Sand Wars


Sand Wars is a documentary by director Denis Delestrac and produced by Rappi Productions, La Compagnie des Taxi-Brousse, InfomAction, Arte France, with the support of The Santa Aguila Foundation.
The film premiered at the Cinéma Publicis on the Champs-Elysées in 2013 and was first broadcast in May in France and Germany, where it became the highest rated documentary for 2013. A Gold Panda Award winner, Sand Wars is distributed worldwide by PBS International.
Among many other outreach victories, the film inspired the United Nations Environment Programme to publish a Global Environmental Alert in March 2014 titled "Sand, rarer than one thinks".

Synopsis

By the end of the 21st century, due to beach theft, beaches will be a thing of the past. That is the alarming forecast of a growing number of scientists and environmental NGOs. Sand has become a vital commodity for our modern economies: we use it in our toothpaste, detergents, and cosmetics, and computers and mobile phones couldn’t exist without it. Our houses, skyscrapers, bridges and airports are all basically made with sand: it has become the most widely consumed natural resource on the planet after fresh water. The worldwide construction boom fuelled by emerging economies and increasing urbanization has led to intensive sand extraction on land and in the oceans, with damaging environmental impacts. Sand Wars takes us around the world as it tracks the contractors, sand smugglers and unscrupulous property developers involved in this new gold rush, and meets the environmentalists and local populations struggling to reverse the threat to the future of this resource that we all take for granted.

Interviews

Official selections :
Awards :
Best movie - Inspiration Category
Gold Panda for Best Nature & Environment Protection Award
Golden Sun for Best documentary
2nd Prize - Welfare Education Category
Switzerland Greenpeace Prize
Environment Award
Official selection of the 10 finalist documentaries
Rockie Award for Best Environmental and Wildlife Program
Award for Best Documentary – Nature & Science Category
Nominated for Marine Science Category
Nominated for Panda Awards - Environment & Conservation Category
Winner: Environmental Award and Festival Honorable Mention
Winner: Soil Film Award
Winner: "Impact Prize" 2015
Winner: Best Environmental Film 2015