Environmental Films at PFS Philadelphia Film Festival

Becoming Cousteau
Director Liz Garbus | 2021 | USA

Throughout the 20th Century, renowned oceanographer Jacques Cousteau inspired the entire world to look beyond the horizon and into the blue abyss. His charismatic persona and iconic red cap were synonymous with deep sea adventures and daring documentaries about Earth’s true final frontier. Liz Garbus’s Becoming Cousteau delights audiences through never-before-released archival footage from the legendary Cousteau vault. The remarkable reels capture the brave crew of the Calypso as they laze about the ship decks, goof around, and delve into unknown worlds. Yet beneath Cousteau’s fearless demeanor, Garbus finds a conflicted man braving family tragedy and loss as he comes to terms with the devastating effects that man’s interventions, and even his own work, have had on the world he loves.

• Wednesday, Oct. 20 / 6:00 pm / PFS Bourse A
• Thursday, Oct. 21 / 3:30 pm / Philadelphia Film Center

Costa Brava, Lebanon
Director Mounia Akl | 2021 | Lebanon, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Qatar

Perched in the mountains near the Lebanese coast, the utopic compound built by the Badri family feels worlds away from the trash and unrest of Beirut. And that’s exactly how Soraya (Nadine Labaki) and Walid (Saleh Bakri) would like to keep it. But to their distress, the Badris’ paradise is threatened by the ominous arrival of a giant statue of the nation’s president on the lot next to their home, heralding a new landfill meant to alleviate Beirut’s mounting trash management crisis. With their water and air toxically polluted, the tight-knit clan is forced to re-evaluate whether to stay and fight or return to civilization. Director Mounia Akl has created an indelible picture of a nation finding its way forward in the face of governmental corruption and environmental collapse.

• Monday, Oct. 25 / 3:30 pm / PFS Bourse A 
• Thursday, Oct. 28 / 6:15 pm / PFS Bourse C

Cow
Director Andrea Arnold | 2021 | UK

Famous for capturing the conflicting spirit of youth in revolt, internationally acclaimed filmmaker Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, American Honey) surprises with her most compassionate and arresting film yet in this year’s Cannes Film Festival favorite Cow. Filmed exclusively from the low-to-ground perspective of its bovine stars, this sublime, experiential documentary follows the routines of mother cow Luma and her newborn calf, immersing the viewer into a world never seen before in cinema.

• Monday, Oct. 25 / 7:00 pm / Drive In B 
• Wednesday, Oct. 27 / 6:15 pm / PFS Bourse B

Whether The Weather Is Fine
Director Carlo Francisco Manatad | 2021 | Philippines, France, Singapore, Indonesia, Germany, Qatar

DescCarlo Francisco Manatad’s singular, disturbing, and darkly comedic debut feature captures the bizarre nature of a world in which climate change's impact on extreme weather has become an everyday concern. Miguel (Daniel Padilla) wakes up one day in a roofless house, surrounded for miles around by rubble,. This isn’t the aftermath of some hypothetical nuclear Armageddon, it’s the Filipino city of Tacloban circa 2013, when most of the city was leveled by Typhoon Haiyan. Miguel, his tenacious girlfriend Andrea (Rans Rifol), and Miguel’s devout mother Norma (Charo Santos) must decide whether to get out together or follow their own paths, while all around them, their fellow survivors respond to the devastation in ways both comprehensible and utterly bizarre. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, Manatad injects the film with a destabilizing jolt of pitch-black humor and Felliniesque surrealism, calling attention to the inherent absurdity of real life at a time when, as one minor character says, “nothing makes sense anymore.”

• Wednesday, Oct. 27 / 1:15 pm / Philadelphia Film Center
• Thursday, Oct. 28 / 3:45 pm / PFS Bourse B