Have you chosen to live a greener life? One man has and he has taken it one step further: he not only wants to live green but he wants die green as well and is helping others do the same. Dying Green, a short documentary set in the foothills of the Appalachians, explores one man's vision of using green burials to conserve land.
Join filmmaker Ellen Tripler to discuss her film at this screening!
Dr. Billy Campell is the town's only physician, and his efforts have radically changed our understanding of burials in the United States. His dream is to conserve one million acres of land. This film focuses on the revolutionary idea of using our own death to fund land conservation and create wildlife preserves.
AWARDS: CINE Golden Eagle Award; official selection Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital; Myrtle Beach int'l Film Fest; Montana Cine Intl film Fest; Student Academy Award 2012; College Television Award 2012
Dr. Richard Jackson explains the link between our health and the way our communities — especially our suburbs — are designed. Obesity, asthma, diabetes and heart disease are all aggravated by the auto-centric way we live our lives today. It’s no secret that today’s generation of children are likely to have shorter lives than their parents because of their unhealthy lifestyles. It doesn’t have to be this way. Well-designed communities can improve both physical and mental health, as Dr. Jackson explains in this four-part public television series and the accompanying book. Searching for Shangri-La is part four of the series.
Public health has traditionally associated the “built environment” with issues such as poor sanitation, lead paint poisoning children, workplace safety, fire codes and access for persons with disabilities. If we are what we eat, it can also be said that we are what we build. We now realize that how we design the built environment may hold tremendous potential for addressing many of the nation’s – childhood and adult — current public health concerns. These include obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma, depression, violence and social inequities.
Almost everything in our built environment is the way it is because someone designed it that way. The project’s goal is to offer best practice models to improve our nation’s public health by re-designing and restoring our built environment. Our country faces grave challenges in environment, economy and health. The banquet is over. “Easy oil” has disappeared, so too other resources are being depleted. And global heating increasingly will threaten human and species survival worldwide. Economies built on ever increasing consumption have contracted and secure incomes are unlikely to be available to working people for a long time, if ever. And our medical care costs will continue to escalate for reasons of technology and population aging, but particularly as the tripling of obesity and doubling of diabetes rates show their health and cost effects.
In Designing Healthy Communities PBS Series: Searching for Shangri-La, Dr. Jackson searches past and present America for healthy, sustainable communities of all sizes and shapes that can serve as models for the rest of the nation. His journey takes him to Roseto, PA, Prairie Crossing, IL, New York City, Charleston, SC, and the forgotten 1960s urban renewal project of Lafayette Park in Detroit, MI, the brainchild of 4 men, including visionary architect, Mies van der Rohe.
Also included are walkability expert, Dan Burden, and the 1960s, humorous but insightful, candid camera-‐style studies of people in public spaces by William Holly White.
Imagine discovering that you don't own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. Imagine having little recourse, other than accepting an unregulated industry in your backyard. Split Estate maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health.
This compelling Emmy Award winning documentary shows the dirty side of hydraulic fracturing and natural gas, an energy source the industry touts as a clean alternative to fossil fuels.
Zeroing in on Garfield County, Colorado, and the San Juan Basin, this clarion call for accountability examines the growing environmental and social costs to an area now referred to as a “National Sacrifice Zone."
This is no Love Canal or Three Mile Island. With its breathtaking panoramas, aspen-dotted meadows, and clear mountain streams, this is the Colorado of John Denver anthems — the wide-open spaces that have long stirred our national imagination.
Exempt from federal protections like the Clean Water Act, the oil and gas industry has left this idyllic landscape and its rural communities pockmarked with abandoned homes and polluted waters. One Garfield County resident demonstrates the degree of benzene contamination in a mountain stream by setting it alight with a match. Many others, gravely ill, fight for their health and for the health of their children. All the while, the industry assures us it is a "good neighbor."
Ordinary homeowners and ranchers absorb the cost. Actually, we all pay the price in this devastating clash of interests that extends well beyond the Rockies. Aggressively seeking new leases in as many as 32 states, the industry is even making a bid to drill in the New York City watershed, which provides drinking water to millions.
As public health concerns mount, Split Estate cracks the sugarcoating on an industry touted as a clean alternative to fossil fuels, and poignantly drives home the need for real alternatives.
This trailer includes footage not in the film. This scene was shot for 'Split Estate' but not included in the film. The filmmakers chose to focus the theme of the film on human health and had to eliminate many stories about contamination and animals that included domestic pets, livestock and wildlife.
