In the fourth installment of our Cannes Conversation Series, we look at the importance of sustainability. The future of the screen industry depends on consciously changing how we approach filming as well as telling stories that look at the world in a new way. At the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, Gemma Creagh caught up with Ecoprod’s Alissa Aubenque, a producer and Green Film Production Expert about changes in production that can be made that make a real difference.
Following this, filmmaker and WFT member Maeve Stone walks with producer and activist Helene Granqvist about the ins and outs of developing sustainable narratives and the intersectionality of activism and art.
This podcast has been made possible with the support of the Screen Ireland Stakeholder Fund.
About Maeve Stone
Maeve is a director / writer for film and theatre whose work responds to issues of climate breakdown, and revisits the canon with a feminist lens. She is artivist-in-residence with Project Arts Centre through 2022, editing a limited run publication called “How Do We Start?”, providing mentorship through RHIZOME and facilitating a pilot project called Roots For The Future, a radical climate thinking group for and by artists. Through her practice as an artist, activist and curator Maeve will work with Project Arts Centre on a creative journey as Project begins to explore how they can approach a more sustainable way of existing in the world and how they can support artists to lead the way; collaborating and bringing their dynamic skills to bear on a problem we cannot avoid. She is lead artist for axis Ballymun’s Green Arts Department facilitating a series of events that reach out into the community and raise awareness of Green Issues. In 2021 she co-founded a film and media company called Cracking Light Productions with her partner Alex Gill. Looking for moments that capture something true, sometimes messy and sometimes composed, these projects are always focused on building connections. In film Maeve has just completed her second short film The Last Harvest which included a pilot in sustainable short film making supported by Creative Ireland and Clare County Council. She was awarded Screen Ireland’s position as shadow director October 2018 on Wildfire – upcoming debut from Cathy Brady. In June 2019 she shot her first short film The House Fell which premiered at Cork Film Festival and was selected by Fastnet Festival, Kerry International Film Festival, The Richard Harris International Film Festival and Achill Island Film Festival.
In theatre most recently she composed original music for The Wrens by Dan Colley. In 2019 she wrote and co-directed an interdisciplinary work called Bodies of Water with Eoghan Carrick, visual artist Jonah King and artist Una Kavanagh, UNWOMAN Part III with radical feminist theatre company THE RABBLE (Australia), The Mouth of a Shark – a song cycle about migration – with Change of Address and THE SHITSTORM: a riot grrrl sequel to The Tempest, Abbey Theatre-Fringe Co-Production which debuted as part of Dublin Fringe at The Peacock September 2017.
About Helene Granqvist
Helene Granqvist is a prize-winning producer who has worked with film and television for more than 30 years. She studied Production Design at Statens Teaterskole (1984-1988) in Copenhagen and worked as a production designer all through the 1990’s. In 2000 she co-founded the production company Good World AB (today Good Film & Post), and began to work as a producer. In 2011 she founded the production company Nordic Factory (previously DoDream) based on the vision of connecting ideas with resources, and the communication of sustainable values – socially, culturally, economically and ecologically. Since her time at Good, she has produced a dozen documentaries, as well as many short films, a number of feature films, a web TV channel, and a documentary TV series. She also work as an international pitch coach. Nordic Genre Boost, Nordic Talents, Nordic Film Market, Film Greenland. Baltic Powr Event, Super 16, Royal Jordan Film Commission and Balkan Film Market are some of them she’s been working for. Since 2013 Helene has been President of WIFT Sweden and between 2018-2023 also President of Women in Film & Television International.
