Backyard Wilderness (Ages 6 to 13+)

Backyard Wilderness (Ages 6 to 13+)

Susan Todd & Andrew Young/2018/45 min/Wildlife

Tuesday, March 5, 6:30 p.m. [South}
The Ancona School, Chicago

Saturday, March 9, 11 a.m. [W Suburbs]
Thatcher Woods Pavilion, River Forest

FILM DESCRIPTION: In “Backyard Wilderness,” we follow Katie, a young girl, and her modern family living next to the woods who are blind to the real-life spectacle around them, absorbed by an array of electronic devices in their busy lives. Katie gradually discovers the intricate secrets that nature has hidden so close to her front door and we experience the joy she finds in her interactions with this new world. The film showcases a stunning array of unique wildlife images and behavior captured by cameras mounted inside dens and nests to reveal inhabitants in rare and breathtaking intimacy.  

Holy (un)Holy River

Holy (un)Holy River

Peter McBride & Jake Norton/2016/60 min/Health & Environment

Saturday, March 2, 1 p.m. [Central]
First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple, Chicago

Tuesday, March 5, 7 p.m. [Central]
Patagonia Chicago, Chicago
OEFF After Hours Event
Admission $20, includes reception

CHICAGO-AREA PREMIERE. FILM DESCRIPTION: This film takes you on an dramatic adventure to Ma Ganga (“Mother Ganges”), a waterway that is divine and defiled, revered and reviled. Once celebrated for its purity, India’s Ganges River now carries contaminates from its glacial headwaters, where freshly fallen snow contains zinc from industrial emissions. Water is diverted from the river for agriculture and other uses, and the 500 million people in the Ganges basin further pollute the river. “Holy (un)Holy River” asks the essential question: Can the Ganges survive?  

Paris to Pittsburgh

Paris to Pittsburgh

Sidney Beaumont & Michael Bonfiglio/2018/77 min/Climate

Sunday, March 3, 12:30 p.m. [W Suburbs]
Action Fair 12:30 p.m.
Film begins at 1:30 p.m.

St. Giles Catholic Church, Oak Park

Sunday, March 3, 1 p.m. [Dupage County]
Elmhurst College, Elmhurst

Tuesday, March 5, 6:30 p.m. [North]
Truman College, Chicago

Friday, March 8, 6 p.m. [South]
Catholic Theological Union, Chicago

Friday, March 8, 6:30 p.m. [Lake County]
College of Lake County, Grayslake

FILM DESCRIPTION: The Paris Agreement was monumental in uniting all nations in the fight against climate change. With the United States’ withdrawal from the agreement, citizens around the country are taking matters into their own hands. “Paris to Pittsburgh” explores the very real social and economic impacts of climate change-fueled disasters and features voices from local leaders and everyday Americans from Pittsburgh to Puerto Rico.

Roundup Facing Its Judges

Roundup Facing Its Judges

Marie-Monique Robin/2018/93 min/Health & the Environment

Tuesday, March 5, 6:30 p.m. [W Suburbs]
Oak Park Public Library, Oak Park

U.S. PREMIERE. FILM DESCRIPTION: After her best-selling film and book, The World According to Monsanto, award-winning journalist Marie-Monique Robin presents her new documentary, “Roundup Facing Its Judges,” on the global use of glyphosate-based herbicides. She deconstructs the mechanisms of one of the greatest environmental and health scandals in modern history, and showcases an exceptional investigation on a subject that concerns all of us, because glyphosate is everywhere: in the soils, the water, the food and the air. The guiding thread of the documentary is the Monsanto International Tribunal, held in the Hague in October 2016, and its recommendation for a new international law against “ecocide.”

The Superfood Chain

The Superfood Chain

Ann Shin/2018/66 min/Environmental & Social Justice

Tuesday, March 5, 7 p.m. [Dupage County]
College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn

Wednesday, March 6, 6 p.m. [South]
U. of C. Laboratory Schools, Chicago

CHICAGO-AREA PREMIERE. FILM DESCRIPTION: Every year, the western world is introduced to a new “superfood” that boasts extraordinary nutritional features, and year after year we buy them. “The Superfood Chain” explores the facts and myths behind superfoods, and reveals the ripple effect of the superfood industry on farming and fishing families around the world. This film follows filmmaker Ann Shin as she meets families in Bolivia, Ethiopia, Philippines, and Haida Gwaii affected by the superfood industry.