The Rubbish Film Festival started as a Meath based initiative, with Meath County Council and Createschool in 2015, it has continued to grow and is now being undertaken by TY students across the region.
The project invited TY students to take part in a 2-day workshop learning to brainstorm ideas, develop scripts, film and edit a 1 minute with an environmental theme – Climate, Biodiversity, Food, Water, Marine, Lifestyle, Waste, Litter etc. and the movies participate in the Rubbish Film Festival in each County and now on a national level also.
Cathaoirleach Cllr. Nick Killian noted that “Young people have a vested interest in looking after our environment, a wise person once said, ‘We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children and how right they were”.
Continuing the Cathaoirleach added “Thankfully in recent years our understanding of the importance of our relationship with mother earth has grown and it is safe to say that we now understand how important it is to protect the planet on which we live. There has never been so much emphasis on or investment in waste management, recycling, litter, biodiversity, fast fashion, climate action, renewable energy, sustainability, marine and air pollution. We have the budget, we have the tools, we have the knowledge and the solutions – But we must pick up the pace.”
This message was echoed in the 1-minute movies created by TY students across each of the counties. Ashbourne Community School took the top prize in Meath, with their challenging movie on Fast Fashion, Colaiste na Mi took the well-deserved runner up prize with their thought-provoking movie ‘Morning Routine’ and Boyne Community School won the award for Best Poster – ‘Tree of Life’.
Kildare Community School won the overall National Award, with Ashbourne’s Fast Fashion taking the runner up spot. The National Poster Award was won by Monkstown CBC.
All of the movies and posters, together with past entries will be available on Rubbish Film Festival website www.rubbishfilmfestival.com.
The project runs each year and schools who are interested in participating next year should contact environment@meathcoco.ie.
