By DIVE Staff
Healthy Seas, a charity founded in 2013 to combat the rise in abandoned, lost and discarded ‘ghost’ fishing gear, has won the Best Environmental Film Category for its short documentary Journey to Ithaca at the Cannes World Film Festival – Remember the Future.
Directed by Michael Westreicher, the 15-minute film tells the story of the biggest cleanup of ghost gear so far undertaken by Healthy Seas and its partners, following the bankruptcy of an abandoned fish farm island of Ithaca in Greece, that for ten years was wreaking havoc to the marine environment.
Local environmentalist George Lilas decided to do something about it and published photos of the catastrophe on social media. Lilas caught the attention of Healthy Seas, which was able to mobilise funding and partners to help restore the area.
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Volunteers removed seventy-six tons of marine litter in just eight days, both underwater and at the surface.
Conducted under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Maritime Affairs, and financing provided by Hyundai Motor Europe, the cleanup initiative that inspired Journey to Ithaca was supported by a number of different partners, including Ghost Diving, Enaleia, Kefalonia Fisheries, the Hellenic Coast Guard, and the dive centres Odyssey Outdoor Activities, Aquatic Scuba Diving Club and Scubalife.
‘Being part of this project was an eye-opening experience for me. I have dived all over the world, but nowhere have I seen such devastation to the marine environment caused by human negligence. I hope that this award will help raise awareness about pollution and inspire many to take action,’ said Journey to Ithaca‘s director, Michael Westreicher.
First hosted in 2021, the Cannes World Film Festival – Remember the Future is an award encompassing all worldwide IMDb-qualifying genres for international filmmakers, dedicated to feature films, short films, indie, documentaries, experimental, animations, music videos, commercials, TV/web series and other.
The organisers say the ‘Luciole d’Or’ (Golden Firefly), the symbol of the Cannes World Film Festival, is ‘on a mission to unearth rare gems, highlighting a New Generation of emerging talents and a Future Wave of Filmmakers deserving greater visibility and recognition.’
