NEA and Viddsee launch documentaries on zero waste made by young filmmakers

If you are passionate about sustainable living, three new documentaries on Viddsee centred around food waste, secondhand objects and discarded items may be right up your alley.

A pitching competition for sustainability-themed documentaries was held by the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Viddsee from Apr 22 to May 21 as part of the #RoadtoZero Youth Sustainability Film Programme.

The #RoadtoZero Youth Sustainability Film Programme aims to encourage advocacy on environmental sustainability in Singapore through combining storytelling with education on zero waste.

Following the call for pitches, three winning documentary concepts were selected from a total of 85 submissions namely How to have fun while reducing food waste, Left Wandering and The Second Life of Secondhand Objects.

The three winners were awarded a production budget of $8,000 and a cash prize of $4,000 to help produce their documentaries. They were also mentored by Viddsee Studios and experienced local filmmakers Eileen Chong, Kenneth Cheong and Kenneth Chan throughout the process.

Directed by NUS Sociology graduate Chantelle Ng, How To Have Fun While Reducing Food Waste focuses on a passionate individual’s quest to save ugly food and reduce food waste.

The documentary encourages the community to reimagine food waste reduction by showing that blemished ingredients can still be cooked aesthetically and consumed safely instead of being binned straightaway.

Produced and directed by documentary storyteller and founder of OKJ Works Ong Kah Jing, Left Wandering provides a satirical take of several discarded items in Singapore as “wildlife” and follows the journey of such waste products which have no control over their fate. 

The documentary influences the audience to take more responsibility for their actions and learn how their behaviour can implicate the environment while engaging them with humour.

The Second Life of Secondhand Objects, directed by freelance director and writer Chuah Weiqi, explores how an old shelf on its last legs manages to find a new purpose through a makeover.

The documentary brings the audience through the process of reusing secondhand items while delving into sustainable habits one can learn to reduce waste.

All three documentaries premiered at Temasek Shophouse on Tuesday (Nov 22), and will be made available on the Road to Zero website and Clean and Green Singapore’s social media platforms gradually from Nov 23.

Those interested in watching the full Road to Zero documentary series can find all three winners’ films as well as the original documentary on the Viddsee platform.