Roots & Shoots Documentary Competition

By Mr H

Posted on July 27th, 2016.

Calling all budding filmmakers! The Jane Goodall Institute teams up with Love Nature to present the Roots & Shoots Documentary Competition

Please note that this year’s documentary competition is now closed for entries from students based in the UAE.

“I am really very pleased that Love Nature has become the official sponsor of our Roots & Shoots Awards programme in the UK. They provide a wonderful way of bringing the beauty and complexity of nature into the lives of people through documentaries that are both educational and inspiring.”
Dame Jane Goodall

As a natural history documentary streaming app, Love Nature believes in the absolute power of documentaries to connect viewers to the environment, ecosystems, and species around the world that are in desperate need of help. That’s why they are teaming up with the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots programme to offer current university-goers a very special prize in a competition to show off student filmmaking prowess.

First, second and third placed entries will be announced at the Jane Goodall Institute’s annual Roots & Shoots Awards in Abu Dhabi and London, next January and March respectively. The overall winner will be flown out to join Love Nature’s film crews on location in the channel’s motherland—Canada—on an official Love Nature shoot. The top three entries will also be broadcast worldwide on the Love Nature Video Streaming App.

Whether you’re a budding student naturalist, a creature-loving creative, or a fired-up filmmaker in the making, we’re looking for entries for the Roots & Shoots Documentary Competition (RSDC) from those with a drive to make the most creative amateur natural history documentaries out there. Entries can be on any topic relating to environmental matters. The finished shorts must be between 3 and 20 minutes long, created by current university students, and on a theme of ‘inspiring change’.

The documentaries can also be filmed on any device, in any format—the focus being on the creative process of effective and impactful storytelling rather than big budgets. First, second and third placed entries will be announced at the Jane Goodall Institute’s annual Roots & Shoots Awards in Abu Dhabi and London, next January and March respectively.

To enter, simply send an email to chiara.mckee@blueskyeentertainment.com with a link to your completed work, alongside a covering letter outlining the title of your entry, what the documentary is about, and why you were inspired to focus on that particular subject. The deadline for submissions is the 31st December 2016 for the Abu Dhabi awards and the 1st February 2017 for the UK awards.

And of course if you’re after some natural inspiration, you can always take a look at some of Love Nature’s favourite nature productions, all streaming on the Love Nature app. Simply go to video.lovenature.com/?competition and use the exclusive discount code ‘LNJGIUK1’ when prompted to receive one month’s free access, followed by three months with a half price discount, to the Love Nature streaming service, for the best natural history documentaries on the net.

Please see the terms and conditions below for further details and more information on how to apply.

Terms and Conditions

1. To be eligible for entry all contestants must be currently studying in an educational institution in either the UK or the UAE and be aged 15 or over.
2. Deadlines for submission are 1st February 2017 for UK applicants and 31st December 2016 for UAE applicants.
3. Entries must be of a factual short documentary on the wider topic of natural history, focused on the wider theme of ‘inspiring change’. The final submission should be between 3 and 20 minutes in length.
4. Contestants must also submit three high resolution jpeg images related to the documentary, named and credited as well as links to your website or social media.
5. Submissions cannot have been previously aired, nor be already available for viewing online.
6. Entries should be submitted via email to chiara.mckee@blueskyeentertainment.com and should include a private Vimeo or YouTube link accompanied by a covering letter outlining the title of your entry, what the documentary is about, and why you were inspired to focus on that particular subject.
7. A shortlist of three finalists will be contacted two weeks after the close of entries with information regarding the Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Award ceremony. Successful contestants must then send a file of their submission, either via WeTransfer or DropBox—or via post to Love Nature Eagle House, 161 City Rd, London EC1V 1NR, UK to be received no later than 10 days before the award ceremony.
8. All three finalist’s entries will be aired on the Love Nature video streaming app. By entering this contest you consent to Love Nature’s airing of your submission, across all its SVOD territories, for an non-exclusive period of one year, commencing from the first airing of the submission on the Love Nature App.
9. By entering this competition you also consent to Love Nature, in conjecture with JGI, using your submission for promotional purposes across its social media and web platforms, as well as event marketing materials.
10. The contestant winner from each territory (UK and UAE) will win one weeklong trip to Canada to join Love Nature film crews in action on a real-life production shoot for one of its shows.
11. The winning contestant will be informed of upcoming production shoots they may attend in reasonable due course after the award ceremony’s conclusion.
12. Love Nature will cover one economy class return flight to Canada for the award winner, as well as transportation to and from the shoot location, and six days’ accommodation across the length of the filming (dependant on shooting location), plus any expenses related directly to the trip.
13. Love Nature is not responsible for arranging visas, inoculations, or personal equipment for this trip.
14. The two runners up will receive six month’s free subscription to the Love Nature streaming app.
15. None of the prizes stipulated are transferrable for cash alternatives.
16. By entering this competition, you have expressed an interest in Love Nature and as such, Love Nature may contact you from time to time with updates about their latest shows and services. If you would like to be removed from this mailing list please click ‘unsubscribe’ on any of our correspondence to be taken off the list.