Feelin' Movie

What's behind the boom in environmental film festivals?

Posted by Bricolage at 12:24 PM on 15 Mar 2006

There aren't many scintillating documentaries about health care or tax policy, but give filmmakers an eccentric farmer converting his family farm to organic, or a determined activist sitting in a tree for two years, and they fall all over themselves to start filming. A crop of environmental film festivals has been springing up around North America, and Paul Henderson shines a klieg light on the trend.

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Are Environmental Films today's Newsreels?

Thank you for writing about the growing number of environmental film festivals...the green wave is cresting! My organization distributes nature and environmental films, some of which which we gathered from attending a few of these film festivals you mentioned. I started our org after attending a film festival and saw that many of the films are not available for rent or purchase after the film festival has left town. Our customers have used them in workshops, school classes, organization discussions, community film events, as well as home viewing. (and of course, showing them in other environmental film festivals!)

When I watch these DVDs, I am reminded of the Newsreel days of the 1940s..when if one really wanted to know what was going on in the world, they'd go to the movie theater to see the Newsreels. Environmental Film Festivals and the digital video produced by eco activists and filmmakers are seemingly today's newsreels.
Suzanne Harle
Green Planet Films
www.greenplanetfilms.org

Suzanne Harle Founder / Executive Director www.greenplanetfilms.org a nonprofit organization

by greenplanetfilms at 5:00 PM on 15 Mar 2006

and speaking of Farmer John...

...which was both the Jury and Audience winner in the Documentary category at last year's Inspiration Film Festival...

The Inspiration Film Festival will showcase the best in narrative features, full length documentaries, narrative shorts, animated works, children's films or experimental art films.

This second annual weekend festival will take place at the Laemmle Monica 4 Plex Theater in Santa Monica, California on April 28th, 29th, and 30th, 2006.
http://www.inspirationfilmfestival.com

Those who attend the Inspiration Film Festival will also want to check out the LOHAS 10 Forum.
http://www.lohas.com

by AmpersandRanch at 7:12 PM on 21 Mar 2006

Another fabulous film festival

Thank you for Paul Henderson's March 15 piece on the growth of environmental film festivals. Film is a wonderful and fun medium for reaching beyond the choir and exploring environmental topics with a larger audience. But his list of festivals missed the American Conservation Film Festival (ACFF) in beautiful Shepherdstown WV. All Gristmill readers should be aware that ACFF is now held every fall (November 2-5 this year) in the historic college town of Shepherdstown, just 75 miles up the Potomac River from Washington DC. Last year we screened 31 films over 4 days, and had nine of our featured filmmakers on hand to talk about their work. This year we plan to expand these filmmaker forums, to include discussions by environmental experts on the issues addressed in the films. We invite everyone who cares about the earth and enjoys film to join us in November and experience wild, wonderful, West Virginia in Shepherdstown. For the latest information on ACFF see our website at www.conservationfilm.org.

Amy Mathews Amos
Board Member, ACFF

by Amy Mathews Amos at 11:54 AM on 07 Apr 2006

ADVERTISING POLICY

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