David Mrazek/ 2014/ 57 min/ Wildlife
FILM DESCRIPTION: From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction reveals the compelling story of the unlikely extinction of the passenger pigeon. For millennia, the sleek long-distance flyer was the most abundant bird in North America and perhaps the world. Then, in a matter of decades, it was hunted to extinction.
Jen Rustemeyer/ 2014/ 75 min/ Food & Agriculture
FILM DESCRIPTION: An award-winning documentary about the staggering amounts of food that go to waste in households and farm fields, “Just Eat It” was one of three audience favorites in the online balloting that began the weekend of One Earth Film Festival 2015. A five-person jury screened three films, reaching the decision to select “Just Eat It” as One Earth Film Festival 2015 First Choice winner.
Caroline Bacle/ 2013/ 72 min/ Water
FILM DESCRIPTION: Once upon a time, in almost every industrial city, countless rivers flowed. We built houses along their banks. Our roads hugged their curves. And their currents fed our mills and factories. But as cities grew, we polluted rivers so much that they became conduits for deadly waterborne diseases like cholera, which was 19th century's version of the Black Plague. Our solution two centuries ago was to bury rivers underground and merge them with sewer networks. Today, under the city, they still flow, out of sight and out of mind… until now.
Amy Miller/ 2013/ 75 min/ Food & Agriculture
FILM DESCRIPTION: No Land No Food No Life is a hard-hitting film which explores sustainable small scale agriculture and the urgent call for an end to corporate global land grabs. This feature length documentary gives voice to those directly affected by combining personal stories, and vérité footage of communities fighting to retain control of their land.
Steve Ellington/ 2013/ 20 min/ Wildlife
FILM DESCRIPTION: This story follows Steve Repasky, a beekeeper in Pittsburgh, Pa., during his beekeeping efforts throughout the year. Urban beekeeping is not only about honey production. Educating the public, managing feral bee colonies and capturing swarms around the city keep Steve very busy, in addition to dealing with the calamity of Colony Collapse Disorder.
David Bond/ 2013/ 120 min/ Health & Environment
FILM DESCRIPTION: Filmmaker David Bond is a worried man. His kids' waking hours are dominated by a cacophony of marketing, and a screen dependence threatening to turn them into glassy-eyed zombies. Like city kids everywhere, they spend way too much time indoors - not like it was back in his day. He decides it's time to get back to nature – literally.
Jessica Plumb/ 2014/ 69 min/ Water
FILM DESCRIPTION: Return of the River offers a story of hope and possibility amid grim environmental news. It is a film for our time: an invitation to consider crazy ideas that could transform the world for the better. It features an unlikely success story for environmental and cultural restoration. Fundamentally, the Elwha River in Washington State is a story about people and the land they inhabit. The film captures the tenacity of individuals who would not give up on a river, mirroring the tenacity of salmon headed upstream to spawn.
Deborah Koons/ 2013/ 104 min/ Food & Agriculture
FILM DESCRIPTION: Drawing from ancient knowledge and cutting edge science, Symphony of the Soil is an artistic exploration of the miraculous substance soil. By understanding the elaborate relationships and mutuality between soil, water, the atmosphere, plants and animals, we come to appreciate the complex and dynamic nature of this precious resource.
