Roughly 500 high school, college students, and teachers from different schools in Dumaguete had the chance to watch science films organized by the Department of Science & Technology through the Science Education Institute and Goethe Institut—Manila.
The schools who participated in the Festival were Foundation University, Negros Oriental State University, and Silliman University. The screening of the science films spanned from Nov. 8 to Dec. 16.
The Festival was a showcase of science films from all around the world to coincide with the UN International Year of Light. It aimed to promote science literacy, and facilitated awareness of contemporary scientific, technological, and environmental issues through the medium of film and television content, as it presented films that explain scientific issues accessibly, and entertainingly to a broad audience.
The roster of this year’s festival was composed of 44 science films from Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, US, and the Philippines. The films were reviewed and selected by a local selection committee made up of representatives from DOST, the UN International Year of Light point of contact, the Mind Museum, the Philippine Society of Youth Science Clubs, the ABS-CBN Knowledge Channel, Museo Pambata, and the University of the Philippines Astronomical Society.
An initiative of Goethe-Institut, the first-ever Science Film Festival was held in Thailand in 2005 and has grown considerably since, meanwhile becoming the largest event of its kind worldwide in terms of audience reach with 750,000 visitors in 14 countries from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. The Philippines hosted the festival for the seventh time this year, and is poised to break last year’s record of over 100,000 viewers. (Sean AdrianGuardiano/DOST)
