Jon Bowermaster to be Guest of Honor at DREFF 2015

The Dominican Republic Environmental Film Festival (DREFF), and initiative of GFDD/Funglode, is honored and excited to announce filmmaker, author, and award-winning journalist Jon Bowermaster as a guest of honor at this year’s festival. Jon will be present at the screenings of his film Antarctica, On the Edge 3D, and will be leading a panel discussion at the Academy of Sciences in Santo Domingo. We are also excited to announce that
Bowermaster will be receiving an award of recognition for Inspirational Documentary Films.

A long-time friend of the DREFF, Bowermaster has produced 7 films, a television series, and numerous journal articles that focus on the importance of keeping our planet beautiful and safe. Also a noted ocean expert and long-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council, he is the founder of the Oceans Aid Project which is a ten-year long series of expeditions focused
around the world’s oceans.

A six‐time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council and award‐winning writer and filmmaker, Bowermaster has been on expeditions ranging from the Aleutian Islands to Vietnam, French Polynesia to Chile/Argentina/Bolivia, Gabon to Croatia, and Tasmania to Antarctica. Seeing the world from the seat of a sea kayak has given Bowermaster a one‐of‐a‐kind look at both the health of
the planet’s oceans and the lives of the nearly four billion people around the globe who depend on them.

Jon’s most recent documentaries are Terra Antarctica, Rediscovering the Seventh Continent, What Would Darwin Think? Man v. Nature in the Galapagos, and the prize‐winning SoLa, Louisiana Water Stories. His most recent films are Dear Governor
Cuomo, and Sink or Swim: Learning the Crawl in the Maldives. He is at work on a new film that takes a nationwide look at fracking, called Dear President Obama, due out in 2015.

Another recent film by Bowermaster, Antarctica, On the Edge 3D, will be showcased at DREFF this year.  From its place anchoring the bottom of the globe, Antarctica might seem too
frozen to have any impact on the rest of the planet. But, as shown in this 3D film, the very fact that it is constantly changing – the sea around it freezing and thawing every year – turns it into the planet’s beating heart, its rhythm intimately influencing the earth’s weather, ocean currents, and climate.

About the DREFF:
Since its creation in 2011, the Dominican Republic Environmental Film Festival (DREFF)- an initiative of Global
Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (Funglode) -has been providing Dominicans with a platform of knowledge and debate on the environment and sustainable development, along with its challenges and best practices while celebrating the unique beauty and wealth that is the Dominican Republic’s natural heritage.

With a diverse selection of films and numerous panels, workshops, seminars, and community
activities, the DREFF promotes dialogue and the exchange of knowledge and experience, inspiring Dominicans to adopt actions that contribute to the appreciation, conservation, and sustainable use of their environmental resources.

Watch the GFDD Global Roundtables discussion with Jon Bowermaster here.

More information:
www.dreff.org
www.oceans8films.com

DREFF app:
Apple (iTunes): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dreff/id1029535649?mt=8
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.sched.dominicanrepublicenvironmen2015

www.dreff.org / info@dreff.org
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