Films
[Video] Testimony about the impacts of mining in Bulgaria
(December 4, 2008)
Local health worker Dafina Karagioza speaks about the problems that have plagued her village since operations began upstream at the Chelopech gold and copper mine in the Central Balkan mountains of Bulgaria. In 2004 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development provided a 10 million dollar loan for "improving the environmental performance" of the mine, which earlier this year it increased by 15 million dollars. However, an October visit by the European Parliament's Petition committee found serious shortcomings in remediation measures at the mine.
[Video] Energy matters
(August 18, 2008)
This film highlights current energy developments in the Albanian port city of Vlora and explores the role of international financial institutions in the sector's development. Specifically the film questions whether the involvement of the World Bank, European Investment Bank, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is a positive impetus to economic development in Vlora, or rather hinders more crucial developments in tourism, fishing and agriculture. The film also gives voice to perspectives of local communities on the ground, and highlights the massive resistance that these energy developments are confronting.
[Video] Report from the EBRD environmental and social policy consultations
(April 15, 2008)
As public consultations on the EBRD’s reviewed environmental and social and information policies come to a close, Bankwatch staff reports from the final meetings in London by highlighting its concerns with the drafts. Despite the Bank unveiling a list of new Performance Requirements, Bankwatch is apprehensive that environmental protection and the rights of local communities to participate in project design and implementation is largely being left to the clients’ discretion. One of the most glaring oversights by the EBRD is its decision not to give due priority to gender considerations in its lending activities.
Read more about Bankwatch’s specific comments on the policies.
Read more about Bankwatch’s specific comments on the policies.
[Video] Silence is Golden
(April 1, 2006)
This documentary satire follows one town's resistance to a proposed gold mine on their lands. Residents from the area of Krumovgrad, Bulgaria struggle against the Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals and possible financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to prevent the approval of the Ada Tepe cyanide leaching gold mining project. Local residents, activists, biologists and others provide personal testimonies and expertise about the risks of this dangerous form of mineral extraction in the face of Dundee representatives and the environmental impact assessment authors, who assure the safety and profitability of cyanide leaching. Receiving the 1st award at the fourth international film festival "In the Palace," 'Silence is Golden' is a thoughtful, powerful and witty statement about local resistance and success against a foreign mining company.
For more information, contact BIDON films.
For more information, contact BIDON films.
- 21 minutes (Bulgarian version; English subtitles)
[Video] An Opportunity or a threat? The Danube - Oder - Elbe canal
(March 2, 2006)
Rumours have been circulating about a plan to pump water uphill, with an overall elevation of 200 metres, between the Danube in Vienna and the border between the watershed of the rivers Morava and Elbe in central Czech Republic. Such a fantastical scheme motivated Czech environmental group Hnuti DUHA to go on a filming mission last spring not in the hope of capturing the latest trends in science fiction or virtual reality but instead to record the potential devastation that could be sown by the first section of the Danube-Oder-Elbe canal. Want to know what’s involved in trying to link the Danube to the Baltic sea, including dubious justifications from the promoters and potentially billions of euros of public funds that would be better spent elsewhere?
- 14 minutes (Czech and English version; English subtitles)
[Video] The Source
(October 15, 2005)
Bankwatch co-produced this film that documents the social and environmental implications of the IFI-funded Baku-Ceyhan pipeline in Azerbaijan, which continues to be dogged by controversy and delivered Caspian oil to the first tanker at Ceyhan in the fourth quarter of 2006. The 77 minute film, directed by Martin Marecek, features interviews with BP officials, local state authorities, and local NGOs.
- 75 minutes (Subtitling in English, Russian, and Czech)
[Video] Invisible Hands: How the European Investment Bank shapes Europe
(June 1, 2004)
Highlighting two projects financed by the Bank in the Slovak Republic and the UK the film illustrates that the European Investment Bank (EIB) does not stand up to its own minimal standards.
