Zura Tegerashvili is a 17 year old student from Telavi, a small city in the Kakheti region of eastern Georgia. Like most students after high-school graduation, Zura moved to the capital city of Tbilisi, where he now studies law at Tbilisi State University. Zura’s real passion, however, is filmmaking – it has been ever since childhood.
Several years ago, Zura drew inspiration from watching Charlie Chaplin movies and he decided to try something similar. The result was a funny, black and white, silent, short film called “A Little Story about Friendship.”
Zura also runs a blog platform called “Kinogurmani”, which is dedicated to film and provides a network for friends who share the same passion and interest in cinema.
“Film-making is the way we show everyone what is on our mind. Through our movies, we make people get engaged in different types of problems, like climate change, for instance,” says Zura. “The town where I live, Telavi, is a small one. From early childhood, I’ve seen quite a few severe ecological problems around me: deforestation, floods, landslides. I’m a part of this society and I’m concerned. We are young, and we say truth without fear, we are ready to take on challenges.”
Last year, with some of his friends, Zura decided to tackle a more serious topic such as climate change. The result was a short one-minute film called “It’s Easy if You Try”, which Zura then submitted to a competition called Action4Climate, organized as part of the Connect4Climate campaign. That’s when the unexpected happened.
Zura’s engaging video caught people’s attention – including world-renowned film director Bernardo Bertolucci, president of the jury for the Action4Climate competition.
On February 19th, Zura was invited to a small award ceremony at the World Bank office in Tbilisi. Henry Kerali, Regional Director for the South Caucasus, presented Zura with the prize for third place in the Action4Climate competition, in front of a gathering of World Bank staff and members of Georgia’s Youth Voices Group.
“We are very proud that a young Georgian man was among the winners of the very prestigious Action4Climate documentary competition held recently. Zura Tegerashvili was awarded the third prize by a distinguished jury for the short film he submitted to the competition,” Henry Kerali said at the award ceremony. “This shows the concerns and aspirations that young Georgian people have with regard to the climate change issues that face us all, irrespective of where we live or come from.”
