TEC's Waste Not

TEC's Waste Not

Director: Ruth Hessey
Synopsis: Along with several other environmentalists, TEC's Director of Communications, Ruth Hessey, who wrote and directed Waste Not, has been named one of the(Sydney)magazine's Top 100 most influential, creative and inspiring people of 2011. The special Top 100 issue was launched by Peter Fray, editor in chief and publisher, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Michelle Hurley, editor the(Sydney)magazine, last night at a glamorous cocktail party at the Star Complex in Pyrmont.

'When we were struggling to finish the film on a very small budget last year, we never dreamed it would reach so many people," said Ms Hessey, of the art house film about garbage, which was executive produced by TEC'S Executive Director, Jeff Angel, and produced by Sophie Alstergren.

'We are very proud of the film, and of Ruth for her persistence and commitment," said MR Angel.

Waste Not's positive, inspirational tone, and lush visual style led Qantas to acquire the film for both its domestic and international inflight entertainment programs. It has also been an unexpected hit in an industry better known for dry facts and figures.

'We could see the environment message was being drowned in a sea of technical jargon and fear of change," recalls Ms Hessey, 'so it was really designed to capture people's imaginations and bring about that light bulb moment of – ok, I can do this! It's not that hard to move to more sustainable ways of living."

Waste Not has been accepted into many prestigious film festivals around the world, including the Festival de Cannes Short Film Corner in France, The Rodos Eco-film Festival in Greece, The Barcelona International Environment Film Festival in Spain, as well as The Dungog, Byron Bay, St Kilda, Footprint and Melbourne Environment Film Festivals in Australia; the World Bank Environmental Film Festival Argentina; the Costa Rica Environment Film Festival; Ile de France Environmental Film Festival, Paris; La Femme Film Festival, Los Angeles; Trailer Film Festival LA, and the touring Scinema (CSIRO) Film Festival. In January it was also Highly Commended in the International Greenflick's program at Flickerfest International Short Film Festival 2011.

Waste Not was partly funded by City of Sydney to explore how recycling will help Australians transition to a sustainable future. Music for the film was composed by Peter Fenton (Praise, Crow), along with a beautiful track from Chris Abrahams (The Necks). Aden Young edited, with cinematography by Bonnie Elliott.

The film cites an army of truck drivers, scientists, environmentalists, gardeners and even a famous chef, who are all working to transform the mountains of stuff we throw away into something valuable again.

Website: www.tec.org.au/waste-a-recycling