An origami tale of a skilful paper folder who could shape the world with his hands. Papiroflexia (Spanish for “Origami”) is the animated tale of Fred, a chubby man with a passion for paper folding, who wants to change the world with his art. It was originally written as a poem by Joaquin Baldwin, and later developed into an animated film at the UCLA Animation Workshop, with music by Nick Fevola.
AWARDS: Short Film Corner, Festival de Cannes. Best Animated Short Film, Cinequest Film Festival. Best Animated Film: Director's Choice, Sedona International Film Festival. Best Animated Film, Peace on Earth Film Festival.
Illuminating the vital role water plays in our lives, exposing the defects in the current system and depicting communities already struggling with its ill-effects, Last Call at the Oasis features activist Erin Brockovich and such distinguished experts as Peter Gleick, Alex Prud’homme, Jay Famiglietti and Robert Glennon.
Developed, financed and executive produced by Participant Media, the company responsible for AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, FOOD, INC. andWAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”, Last Call at the Oasis presents a powerful argument for why the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century.
Water's journey from streams entering Lake Superior to the mouth of the Saint Lawrence Seaway takes 350 years. Waterlife follows the epic cascade of the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. From the icy cliffs of Lake Superior to the ornate fountains of Chicago to the sewers of Windsor, this documentary tells the story of the last huge supply (20 per cent) of fresh water on Earth.
The source of drinking water, fish and emotional sustenance for 35 million people, the Great Lakes are under assault by toxins, sewage, invasive species, dropping water levels and profound apathy. Some scientists believe the lakes are on the verge of ecological collapse.
Filled with fascinating characters and stunning imagery, Waterlife is an epic cinematic poem about the beauty of water and the dangers of taking it for granted.
The film is narrated by The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie and features music by Sam Roberts, Sufjan Stevens, Sigur Ros, Robbie Robertson and Brian Eno.
AWARDS: Official Selection at Toronto International Film Festival 2011.
Saturday, Mar 2, 10A/William Beye Elementary School - Tickets
Laura Sams; Robert Sams/2011/15 min (clip)
Set in the vivid fall season, the movie is a heartwarming, hilarious tale filled with stunning wildlife footage and original music (including a groundhog, chipmunk and woodpecker’s ode to fall). Based on the book First Snow in the Woods, by Carl Sams II and Jean Stoick. In a pumpkin patch surrounded by the reds and golds of fall, a worried scarecrow watches the animals prepare for winter.
AWARDS: Winner of 13 awards, including the Parents' Choice Gold Award for DVDs, Best Original Music at the International Wildlife Film Festival and a KiDS FIRST! Best of the Year Award.
One generation from now most people in the U.S. will have spent more time in the virtual world than in nature. New media technologies have improved our lives in countless ways. Information now appears with a click. Overseas friends are part of our daily lives. And even grandma loves Wii.
But what are we missing when we are behind screens? And how will this impact our children, our society, and eventually, our planet? At a time when children play more behind screens than outside, Play Again explores the changing balance between the virtual and natural worlds. Is our connection to nature disappearing down the digital rabbit hole?
AWARDS: BEST EDUCATIONAL FILM, Ecofilm, Prague 2010. BEST OF FEST, Colorado Environmental Film Festival 2010. Official Selection, DC Environmental Film Festival. Official Selection, Bioneers Moving Image Film Festival. Official Selection, Reel Earth Film Festival.
This moving and humorous documentary follows six teenagers who, like the “average American child,” spend five to fifteen hours a day behind screens. PLAY AGAIN unplugs these teens and takes them on their first wilderness adventure – no electricity, no cell phone coverage, no virtual reality.
Through the voices of children and leading experts including journalist Richard Louv, sociologist Juliet Schor, environmental writer Bill McKibben, educators Diane Levin and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, neuroscientist Gary Small, parks advocate Charles Jordan, and geneticist David Suzuki, PLAY AGAIN investigates the consequences of a childhood removed from nature and encourages action for a sustainable future.
Where we are coming from
Seventy years ago, the first televisions became commercially available. The first desktop computers went on sale 30 years ago, and the first cell phones a mere 15 years ago. During their relatively short tenure these three technologies have changed the way we live. Some of these changes are good. Television can now rapidly disseminate vital information. Computers turned that flow of information into a two-way street. Cell phones enable unprecedented connectivity with our fellow human beings. And the merging of cell phones and the internet has even allowed protest movements around the world to organize and thrive.
