Trimurti Eco Dance Festival

The time of festivals started in Russia like in other places. There are huge number of different events, open-airs throughout the country. I would like to point your attention on the quite unique one - Trimurti Eco Dance Festival. The dates 9-13 June. The place is somethere inside Golden Ring.
Buses from Moscow are available. The fests combines eco-activities and chill-out.

 

More info http://www.trimurtifestival.com

Anti-nuclear exibition.

VHUTEMAS Gallery hosted anti-nuclear exibition since April 26 till May 7.
25 artists created 29 posters as a memory of Chernobyl catastrophe.

 

Full report http://greenlab-media.livejournal.com/31723.html

Digital research

New hit of Russian Internet. The Girl expresses deep concern toward her boyfriend's Mac and Google total dependence. She proposes to visit real Earth instead of google Earth. Spectacular views of European part of Russia (perhaps Kozmodemyansk) as a background.

Eco-food

Here is the list of Russian internet-shops where eco-food can be ordered. By "eco-food" I mean fruites, vegetables, fish and meat, honey etc. which have been produced by small Russian farms (family farms) using mostly natural ways.

http://lavkalavka.ru/
http://salatshop.ru/post/5639625335/5
http://vse-svoe.ru/
http://eda-iz-derevni.ru/
http://bidonchik.ru/index.php

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dFJHQV9lZkdEVEJHRERTZEVobUtKbEE6MA

Social contrasts

New short documentary from Saint-Petersburg is about social contrasts and two different patterns of consumption. The authors follow the life of volunteers, who collect food from supermarkets' backyards in order to give it to homeless people, and the girl with Prada's shoes.

Sustainable living by New Russian cinema

New Russian cinema doesn't skip the sustainability topic as well. A lot of new festival movies reflect all difficulties existed in the relationship humans-nature. It would be useful to mention here several the most recent pieces with the greatest emphasis on sustainability issue:
1. "How I Ended This Summer" (2010). Beatiful Kamchatka's nature and daily life at polar station.

2. "The Wild field" (2008), Amazing asian prairies, folks and dialogues about the meaning of life.

3. The House of The Sun (2010). The story of Soviet hippies who travel to spectacular Crimea.

4. The Island (2006). Northern nature of Solovki island complemented by highly existential lines.

 

Parks project

There is no obligatory waste separation in Russia like in EU countries. However, more and more people want to practice this. Therefore, new experiment is being launched by the coalition of eco-NGOs. Now mobile waste stations with different fractions will be set up in 10 Moscow's parks and they can be used by people last Saturday of every month. This measure is aimed to attract the public attention to the problem of waste separation need in Russia. Hopefully, the same projects will be introduced to other cities as well.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=214478245239443

http://www.the-village.ru/flows/moscow-news/posts/107709-v-10-parkah-moskvy-poyavyatsya-mobilnye-punkty-razdelnogo-sbora-othodov

Hitchhiking through Russia

Hitchhiking is one of the most planet-friendly way of moving if you know rules and behave securily. From my experience, hh in Russia is much better and easier than in EU for-example. I have a lot of friends quite professional hitchhikers who rode the way Moscow-Vladivostok more than twenty times. It's very good method of penetration into Russian nature of Siberia and Far East. The tips can be easily found at hitchwiki or CS communities. There are a lot of video-advices as well. This one is not bad...


Автостоп. Москва - Сахалин. Часть 4. / Hitch hiking through the Russia/ Part 4. TV Show from ssedov on Vimeo.

Markus Rothkranz flew to Moscow

Ecolounge, third meeting

Ecolounge is a community of Russian eco-professionals and activists with regular meetings in on the Moscow cafes discussing  the range of environmental topics in informal atmospethere. On May 19 the Ecolounge had its third evening and the subject was "Healthy nutrition". Doctor, expert in narcology, Jacov Marshak presented his report about the mechanisms of food power.Usually such meetings host 30-40 people, and the invitation for the event is possible only through the request to somebody from the project's team (Egor Gogolev, Natalia Belova, Anna Krotova, Svetlana Larina,  Guy Eames).

