** UPDATE: May 2008:

WildSpaces is an Australia-wide social-justice and environmental video festival, also screening in cities across the Asia-Pacific for the first time in 2009. A 2-day program of videos focusing on vital issues such as climate change, it will also bring audiences the inspirational stories of ordinary people making steps towards social-justice and sustainability. It will be an opportunity for filmmakers, campaigners and interested communities to converge to share skills and take part in forums and discussions of these issues. This year WildSpaces will screen in a selection of major cities in the Asia-Pacific region and make use of new digital distribution channels via the Internet. It will be a multi-format festival - available to watch online, but also to download to screen in your own community, accessible via video-podcast and via peer-to-peer networks.

From its first incarnation in 1996, WildSpaces has grown to be a compelling program of international films about social justice and environmental issues screening in 30 locations around Australia. Friends of the Earth have been national coordinators of the festival since 2002, realising the need for a vehicle that would carry all the environmental and social justice films that weren't making it into the mainstream media. After a break since the last festival in 2005, the WildSpaces festival returns to provide a valuable forum for the exhibition of moving images dedicated to the stimulation of discussion and debate around key issues facing different cultures, societies and environments.

WildSpaces 2009 will harness the power of the internet to distribute the festival to a local, regional and international audience widely and cheaply, while retaining the model of public screenings which allow for face-to-face meetings, discussions and networking around the issues at the heart of the films we will show.

EngageMedia, a non-profit online media collective based in Melbourne, will bring experience in developing open source online video software and training video-makers in digital distribution to the task of organising WildSpaces in partnership with Friends of the Earth Australia. The EngageMedia.org video-sharing website for social-justice and environmental video in SE Asia, Australia and the Pacific will also be a valuable resource, providing both a rich and continually expanding archive of content for the festival, and the vibrant online community of independent videomakers revolving around the EngageMedia.org site. This online video-sharing and community platform will tie in with the Friends of the Earth grassroots network of groups who are keen to organise WildSpaces screenings in their local communities.

Climate change is identified at this stage as an important area of focus, this major theme will allow us to cover various aspects of this huge issue facing our planet. Videos about other environmental issues such as biotechnology, water, sustainability, nuclear power and uranium, forests and conservation, climate change, bio-diversity, and environmental justice will be sought. Social issues such as human rights, land rights and indigenous issues, poverty and development, gender and sexuality will also be addressed in the program.

As in previous years, WildSpaces 2009 will be held simultaneously in major cities and regional centres around Australia, at screenings coordinated nationally, and organised locally by FoE groups in each area. In 2009 the festival will also be held in several countries around the Asia-Pacific region for the first time, including Indonesia, New Zealand and Malaysia. With EngageMedia's regional focus and issues such as climate change giving us a real need to look beyond our borders it is time to form distribution networks beyond our shores.

When? The festival is slated for early February 2009, pending successful funding bids
Where? Cities and towns around Australia, and the Asia-Pacific

If you're interested in being part of WildSpaces, please stay tuned for more info on when submissions will open later this year, and for the callout for screening groups. Please email Anna at wildspaces@foe.org.au with any enquiries.

Getting Involved in Wild Spaces Film Festival