The Watunna Venezuela association is pleased to launch the official announcement for AMAZINE 2023.

 

Emphasizing that AMAZINE is a registered trademark in France lobbying a non-profit platform to disseminate and exhibit, to produce film festivals and film forums, to publish, podcast, perform colloquiums, contests, events and presentations about Venezuela and the Venezuelan idiosyncrasy focused on environmental contingencies, the crisis, projects and also positive solutions for Venezuela and the world. The objectives are entirely cultural and of environmental activism and conservation.

 

PROPOSAL:

 

The Watunna Venezuela association launches the second edition of AMAZINE, "International Short Film Contest", this year named “Environment in Venezuela: Crisis and Solutions”.

With the aim of drawing attention to the serious situation in Venezuela in the face of the effects of illegal extractivism, the effects of climate change, the inexistence of a risk prevention plan, in the face of extreme weather events, rains, floods and landslides, added to the deforestation, loss of biodiversity, river pollution, among others.

The contest seeks to support and promote the development of talents in the area of audiovisual and cinematographic creation.

The target is to produce touching artistic works that can move citizens, focusing the talent of the creators in two directions to choose from: on one side to show the Amazon and many other natural and urban spaces of the Venezuelan geography that are environmentally impacted and degraded. On the other side to present the Venezuelan environment and ecology “in positive”, i.e. the diverse urban, rural, and forestry ecosystems, scientific and biodiversity conservational projects under development, urban area reestablishment, evidences of areas under recovery and show improvements and solutions.

 

JUSTIFICATION:

 

Venezuela's environmental challenges for the year 2023 are enormous. Problems that are worsening and with occurrences not limited to the south of the Orinoco river.

We know, thanks to experts, that the need to control illegal mining in the Amazon continues to be imperative. That we must insist on the defense of protected areas: national parks, biosphere reserves, forest reserves and indigenous communities and their ancestral knowledge, increasingly besieged by new constructions for mining extraction, miners and people belonging to different irregular armed forces that endanger national sovereignty.

 

There are also the “positive” conservational projects, of natural areas and biodiversity recovery, of support and defense of the indigenous communities, and restauration of urban spaces, among many others.

Initiatives such as AMAZINE seek to obtain information through images and testimonies in a country like Venezuela where there are no official publications that show figures and data on environmental issues. Without this data it is very difficult to make predictions and plan actions.

 

According to a report by the Clima21ddhh organization, 199 oil spills occurred in Venezuela from 2016 to 2021, 80 of these in 2022 alone. And the incidence increases as does misinformation, and disregard for international treaties and laws on human rights and environmental management and conservation.

 

In another Clima21ddhh report: "Disappearing Forests. Deforestation in Venezuela, 2016-2021" exposes that "Venezuela is the country with the greatest acceleration in the loss of natural forests, with respect to data from previous years". The figure of 49,000 deforested hectares is very critical and not very encouraging. Forests are ecosystems of enormous ecological, economic and social value. And if we talk about the great Amazon forest, the importance is global.

 

Other environmental contingencies related to deforestation and climate change are torrential rains, floods and landslides. In a country that is the only one in South America that does not have an official risk prevention plan. Due to extreme rains and landslides, at least a hundred people died in Venezuela in 2022 and numerous states throughout the country were affected. The reactivation of hydrometeorological stations is crucial to save lives in the prospect of future rainfalls.

 

In an investigation by Runrun.es journalist Joshua De Freitas, he explains that "28% of the Venezuelan territory is exposed to a high flood potential" and 52.33% of the Venezuelan population is exposed to floods and torrential landslides or mudslides".

Reasons enough to promote through AMAZINE a short film contest that speaks to us and shows us the enormous vulnerability of the Venezuelan territory and its inhabitants, ecosystems and natural resources and, parallelly, “in positive” actions and projects that exist under execution demonstrating the certain possibility to favorably change the situation.

 

The solutions to many of the country's major environmental challenges lie in the commitment, activism and actions of universities, NGOs, indigenous communities, artists and film producers, in urban and rural projects, with broad participation of the civil society.