A EUR 200 million loan for modernisation of the Slovak Railway national company that the EIB approved in 1999, turned to be a nightmare for Slovak citizens. Cuts in the workforce and closure of 32 regional lines led to a number of strikes organized by the railway unions in 2003. CEPA, a Slovakian NGO, has entered a Catch XXII labyrinth to find out information on the loan.
A EUR 200 million loan for modernisation of the Slovak Railway national company that the EIB approved in 1999, turned to be a nightmare for Slovak citizens. Cuts in the workforce and closure of 32 regional lines led to a number of strikes organized by the railway unions in 2003. CEPA, a Slovakian NGO, has entered a Catch XXII labyrinth to find out information on the loan.
- 27 minutes (English version)
[Video] Sakhalin's Black Tears
(March 9, 2004)
Russia. With support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the oil consortium plans to expand the drilling and build two pipelines in one of the most seismic regions in the world. Mitsui, Mitsubishi and Shell's development will affect the world's last 100 or so Western Pacific grey whales. It will destroy the key salmon fishing area off the island by dumping one million tons of waste into the sea and threaten the livelihood of tens of thousands of fishermen. Furthermore the Sakhalinians have to live with a permanent threat that a large oil spill will destroy their environment. The future of Sakhalin lies in the hands of the international financial institutions and multinational companies.
- 17 minutes (English and Russian version; English subtitles)
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[Video] Pirin- crime without punishment
(November 1, 2003)
Pirin National Park was inscribed in the List of UNESCO's Convention on the conservation of cultural and natural heritage in 1983 for its primeval alpine landscape, old growth forests and endemic species. The site is also a National Park, which is high conservational status according to the Bulgarian environmental legislation. The history of ski-tourism above the town of Bansko dates from the 80s when a ski-zone was illegally constructed within the boundaries of Pirin National Part. In recent years, under the pressure of Bulgarian private investors (IULEN Shareholding), supported by the Bulgarian First Investment Bank which is supported by EBRD, project for threefold enlargement of the ski-zone was started in the National Park. The recent enlargement of the ski zone is in violation of a number of national and international conservation laws. There is a lack of official governmental policy for the development of nature-preserving forms of tourism as an alternative to the destructive construction of new ski-facilities.
- 10 minutes (English version)
[Video] Paving over people's rights
(September 1, 2003)
Under the irrelevant name "E-79, Rehabilitation and reconstruction" in 2002 started construction of a section of the Trans European Corridor N4 in its part connecting Bulgaria and Greece. The project poses serious threats to local inhabitants and wildlife, and has been carried out in violation of Bulgarian and EU laws. In February 1998 the European Investment Bank (EIB) provided a 40 million euro loan for the "reconstruction" part. In fact "reconstruction" mean expansion of the existing 3 lane road to motorway standard.
- 8 minutes (English, Bulgarian, and Greek version; English subtitles)
[Video] On the Edge
(September 1, 2003)
The documentary is a product of the combined efforts of ten Bulgarian non-governmental organizations working on protection of the Bulgarian natural resources and peoples rights, created to increase awareness regarding the state of the Bulgarian environment and the threats posed to it by the rapid development of highways, unsustainable forestry practices, poor energy strategies, the lack of waste management policy and the loss of habitat. The film shows the valuable work these organizations are doing to improve these crisis situations.
- 56 minutes (Bulgarian and English version)
[Video] The European Investment Bank: facts and fiction
(July 15, 2002)
The EIB is the largest public lending institution expected to foster development within and outside the European Union. Yet this noble ambition is accompanied by less noble deeds. The Polish A4 motorway construction project illustrates how the EIB pursues environmental protection and improvement of quality of life in reality. Improper environment impact assessment, the lack of public consultation, minimal environmental and social standards made the NGOs rise up and organise a "no reform, no money" campaign.
Watch the film here.- 8 minutes (Polish and English version; English subtitles)
CEE Bankwatch Network gratefully acknowledges EU funding support.