Every year A.S. Adventure and Go Pro reward innovative, ecological and sustainable thinking. The Nature Award is an initiative that invites people to think reflectively about the world we live in and about what matters for the world still to come. This year the Nature Award was assigned to Tine Verbist who had a strong message to share about and from the bees.
The Nature Award is a competition powered by Go Pro and A.S. Adventure that challenges people to make a Go Pro short film (max. 2 minutes). The short film should represent and bring alive on screen how urban living and nature can come together in a sustainable society. The creator of the short film that according to the jury deserves most to win the Nature Award is rewarded 10 000 euros.
This year the bees were put into the spotlights and captured the amazement of the jury. Tine Verbist’s short film “The Echo of the Bees” is a compilation of moving images that features the bees as hard laboring organisms in their microenvironment; an environment that is fundamentally important to how we live and breathe on our planet that seems so much larger and stronger. Our planet might seem large and strong, so that the bees seem insignificant, but these little organisms are crucial for the survival of the image that we have of the world as it is lived today. It is unthinkable to see a future for our planet that is not radically different from present reality without the strenuous efforts of those little bees.
What makes the short film not just an important message to the world but also an extraordinary artistic creation is the combination of beautiful images and spoken words that sound like music. As you watch this short film you hear a voice citing the honey sweet poem by Willem Maes called “We Thought You Would Always”. All of this makes Tine Verbist’s “The Echo of the Bees” the deserved winner of the Nature Award 2015. I invite you all to go and take a look at natureaward.be.
A city beekeeper in Ghent proves that bees and urban living can conjoin and help create a sustainable world also. Apicula is a private initiative that will, during the years to come, populate the roofs of the center of the city with bees. Be sure to taste their honey once. It is a natural good that is both healthy and sweet.
If you have your own idea for a short film, I hope you consider sending in your creation for the Nature Award 2016. Do not hold back! For every voice raised for nature is a voice with a message worthy of being heard. All the rules for sending in your short film can be found on the Nature Award website.