2021 Season Launch Party

2021 Season Launch Party

Friday, March 5, 6:30 p.m. CST

A decade...A 10-spot...two hands...whatever you call it, we’ve made it 10 years! Help us celebrate, whether you’ve been with us since 2012 or are just joining us this year. Jenn White, host of NPR’s nationally syndicated show, 1A, will lead a riveting online conversation with three special guest filmmakers: Anthony Baxter, Director of “Flint: Who Can You Trust?” Christi Cooper, Director of “Youth v Gov;” and Sanjay Rawal, Director of “Gather.” We’ll also see trailers and a Young Filmmakers Contest winning film. Angela Tovar, Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Chicago will help us kick things off.

Becoming Ruby

Becoming Ruby

Dave Mayers/2020/18 min/Health, People & Cultures, Social Justice

Monday, March 8, 6:30 p.m. CST
International Women’s Day

FILM DESCRIPTION: Not seeing herself reflected in the community she loves, mountain biker, skier and artist Brooklyn Bell created her own role model: a hand-drawn hero called Ruby J. With Ruby J as a guide, Brooklyn spent the next few years trying to “live like her, breathe like her, be unapologetically black like her,” and in the process shaped her own identity, one that intertwines her love for dirt, snow and art—and a voice with which to advocate for diversity and inclusion.

This film will precede “Maxima.”

Dammed to Extinction

Dammed to Extinction

Michael Peterson and Steven Hawley/2019/51 min/Water, Wildlife

Wednesday, March 10, 6:30 p.m. CST

FILM DESCRIPTION: For eons, a one-of-a-kind population of killer whales has hunted chinook salmon along the Pacific Coast of the United States. For the last 40 years, renowned whale scientist Ken Balcomb has closely observed them. He’s familiar with a deadly pattern, as salmon numbers plummet, the whales starve.

These important mammals need roughly a million salmon a year. Where can we find them? The solution, says Balcomb, is getting rid of four fish-killing dams 500 miles away on the largest tributary to what once was the largest chinook producing river on earth.

This film will follow “Mermaids Against Plastic.”

District 15

District 15

Anjali Nayar and Senain Kheshgi/2020/23 min/Energy, Social Justice, Health

Sunday, March 14, 3 p.m. CDT

FILM DESCRIPTION: Sadly, the majority of Los Angeles industrial oil drilling activity takes place in communities of color and low-income communities. “District 15” highlights the hope and tenacity of the young activists of Wilmington, California, as they push the L.A. City Council to prohibit new and existing oil and gas drilling operations within 2,500 feet of homes, schools and hospitals. Communities for a Better Environment is behind this effort. The group does critical work on environmental justice and empowers Californian communities to stand up to polluting industries and build a green energy future.

This film will precede “Reclamation: The Rise at Standing Rock.”

Fantastic Fungi

Fantastic Fungi

Louie Schwartzberg/2019/81 min/Wildlife, Conservation, Food & Agriculture, