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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 AUGUST 2017 39 Short Films From verse to screen this August THE Valletta 2018 Foundation is giving three young film makers the opportunity to turn Maltese Poetry into film by means of the Poetry on Film project during the Malta Mediterranean Litera- ture Festival. Held in collaboration with In- izjamed, Poetry on Film merges moving image with Malta's rich literature through the adapta- tion of Maltese poems into short films. This project aims to devel- op the poetry and film sectors in Malta through training, as well as the commissioning and export- ing of short poetry films which premiere at the Malta Mediter- ranean Literature Festival. Following a seminar held ear- lier this year two Maltese poems were chosen; "Relazzjoni" by Maria Grech Ganado and "Fuq Għoljiet Dingli" by Victor Fenech. Three up-and-coming film mak- ers have been selected to visualise the two mentioned poems. Grech Ganado's "Relazzjoni" has been produced by Nicky Aquilina & Lyanne Mifsud whilst Fenech's "Fuq Għoljiet Dingli" will be pre- sented by Trevor Borg. Both pro- ductions have placed the poems at the heart of their short films. Victor Fenech, author of "Fuq Għoljiet Dingli", will feature in Borg's production and will serve as a catalyst for what's to come during the film. Each verse of the poem is set to accumulate time and distance which is portrayed by showing Fenech walking in Dingli. With each step that he makes more and more of the po- etry is beautifully revealed to the viewer. On the other hand, decadence is the main theme for the second production, which is wonderfully captured by Mifsud and Aquilina in their visual interpretation of Grech Ganado's poem. This idea of excessive indulgence is por- trayed through scenes involving everyday life that come to a cli- max, driven by tone and tempera- ment. The film follows the ideol- ogy of a circle, taking the viewer back to the starting point. This will be the fourth time that Valletta 2018 will be involved in the Malta Mediterranean Lit- erature Festival. In collaboration with Inizjamed, Valletta 2018 of- fers the opportunity for artists to collaborate and create across a spectrum of different artistic dis- ciplines and media with the ele- ment of poetry providing young artists new opportunities for ex- perimentation. The two films, forming part of the project Poetry on Film, will be shown during the Festival this August at Fort St El- mo from 8pm. Relazzjoni will be screened this Thursday 24th August while Fuq Għoljiet Dingli will be screened on Friday Waders are not the easiest birds to identify. Sure, some have features so unique they can be recognised at a glance. But in most cases these pattering, mud-probing shorebirds can be frustratingly similar, especially when not in their best attire, i.e. breeding plumage. We get several wader species dropping in for a rest on migration. Some are common and regular, others much less so. One very scarce bird is the Sanderling (M: Pispisella Bajda), which breeds in the far north and only visits very randomly while on migration. This bird is a true Olympian: after raising a family in the high Arctic, it makes these mega marathon journeys of 10,000km and more, to spend the winter as far away as South Africa! Sanderlings are also famous for migrating in huge flocks, but we never see such numbers as we don't have enough wetland space to feed all those hungry mouths. Still, two or three did show up last week along the eastern and southern coast of Malta (including the one in the pic). Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us. You can also support us by sending us a donation - www.foemalta.org/donate Text and photo Victor Falzon 571. SANDERLING GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 474: WINDSCREEN COVER - Lay newspaper across your car windscreen during winter to protect it from frost. Connecting fragmented biodiverse sites with each other, e.g. providing wildlife networks and corridors, is necessary to ensure that species can thrive in a changing climate. A green infrastructure framework would make high quality biodiverse green infrastructure a standard element of spatial planning and land use development and ensure ecosystem connectivity and restoration of species and habitats. The EU should roll out and fund an EU wide network of Green Infrastructure (the TEN-G network), enshrining it in spatial plans and land use policies. Member states should speed up the restoration of at least 15% of degraded ecosystems 10 actions for a biodiverse Europe Connect nature through green infrastructure