Venezuela owns a "Natural Capital" of paramount value that requires swift intervention. To show, understand and defend it, is one of the paramount challenges of AMAZINE.

 

CONTEST RULES

 

PARTICIPANTS:

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• People of any age and of any nationality may participate in the contest. Those who are minors at the time of registration must have the authorization of a legal guardian and must provide their information in the registration form.

 

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE SHORT FILMS:

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• The short films presented may be recorded with any recording device: mobile phone camera, digital camera, action camera, tablet, camcorder, etc., and can then, if desired, be edited with external tools, they must have a minimum HD quality for their partial or total reproduction and projection.

• Short films made from 2015 up until the deadline on October 15th ,2023 may participate.

• The shorts must be original: the creator must possess all the rights.

• Each short film submitted to the contest must have a title, author, screenwriter, director and all property rights.

• All short films must be subtitled in English. They must have a maximum duration of 30 minutes, including the credits.

• The file formats can be MOV, MPEG4, AVI, WMV, MP4.

• Each contestant can submit a maximum of 2 shorts. The subject of the short will be about the environment in Venezuela, crisis and solutions. Covering this year the whole venezuelan national territory from the city up to the forest and from caos and devastation up to successful conservation, management programs of biodiversity in natural and urban areas.

 

REGISTRATION:

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The registration period is open and will end on October 15th ,2023 at 6:00 p.m. This period may be extended if the organization deems it appropriate.

Registration will be made through the contest website www.watunna.org, by filling out the registration form and sending the short film through it. In the event that the short film exceeds 2 GB and it’s creator does not want It compressed, it must be sent directly to the contest organization through WeTransfer or by post to the address: Association Watunna Venezuela: 86 Avenue de la Madeleine , Res. Grand Angle, A43, 34070 Montpellier, France.  Or to watunnavenezuela@gmail.com

It is necessary to fill out an application for each short film submitted.

 

Watunna Venezuela understands that whoever registers as a participant holds the full rights to the work, and will  be able to broadcast it and therefore exempts THE ORGANIZER from all responsibilities derived from this point. These total rights include the soundtrack and authorization to use the image of the actors / participants and / signed authorization from guardians in the event that minors appear in the short film.

 

Likewise, the participant authorizes the Watunna Venezuela association to broadcast the short film by any audiovisual medium (social networks, TV, streaming, indoor and outdoor projection). The short films may be reproduced and disseminated on any platform that the Watunna association deems relevant, only for advertising purposes of the contest and without any profit motivation.

After verifying that the registered works comply with the terms of use and the bases, Watunna Venezuela will contact the participant to confirm that their short film has been admitted to the contest.

 

Watunna Venezuela reserves the right of not accepting pieces that, according to the aforementioned criteria, damage the good image and reputation of the Watunna association or do not meet the artistic, technical and / or legal conditions required.

The submission of a short film to the contest necessarily implies the full and unconditional acceptance of these rules by the contestant as well as:

 

The consent of the participant to disclosure. The short films may be reproduced and disclosed on any platform that the Watunna association deems relevant, only for advertising purposes of the contest and without any profit motivation.

 

• The guarantee by the applicant with full indemnity. The Watunna Venezuela association trusts the legality and authorship of the participants and their works and at no time is responsible for any usurpation of identity, copy or total or partial modification of any other foreign work or own pre-existing or non-copyrighted works.  

• Requests made outside the dates established herein, or incomplete requests will not be taken into account.

• Issues not established in this paper shall be resolved by the organizers of the contest.

• If the short film has been made by several authors, only one application must be made and it must include: name, date of birth and ID. Passport of the rest of the authors must be provided in the co-authors section.

• The participants will declare that they accept the processing of the personal data necessary for the management of the contest.

• The Organization recommends participants to fill out the registration with sufficient time, due to the possible network collapses that could occur when a high number of registrations coincide in the last days of the term. The Organization is not responsible for the consequences derived from this and can only admit registrations successfully sent through the form on the contest website.

