Mission & Activities
Sustainable Living Film Festival was initiated by a group of committed and passionate friends in 2008 to raise awareness around the concept of sustainability. The Festival is touching on different aspects of sustainability through screening inspiring documentaries. It invites people to hope and commonsense, by presenting efforts, thought systems, actions, teachings, new levels of consciousness and the vision towards sustainable living around the world.
What is notable about the festival is not solely limited by the documentaries. Colorful side events with guest speakers, musicians, etc, the festival’s function of creating a platform to meet, its sustainability conscious supporters and the very process of the festival production make the festival a significant example.
To better pass the message, documentaries with holistic views, creative solutions and with a heartful story telling are chosen.
The first film festival in 2008 took place only in Istanbul with around 1.500 visitors. Last year in 2014, it was held concurrently in 11 cities presenting 20 documentaries to 10.000 visitors, with 81 guest speakers and 20 performance groups. The festival in 2014 has been organized by a core team of 3 with the support of many other volunteers; with a very humble budget.
This year, they aim to organize the festival in 20 cities concurrently, by empowering activist groups to be able to organize Sustainable Living Film Festival in their cities. They help the local teams with a guide explaining in detail on how to organize this festival, and help them through out the process.
Sustainable Living Collective is not an official association; it's a product of friends that came together to realize projects in a collective manner. It has an open and flexible structure that values diversity and invites individuals and institutions to join in various ways. It is an entirely private undertaking and does not have a legal status. On the other hand; founders of Sustainable Living Film Festival and some volunteers of the festival has recently established an NGO to be able to access further funding when necessary.
Main figures & Metrics
| # visitors | # cities | # films | # volunteers | Budget (TL) | |
| 2012 | 2.500 | 2 | 28 | 35 | 14.000 |
| 2013 | 3.000 | 2 | 20 | 37 | 14.000 |
| 2014 | 10.000 | 11 | 20 | 45+78 local teams | 20.000 |
Source of funds
The funding is coming approximately 50% from NGOs and 50% from corporate; and some in-kind support.
Supporters of 2014 as an example can be found here http://www.surdurulebiliryasam.org/festival-2014/organizasyon
