Concrete Coast (Costa di Cemento)
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by Robert Harding Pittman
Documentary | Spain / USA | 2009 | DV | 26 min.
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- Date
- thursday 7 july
- Location
- BAONE, Cà Orologio
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The documentary film "Concrete Coast" is about the social, cultural and environmental effects of the last bit of un-urbanized Spanish Mediterranean coast being built up for residential tourism in the Region of Murcia. Agriculture is disappearing along this 230 km long coastline and is being replaced by 60 golf courses, marinas, freeways and new large scale planned communities with 1,000,000 residences, built mainly for sunseeking British retirees, doubling the population of Murcia within few years. The impacts of these large-scale economic and political forces are illustrated by a Spanish farming family being expropriated of their land and a retired British couple embarking on their new life in a country where they do not even speak the language. How will all of this change the culture of the region? Will the populations integrate? Will these and other Spanish farmers have to emigrate? How will the global economic crisis affect the region?
Biography/Filmography:
The filmmaker grew up in Boston and Hamburg, the son of a German mother and American father. After taking his undergraduate and graduate degrees in environmental engineering, an area of concern that continues to inform his work, he received an M.F.A. in Photography and Film/Video at the California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts). His main interest is how different cultures interact with the environment and how they manage “development”. Currently he is living between Germany and Spain. In Germany he is working with CFF Films on a new documentary film about people being displaced by mining for non-renewable energy resources all across the globe. Actor and activist Martin Sheen will be collaborating in the film. In Spain he is working on his new photography book "Anonymization". ----- FILMOGRAPHY 2005 “HEUERSDORFER ERDE” (“COAL,EARTH,HOME”),Germany/USA Produced, directed and shot documentary about a village being threatened by destruction to make way for an open pit coal mine. Prize Winner-Catalonia International Environmental Film Festival–Spain. Mediterranean Environmental Award Festival - Turkey. Ekotopfilm International Festival – Slovakia. Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival – USA. Cinefest '07 - Miskolc – Hungary. International Lifestyle Film Festival – Hungary. Bursa International Silk Road Film Festival – Turkey, 2007. Cine'Eco Festival – Portugal, 2007. Fasai Cinevideo Festival – Brazil, 2008. Acquired by OVNI Archives-CCCB Barcelona – Spain, 2008. 2006 “OAK #419”, USA/Germany Produced, directed and shot documentary about a man living in an oak tree to try to save it from being cut down to make room for a highway. Stork Nest Grand Prix - Euroekofilmfestival - Bulgaria. (For “…the incredible story of one man’s sacrifice to protect an oak tree as the symbol of everything we have to protect.”) 2 Special Mentions of the Jury - Green Film Festival in Seoul – Korea, & Pärnu International Film Festival – Estonia. International Documentary Film Festival Flahertiana – Russia. Cine Eco Intl. Environmental Film and Video Festival – Portugal. Urban-TV- Intl. Festival on Urban Life and Ecology - Spain. Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival – USA. Kinoteatr DOC Festival – Russia. 2009 "CONCRETE COAST", SPAIN/USA
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- Direction
- Robert Harding Pittman
- Story
- Robert Harding Pittman
- Script
- Robert Harding Pittman
- Photography
- Robert Harding Pittman
- Editing
- Robert Harding Pittman
- Production
- RHPimages
- Web site
- www.rhpimages.com