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JURY:

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Alejandra Zseplaki, Budapest, Hungría.

John Márquez, Angoulême, Francia.

Alex Fergusson, Caracas, Venezuela.

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AWARD:

• A single prize Prize of 2,000 euros.

• The prize is unique regardless of the number of authors of the short.

• The prize can be declared void if the jury so decides.

• The decision of the jury is final.

 

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CONTEST PROCESS:

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• All works received that comply with the requirements described in this document and meet with a minimum quality and technical requirements, will enter the contest phase.

• The decisions of the Jury, including the final decision, will be decided by simple majority.

• The jury of the contest will view all the short films admitted to the contest and will issue its decision, awarding the established prizes.

• Once the contest is over, the organization will ask the winners to accredit all the data provided in the registration form, and the prizes will become effective after verification of said data.

• The jury's decision and the Audience Award will be published on the Contest website and its social networks.

 

GENERALITIES:

 

In no case will short films be accepted that do not respect human rights or democratic values, or that have offensive or disrespectful content towards individuals or groups.

Contestants are responsible to ensure that no music pieces presented are not subject to copyright by a third party, and that no image rights of other people are infringed upon, so they fall under fair use law, exempting the Organization from any type of responsibility.

In the event that an audio track is used with the recording of a sound that is owned by a record company without its permission, it is possible that, for legal reasons, the reproduction of the short on the web will be without sound and the short film may be removed from the contest.

The authors of the works assign to the Organization of the contest the non-commercial, non-exclusive rights or for particular projections: pedagogical, conferences ...) allowing for the reproduction and exhibition of the short film within the general framework of this contest, and even for future editions, as well as for publicity or promotion purposes, which will always be exercised with the recognition of its author, except if otherwise stated.

Any unforeseen event arising in relation to the development of the (Title of the film contest Sadfasdfasdfasdfasdf contest) of cinema that has not been covered in this document and with the special situation that we are experiencing as a result of the Covid 19 crisis in mind, will be resolved in accordance with the criteria of the organization. Likewise, the organization is not responsible for the poor or none reception of the materials.

Participation in this Contest implies full acceptance of its bases.

 

DATA PROTECTION:

 

In accordance with the new European Data Protection Regulation (RGPD 2016/679 of the European Parliament), and Organic Law 3/2018, of December 5, on the Protection of Personal Data and guarantee of digital rights, the personal data of the participants in ”Amazine” International short film contest entitled Marc de Civireux will become part of the association's database (sadfasdf) and will not be used for any other purpose than the management and promotion of said contest, nor will it be transferred to third parties without prior consent. Likewise, the rights of access, rectification, opposition and cancellation of the data can be exercised at any time through our contact:

sadfasdfasfd@asdfasdfasd.com

 

ASSIGNMENT OF RIGHTS, AUTHORSHIP AND LIABILITY:

 

• The registered Participant is solely responsible for the short and everything it includes (example: images and sounds of other authors). If any claim occurs, the participant must resolve any legal issue claimed.

• The Watunna Venezuela association declines all legal responsibility for the shorts and their content.

• Participation in the contest implies the free transfer of some rights in order to be able to reproduce, distribute and disseminate the works presented.

• By the mere fact of participating, the author of the short film assigns to Watunna Venezuela, free of charge, exclusively and for the whole world, the rights of reproduction, public communication and distribution of the short film or fragments thereof, for non-commercial purposes. so that the short film can be disseminated and broadcast through any medium and in any format, including websites as well as social networks and audiovisual platforms, for a two years limit

• The exercise of these rights will be exclusively for promotional and informative purposes without any lucrative objective.

• Any exploitation or commercial use of the short film, other than the one mentioned, will require the prior and express consent of the author.

• The act of participating, supposes that the bases are accepted in their entirety.

• The Watunna Venezuela association has the power to decide on unforeseen issues that may arise and that have not been included in these bases.

 

SINCERELY

Organizing Committee:

Committee president: Association Watunna Venezuela