhagen
Producer Bettina Richter reflects on the reception of her short environmental film Aqua at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last month.
“We had a great reception for the film in Copenhagen, despite the disappointing outcome of the United Nations conference,” Richter told Encore. 
“Whilst the world’s decision at the conference fell far short of many people’s hopes, the message of our film went out far and wide in Copenhagen.”
Aqua is the brainchild of Richter and director Toni Houston (and the NSW-based production company Wish Bone Films). It was the only Australian event to be selected for the official Cultural Program of the UN conference in Copenhagen. The film fuses the underwater cinematography of David Hannan with the percussive beats of one of Europe’s dance acts Safri Duo, to tell the wordless history of the Great Barrier Reef.
“The reef is under threat from climate change, with many scientists conceding that one of Australia’s greatest living treasures could be dead as soon as 2050. Our film is an underwater Baraka, the chronicle of a world in peril,” said Richter.
“It was shown on multiple screens, one of them at one of the biggest clubs in Copenhagen, with a live performance from Safri Duo. The 350-plus strong crowd stood and watched the entire film, with many dancing and applauding at the end of each chapter. The screening fell in the middle of a fraught week in Copenhagen, and uplifted the crowd, many of whom had been in tough negotiations most of the day.”
The filmmakers hope that the 23-minute preview edition of Aqua, recently previewed at Parliament House in Canberra, will help them attract distributors and investors for the full feature film, which they hope to roll out to cinemas in early 2011.
