REEF Encounters first edition consisted of four days of film screenings, conferences, and sightseeing activities. The Squirrel was chosen as a mascot. Night outdoor screenings of short and feature-length films (fiction and documentaries) were selected from Lebanon and other countries such as Switzerland, Chile, Iran, Palestine, Poland, Mongolia, and Burkina Faso. Some films were a gateway to debates and conferences in the presence of environmentalists, activists, and law experts. These discussions explored urgent environmental matters, such as quarries in northern Lebanon (in the presence of the Legal Agenda), the reforestation of the Cedars forest in Bsharri in North Lebanon followed by the screening of the documentary The Battle of the Cedar, and beekeeping and the extinction of bees around the world. The latter not only tackled the problems of the bee population worldwide, but it discussed the current situation of beekeeping in Lebanon as well, with comparisons of situations happening over the world, in the presence of local beekeepers and bee cooperatives. Mornings were reserved for visiting the tourist and natural sites of nearby villages such as Munjez, Ain Tabet and Al Qammouaa. Rural dinners took place.
Prior to the encounters, a storytelling and filmmaking workshop took place in Akkar. It gathered a group of 15 young locals who were trained and advised by a professional team over 12 sessions. They directed their first short films shedding light on Akkar and its rural life and environment. The outcome was 9 short films that were screened for the first time during the Encounters as part of REEF’s first Film Competition.