AURAK Science Film Festival 2017

American University of Ras Al Khaimah hosted over 1200 students at the Science Film Festival 2017. The festival is a celebration of science communication in Southeast Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, produced by the Goethe-Institut, Germany´s Cultural Institute operating worldwide. In cooperation with local partners to promote science literacy and facilitates awareness of contemporary scientific, technological and environmental issues through the medium of film and television content.

Professor Hassan Hamdan Al Alkim, President, AURAK said: “We are proud to host Science Film Festival 2017 at American University of Ras Al Khaimah, as this type of scientific festivals demonstrates that science can be communicated in an educational, as well as entertaining manner through audio-visual media that helps in establishing the science culture in the minds of our students."

This year’s theme was ANTHROPOCENE - Welcome to the Age of Humans – agriculture, trade, transportation, and industry: As long as humans have existed we have been utilizing and altering our environment. Industrialization, in particular, has contributed to the unmistakable and often irreversible fingerprint that we are making upon the Earth. Today, the human imprint is so deep and pervasive that scientists, policymakers, and society are considering whether human-caused changes are affecting the geological record over the long term – whether we are, in fact, living in a new geological era called the Anthropocene.

Through selected topics such as urbanization, mobility, nature, evolution, food, and human-machine interaction, the Science Film Festival 2017 explores the past, present, and future of humanity.