Get the scoop on the Young Filmmakers Contest from Founding Director Sue Crothers:
“The One Earth Film Festival has always been about activism. It’s not just about watching films. So that’s the goal for the next 10 years of the festival, a return to hopefulness through activism and envisioning the future you want. Overall, though, I want to say that for the whole 10 years, it’s been a huge privilege to work with these young people and to elevate their voices.”
Monty and Rose are the two beloved piping plovers that surprised the Chicago birding community by settling at busy Montrose Beach to nest and raise their young for three consecutive years. When they first arrived in 2019, the number of their endangered species had diminished to 70 nesting pairs in the Great Lakes region.
After Monty died recently after making the spring migration back to Northern Illinois, and after Rose did not return, we reached out to Bob for his thoughts and those of others in the birding community.
From manatees to koalas to pangolins, endangered wildlife was a recurring theme among 148 submissions to the 2022 One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest. Students ages 8 to 25 revealed the impact of weather extremes and plastic pollution on people, animals, and the planet, with a new note of urgency about the climate crisis in their short films.
Q: The Sacrifice Zone. That’s a powerful title. It’s raw. Talk about it.
A: The concept is that we have chosen to sacrifice certain people for the benefit of others. They’re collateral damage. There’s an intentionality to it. Collectively, we’ve decided that it’s okay to put all this toxic industry in certain neighborhoods. And somehow we have the idea that the people who live there don’t care, because if they didn’t like it, they’d move.
“Girls For Future” is an inspiring documentary that follows four girls on four continents, all dealing with the harshest consequences of the climate crisis. Coming from Senegal, Indonesia, Australia, and India, their lives are vastly different, but they all have something in common: they are fighting for a better future.