http://ecolounge.ru/

http://eco-lounge.livejournal.com/

https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_168186046567115&ref=ts

H2O film festival

Eco-films festival "H2O" will be opened on May 20 in Moscow. Several documentaries are expected to be screened and it will be accompinied by various environmental master-classes and presentations. Entrance is free of money, but 1 kg of used paper should be delivered and left for recycling.
http://www.h2ofilmfest.ru/2011/ru/index

Cinema 35ММ.
Adress: Pokrovka street, 47
www.kino35mm.ru

Igor Shpilenok and his blog

Igor Shpilenok is a Russian nature photographer who currently lives in Kronotsky reserve located on Kamchatka. In his quite popular among Russian people blog http://shpilenok.livejournal.com/,
he described the daily life of animals inhabited the reserve, changes of seasons, the efforts to maintain the living despite inhospitable climate. Mostly, he makes an accent on the portraits of Kamchatka's beares and foxes.

Eco-beds in Puschino's garden

On May 15, 2011 some activists of Oxfam, clicr.ru, Three generation NGOs and locals met in the city of Puschino (Moscow Region) to build new innovative eco-beds in Aptekarsky garden. These eco-beds were arranged according to Zepp Holzer's agriculturally revolutional method. Zepp Holzer is well-known in Russia for his numerous propositions on how to use russian land effectively.

http://clicr.livejournal.com/23059.html

Sustainable flat near metro Dibenko

Despite the fact that Russia is far from introduction of obligatory waste separation, many citizens start to practice this by their own initiative. Organizationally, it's quite difficult procedure to collect garbage to different sections and deliver it to special organizations which can recycle it (sometimes located in completely remoted zones). However, more and more people experience this form of managing waste. The flat located near the metro Dibenko station is one of the example of such behavior. Olga and her husband Dmitry arranged living space to separate waste and consume less.

http://www.the-village.ru/flows/spb/posts/107601-kvartira-nedeli-peterburg-2011-05-11

Documentary "The Happy people"

Documentary "The happy people" describes the life of siberian hunters during the four seasons - Winter, Fall, Spring, Summer - their daily activities to survive, to get resources for living. They have very simple life according to modern definition of living standards, but it's far from urban stresses and haos. Despite hunting and fishing,  they represent one of the best pattern of sustainable consumption. The film reflects beatiful siberian nature around Yenisei river in fours seasons. I would recommend it for everybody, not just only for people interested in eco-living scenarios.

 Werner Herzog recently made a short version of this Russian film and named it "Happy People: A Year in the Taiga"

Ecoloft in Moscow

Ecoloft is 5 rooms eco flat in the center of Moscow which is an experiment and new form of collective living for Russia. The members of the project try to consume less and think about sustainablility. They use garbage sorting, bikes instead of cars, employ water counters, buy organic bags, cook special food.
Regularly, there are togatherings in the Ecoloft's living room devoted to discussions about sustainable living.
They welcome everybody who is interested in more respectful attitude towards nature and our planet. So if you're in Moscow use this chance.

Photos of Ecoloft's daily living http://picasaweb.google.com/104760889558592520851

http://gp-russia.livejournal.com/1045476.html

Page on ecowiki http://eco-loft.ru/

"Empty Hills"

The free, non-profit festival of free art "Empty Hills" takes it place every year since 2003 somewhere in forests of Europen Russia. Last year 70000 people visited it and participated there. Festival is totaly based on volunteering.

It's place for free,experimental, non-commercial music and art, sustainable ideas there are no any frames and limits.
The summer open-air 2011 is open for applications. Not only music band but anyone willing to contribute in all possible ways are welcome – you can run a seminar or a workshop/training, perform a poi-dancer/fire show, to make an installation. You can be a voluteer which will help on the build-up and decorating stage (Early June) or participate in the cooking food in special festival canteens. Send en email at holmi2011en@gmail.com

Festival is located usually in the forest quite isolated from mass-tourism. It's Kaluga Region as a rule. "Empty Hills" pays a lot of attention to sustainable way of living, and usually all post-festival area remains extremely clean.

Web-site
http://holmi.ru/en/

Photos from previous years
http://holmi.ru/foto/