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Shifting Sands

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Shifting Sands

Lee Botts and Pat Wisniewski/2016/57 min/Conservation

Thursday, Feb. 15, 7 p.m. [South]
Calumet College, Whiting, IN

Friday, Feb. 16, 3 p.m. [South]
U. of Chicago, Ida Noyes Hall, Chicago

FILM DESCRIPTION: This film tells the story of how our beloved Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore came to be. It’s one of the most unique ecological marvels in the world, and certainly one of the most studied landscapes in America. In the nineteenth century, its natural wonders were almost lost because its location also attracted some of the most powerful industrial companies, turning it into one of the most polluted regions of the country. Through the passionate work of ordinary citizens, the rejuvenation of the Dunes led to game-changing environmental policies with worldwide impact. Photo by Pete Doherty.

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Straws

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Straws

Linda Booker/2017/32 min/Waste

Saturday, March 3, 2 p.m. [Lake County]
Prairie Crossing School, Grayslake

Saturday, March 10, 11 a.m. [W Suburbs]
Thatcher Woods Pavilion, River Forest

Saturday, March 10, 6 p.m. [North]
St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Park Ridge
(please enter at Crescent Ave. entrance)
Resource Fair at 6 p.m. Film at 7 p.m.
Admission $7

CHICAGO-AREA PREMIERE. FILM DESCRIPTION: It’s time to ditch your straw. With colorful animation and segments narrated by Oscar winner Tim Robbins, this award-winning, 32-minute film explains the problems stemming from plastic pollution and empowers you to be part of the solution. Americans use once and then toss an estimated 500 million straws every day. Ocean Conservancy ranks plastic straws as the fifth most common items on beaches. They also wind up in landfills, litter streets and add to the estimated 8.5 metric tons of plastic debris in oceans annually. Teens and young adults encouraged to attend.

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The Discarded

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The Discarded

Annie Costner, Adrienne Hall and Carla Dauden/2016/18 min/Waste

Saturday, March 10, 11 a.m. [W Suburbs]
Thatcher Woods Pavilion, River Forest

FILM DESCRIPTION: Filmmakers Annie Costner (actor Kevin Costner’s daughter), Adrienne Hall and Carla Dauden juxtapose stunning drone-captured images of Rio de Janiero’s natural beauty with sewage and garbage that pour into its bay. In Portuguese with English subtitles, the film is narrated by locals, including a 9-year old boy who sails the garbage-choked waters and an elderly man who turns debris into art. Teens, athletes, scientists, and policymakers speak about the seemingly insurmountable challenges of Rio’s pollution crisis and reasons for hope. Filmmakers show the city’s effort to bandage the problem with expensive one-time solutions to serve tourists for the Summer Olympics. Viewers are also left with big questions: What does it mean to ignore subsets of society, to label some as worthy, and others as discarded?

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The Gateway Bug

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The Gateway Bug

Johanna Kelly and Cameron Marshad/2017/84 min/Food

Tuesday, March 6, 6 p.m. [W Suburbs]
Roosevelt Middle School, River Forest
Admission $7

CHICAGO-AREA PREMIERE. FILM DESCRIPTION: Over two billion people in 80 percent of the world’s countries eat insects for protein. While entomophagy, or bug eating, has been practiced for thousands of years, Westerners are just now discovering the nutritional advantages. Chef Andrew Zimmern, from The Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods series, is among the experts in the film. The Gateway Bug also brings to the table a discussion of world hunger, our diminishing food supply and the environmental benefits of eating insects. Middle schoolers, teens and young adults are encouraged to attend.

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Unbroken Ground

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Unbroken Ground

Chris Malloy/2016/22 min/Food-Agriculture

Sunday, March 4, 2 p.m. [Lake County]
St. Joseph Church, Libertyville

FILM DESCRIPTION: If you want to eat healthy food, you need to ask a lot of questions. Where does it come from? Who grows it? What happens to the soil it grows in? Currently, we produce most of our food using methods that reduce biodiversity, damage soil and contribute to climate change. But our food can and should be a part of the solution to the environmental crisis. Unbroken Ground tells the story of four pioneering groups raising livestock, growing crops and fishing in ways that sustain the earth.

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Unfractured

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Unfractured

Chanda Chevannes/2017/93 min/Health-Environment

Thursday, March 8, 6 p.m. [W Suburbs]
Nineteenth Century Club, Oak Park
Admission $20, includes reception

CHICAGO AREA PREMIERE. FILM DESCRIPTION: A hopeful documentary about fighting with your whole heart, Unfractured follows introspective biologist and mother Sandra Steingraber as she reinvents herself as an outspoken activist and a leader in New York’s biggest grassroots movement in decades. Branded a “toxic avenger” by Rolling Stone Magazine, Sandra became determined to fight the oil and gas industry to win a statewide ban on fracking. This film hits at the intersection of energy justice and social justice. It’s also one of several One Earth Film Festival selections highlighting a strong female role model. Teens and young adults are encouraged to attend. May contain heavy themes or graphic images.

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Urban Nature

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Urban Nature

Dan Protess/2017/5 to 10 min/Wildlife & Conservation

Wednesday, March 7, 6 p.m. [West]
Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago

CHICAGO-AREA PREMIERE. FILM DESCRIPTION: If you know where to look, you’ll find the most surprising slices of nature thriving in America’s largest cities. We will screen several episodes of WTTW’s digital series Urban Nature, in which University of Chicago evolutionary biologist Marcus Kronforst leads audiences on tours of overlooked ecosystems in Chicago, New York and San Francisco. He’ll hop on a bike, grab a kayak, and even take the subway, to seek out unlikely habitats hidden among the skyscrapers. We’ll discover how these havens are essential to the health of our cities—and the future of our planet.

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Verge

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Verge

Chingtien Chu/2017/3 min/Wildlife

Saturday, March 10, 11 a.m. [W Suburbs]
Thatcher Woods Pavilion, River Forest

FILM DESCRIPTION: This non-dialogue, high-quality animated short follows a young sea turtle’s ocean voyage through polluted water. As only 1 in 1,000 baby sea turtles survive to adulthood, this small film shows the big struggle facing marine life today.

Film Director Chingtien Chu was born on Penghu, a small island on the Taiwan Strait. Based in New York City, Chingtien recently received his MFA in computer animation at the School of Visual Arts, focusing on lighting, look development and compositing.