But there’s also a down side. For many people, especially children, screens have become the de facto medium by which the greater world is experienced. A virtual world of digitally transmitted pictures, voices, and scenarios has become more real to this generation than the world of sun, water, air, and living organisms, including fellow humans.
The average American child now spends over eight hours in front of a screen each day. She emails, texts, and updates her status incessantly. He can name hundreds of corporate logos, but less than ten native plants. She aspires to have hundreds of online friends, most she may never meet in person. He masters complicated situations presented in game after game, but often avoids simple person-to-person conversation. They are almost entirely out of contact with the world that, over millions of years of evolution, shaped human beings — the natural world.
The long-term consequences of this experiment on human development remain to be seen, but the stakes couldn’t be higher. By most accounts, this generation will face multiple crises — environmental, economic and social. Will this screen world — and its bevy of virtual experiences — have adequately prepared these “digital natives” to address the problems they’ll face, problems on whose resolution their own survival may depend?
As we stand at a turning point in our relationship with earth, we find ourselves immersed in the gray area between the natural and virtual worlds. From a global perspective of wonder and hope, PLAY AGAIN examines this unique point in history.
Imagine a world without fish. It’s a frightening premise, and it’s happening right now. A Sea Change follows the journey of retired history teacher Sven Huseby on his quest to discover what is happening to the world’s oceans. After reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s “The Darkening Sea,” Sven becomes obsessed with the rising acidity of the oceans and what this “sea change” bodes for mankind. His quest takes him to Alaska, California, Washington, and Norway as he uncovers a worldwide crisis that most people are unaware of.
Speaking with oceanographers, marine biologists, climatologists, and artists, Sven discovers that global warming is only half the story of the environmental catastrophe that awaits us. Excess carbon dioxide is dissolving in our oceans, changing sea water chemistry. The more acidic water makes it difficult for tiny creatures at the bottom of the food web to form their shells. The effects could work their way up to the fish 1 billion people depend upon for their source of protein.
A touching portrait
A Sea Change is also a touching portrait of Sven’s relationship with his grandchild Elias. As Sven keeps a correspondence with the little boy, he mulls over the world that he is leaving for future generations. A disturbing and essential companion piece to An Inconvenient Truth, A Sea Change brings home the indisputable fact that our lifestyle is changing the earth, despite our rhetoric or wishful thinking.
The first of its kind
A Sea Change is the first documentary about ocean acidification, directed by Barbara Ettinger and co-produced by Sven Huseby of Niijii Films. Chock full of scientific information, the feature-length film is also a beautiful paen to the ocean world and an intimate story of a Norwegian-American family whose heritage is bound up with the sea.
A Forest in Flux explains the impacts of a recent mountain pine beetle outbreak in the Rocky Mountains. The film takes a narrative approach to explain the ecology of the mountain pine beetle to kids aged 8-12. We follow a young boy on his quest to discover what is killing all the pine trees in his back yard. He uses a smart phone to do take photos of what he sees and does research about the clues he is finding.
This is a fine cut of the Travis Wade Kidd's second year film for the MFA program in Montana State University's Master of Fine Arts program in "Science and Natural History Filmmaking" in Bozeman, Montana.
Filmmaker Bio
Born and raised in Northeast/Lower Michigan, Kidd had a strong connection to the natural landscapes surrounding him. He studied Ecology and Anthropology at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, a mid-sized adventure town in Michigan's rustic Upper Peninsula. Kidd is an avid bird enthusiast and an amateur naturalist who had "always carried (with me) the goal of one day becoming a documentary filmmaker."
Kidd has produced several short student documentary projects on topics ranging from raptor migration studies, to research in cultural heritage, to forest ecology and, in Forest in Flux, the Mountain Pine Beetle outbreaks of the Rocky Mountain West.
AWARDS: Official Selection, Element Film Festival 2012
The average American child now spends over eight hours in front of a screen each day. She emails, texts, and updates her status incessantly. He can name hundreds of corporate logos, but less than ten native plants. She aspires to have hundreds of online friends, most she may never meet in person. He masters complicated situations presented in game after game, but often avoids simple person-to-person conversation. They are almost entirely out of contact with the world that, over millions of years of evolution, shaped human beings — the natural world.
