PICRC calls for submissions to the Tal Ngimech—One Drop film challenge

The Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) has launched a new challenge for Palau’s students—the Tal Ngimech—One Drop film challenge. The center calls for teams of students to submit a two to three-minute film to show what the ocean means to them and their community. For example, the film could be about how different ocean ecosystems help their school(s) / community (e.g., by providing food, protecting the coastline from erosion or storms, or helping to combat climate change) or how their school(s) / community help the ocean (e.g., the Palau National Marine Sanctuary, marine protected areas, or beach clean ups).

The students need to explain in their film why the Palau National Marine Sanctuary (PNMS) is important to them. Bonus points will be awarded if a government official or traditional leader features in the film. For the high school and Palau Community College (PCC) categories, they must also incorporate a song from last year’s PNMS song challenge. The MP3 files will be provided to participants.

“Filming is used by PICRC researchers to identify what lives in the PNMS,” said Interim Chief Executive Officer, Caryn Lkong Koshiba. “Last October, the researchers used baited remote underwater videos to scan the top 10m of the sanctuary and, in June this year, a scientific paper was published that showed how a deep-sea camera system discovered a Pacific Sleeper Shark in Palau’s water for the first time. Creating films is also an effective way for us to communicate science. We hope the students of Palau take up this challenge and showcase their creativity and ocean discoveries in their own short films.” 

There are four categories—Grades K-4, Grades 5-8, high school, and PCC. For the K-4 category, there are no limits to the number of students in each team. For the other three categories, teams are limited to six students. One teacher can also participate in each team. The films can be in either Palauan or English. Films should be submitted to PICRC by October 14^th.  

The films will be shown, and the winners announced, in a film festival at the end of October during the PNMS anniversary week. There are generous prizes for participating in this film challenge and additional prizes for the winning team of each category.

For more information and to register a team, visit www.picrc.org/film.