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In 2006, when the global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” opened to critical and commercial success, it showed environmental activists two things: First, a film is both a powerful and accessible medium for conveying important messages to the public. Second, when it comes to environmental issues, the public at large seems to think global warming is the biggest and perhaps the only threat to the environment, which is not the case.

The diversity of environmental issues is the driving force behind the South to South Film Festival, which is held every two years in Jakarta and is now in its fourth iteration. While realizing that film is an effective tool to facilitate environmental discourse, the festival continues to offer a broader spectrum about the complexity and immediacy of environmental concerns.

South to South’s promoters say the festival reveals a broad scope of environmental degradation.

“People are exposed to information about how the forests in Indonesia have been decreasing drastically, for instance,” said Dimas Jayasrana, the festival’s programmer. “We know that flooding is one of the effects, but what about the social, cultural, political and economic impacts? They are rarely depicted.”

To illustrate these underreported issues, Dimas cited “Darwin’s Nightmare,” an award-winning documentary from the 2010 festival about the fishing industry in Lake Victoria, Tanzania. An experiment with a new species of fish destroyed the lake’s ecosystem and turned local fishermen into factory workers. But the factories’ limited capacity to absorb human resources prompted those who could not get jobs to migrate to the city, which caused a spike in homelessness, crime, prostitution and AIDS.

Human rights are also included in South to South’s scope of environmental problems.

“We usually associate human rights issues with death, blood and violence,” said Siti Maimunah, or Mai, one of the festival’s board members. “However, if a source of water is polluted, and a community is deprived of water, the population could be killed. The environment always has social and political dimensions, and human rights is very much a part of that.”

Founded in 2006, the South to South Film Festival’s name was inspired by solidarity between “southern countries,” or developing nations whose natural resources are often exploited by their more developed counterparts in places like Western Europe, North America, Japan and Australia.

The festival was started by two NGOs: the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) and Kelir Nusantara. More nonprofit groups eventually joined to support subsequent festivals, including the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and Sawit Watch, which is concerned with the impact of palm oil plantations. These organizations have contributed to the diversity of issues highlighted at each festival.

This year, under the theme “Spirit Without Limits,” more than 30 feature and short films from around the world will shed light on numerous environmental concerns.

The opening film, “The Land Beneath the Fog,” is from Indonesia and discusses the effects of climate change on the harvest cycle in Ginikan, a village in Central Java. Harvest failures and low crop prices in the market have sent local farmers spiraling into poverty.

The film “Uber Wasser,” from Austria, details a global shift in rainfall patterns. In Bangladesh, locals have turned their houses into boats as people struggle with perpetual floods, while what used to be the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan is now a vast desert, devastating the fishing communities there.

On the other side of the globe, “Sipakapa Is Not For Sale” tells the story of a small community in a gold-rich area in Guatemala that was being eyed by a mining company hoping to exploit the resources.

A nearly 40-year-old Indonesian film, “Koboi Ngungsi” (“The Migrating Cowboy”), starring comedy legend Benyamin Sueb, is also in this year’s lineup.

“The film was made in 1975, but you’ll be surprised how the theme of urbanization still resonates today,” Dimas said.

There is also a special section at the festival for children, with films like “Bumiku” (“My Earth”), “Say Hello to Yellow” and the stop-motion “Pulihkan Indonesia” (“Revive Indonesia”). These films speak to issues like environmental destruction and technology intervention in simple, accessible and tongue-in-cheek ways.

South to South aims to weave connections between people and the environment, and attempts to build community relationships between urbanites and rural dwellers.

“Sometimes a community with an environmental cause needs support from people outside the area,” Mai said. “Well-informed people in the city can help through a petition [to support people in remote areas], for example. In other cases, a community exposed to a situation like one depicted in the films can learn, and eventually discover where to take their stand and how to act.”

In addition to the film screenings, South to South will also host several discussion sessions. The Regional Filmmaker Meeting Forum invites filmmakers, festival organizers, NGOs and media activists from the region to share and discuss the problems they face in their countries.

An exhibition will display the arts and philosophy of the Molo people, a community in East Nusa Tenggara, which has steadfastly resisted the presence of marble mining companies in their area for nearly a decade. Aleta Baun, or Mama Aleta, the Molo woman who has led the struggle, will attend the festival to discuss her activism.

South to South also hopes to facilitate interaction with attendees through a film and essay competition. Since the call for submissions, the festival committee has received more than 50 films in the documentary category and 30 films in the fiction category. The best films were selected by a panel of film critics, filmmakers and NGO activists.

Dimas said he was very impressed by the variety of backgrounds of the people who submitted films and essays, including some high school students, and the diversity of the subject matter.

“This proved there are many people out there who are concerned about environmental issues, but have limited space to express it,” he said.

Dimas cited a documentary about the fake eyelash industry in Purbalingga, Central Java. “A pair of fake eyelashes takes seven hours to make, and most of the laborers are underage,” he said. “And all this for something a person will probably use only once.”

This amateur film shows that big environmental issues can boil down to simple trials and tribulations faced by people at the micro level. This immediate connection between humans and their environment is exactly what the festival is trying to convey.

“All of us leave a trace with every item we use in our daily lives, whether it is our cellphone, jewelry, you name it,” Mai said. “This festival is trying to build our awareness as consumers, so that when we use these things, we feel some sort of responsibility.”

The threat of environmental destruction is everywhere, and closer than we might think. And while the symptoms might not be as grandiose as global warming, the impact could be just as grave.

South to South Film Festival 2012 runs from Feb. 22-23, at Goethe-Institut, Institut Français Indonesia and Kineforum.

For more information, www.stosfest.org, follow @STOSFestival on Twitter or telephone 021 794 1559.