By Laurie Casesy
A big warm thank you goes out to everyone who came to our season launch party. If you weren’t among the attendees, you can watch our 75 minute program with the link above. You’ll want to see all the highlights.
Tara Gupta, previous One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest winner and recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, did a fantastic job as emcee for the evening.
Steve Bynum, senior producer of WBEZ's "Reset" program opened by hitting a theme that was carried throughout the evening: this magnificent planet is not “ours” to use, but a precious, unique place to steward and care for.
One Earth executive director and founding member, Ana Garcia Doyle, thanked our guests for attending and talked about the power of storytelling to move people, and the importance of encouraging empathy during our current, vicious, triple pandemic of COVID, racism and climate change.
A nostalgic, 10-year retrospective video by Public Relations Lead Cassandra West honored the people who have inspired change through the One Earth Film Festival.
Angela Tovar, Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Chicago thanked the Film Fest for “amplifying the voices of people who aren’t always profiled in the environmental movement” and “encouraged festival participants to mobilize and make change.” She touted several targets her team has established for the city, including transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2025 for all municipal buildings.”
Jenn White, host of NPR’s nationally syndicated show, “1A,” led a riveting and wide-ranging conversation with three special guest filmmakers: Sanjay Rawal, director of “Gather: The Fight to Revitalize our Native Foodways,” Christi Cooper, director of “YOUTH v GOV” and Anthony Baxter, director of “Flint: Who Can You Trust?”
Sue Crothers, founding director of the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest (YFC) introduced the “Noteworthy” 8-minute film "Greta," written, directed, and edited by 18-year-old Sofie Verweyen. In the beautifully produced film, Sofie imagines Greta Thunberg's life and inner thoughts prior to her fame as an environmental champion, interweaving the dialogue of the film with direct quotes from Greta to create a dramatized story of the young activist.
Two winners were chosen in our raffle for two overnight Tesla test drives: Doug Dixon and Sanjay Rawal.
The evening was capped by a gorgeous film of Inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman reading her poem "Earthrise.” The film was produced by The Climate Reality Project.
Thank you to everyone who attended and helped us create a fantastic beginning to our milestone 10th season.