Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival 2020

Program 04 - GLOBAL SHORTS

Already unlocked? for access
After unlocking, you'll have 5 days to start watching. Once you begin, you'll have 72 hours to finish watching. Need help?

Your purchase of a ticket to Program 4 includes 7 films/extras.


Program sponsored by Climate Week at Penn and University of Pennsylvania School of Arts & Sciences. Learn more at: www.upenn.edu/climateweek

A Kashmiri man quits his job and embarks on a journey to become a shepherd. Six years later, he starts the Pashmina Goat Project – an NGO to protect the Changpa community and their goats from the harsh implications of climate change in Ladakh.



Director's Statement:

As urban India grows rapidly, the need has come for us to redefine the footprint of our jobs on the environment. But to swim against the current is not easy, especially in a society where money and status are given great value. Babar gave up a stable career in technology to protect a community and their animals from climate change. This is a drastic and heroic act. I wish for this film to provide a sense of hope, encouragement and solace to our young viewers who will need to safeguard the wild for future generations.

  • Year
    2019
  • Runtime
    16 minutes
  • Language
    English, Hindi, Kashmiri, Tibetan
  • Country
    India
  • Premiere
    May 15, 2018
  • Note
    Director Biography - Taira Malaney: Taira Malaney is an independent filmmaker from Goa, India. She received her BA in Psychology in 2013 at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and then returned to India to teach marine conservation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Here, she hosted regular film screenings to teach students about the marine world. Their positive response to this teaching method gave her insight into the power of film. Since then, she has been driven by the idea that film can be used as a tool to educate and inspire change. After completing a documentary film course at the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking in 2016, Taira returned to India and founded Emaho Films. Emaho is a creative video agency that produces short films intended to fascinate, evoke and transform. These are stories of individuals, NGOs and businesses that are having a transformative impact on our world - be it environment, health or social justice. Emaho is currently working on a five-part documentary series featuring ‘environmental heroes’ whose livelihoods have an immense and lasting impact on ecosystems or species in India. The intention is to encourage our youth to reflect about their abilities to benefit nature, and make choices to preserve it. The first film, 'A Living Legacy', was shot in late 2016. The story shares an intimate glimpse into the world of a couple who dedicated their life towards protecting the disappearing forests of the country by creating a 300-acre private wildlife sanctuary in the Western Ghats of India. It was screened at environmental film festivals in USA, Australia, Canada, and Europe and will be released in India in July. 'The Call of Pashmina' is the second film in the series.
  • Director
    Taira Malaney
  • Screenwriter
    Taira Malaney
  • Producer
    Jnana Foundation
  • Executive Producer
    The Malaney Family Foundation
  • Cast
    Babar Afzal
  • Cinematographer
    Krish Makhija, Sandeep Roy
  • Editor
    Taira Malaney, Dheer Kaku
  • Production Design
    Harsh Dandotiya
  • Composer
    Pruthu Parab
  • Sound Design
    Ilija Cvetkovski
  • Music
    Krishna Jhaveri (sound recordist)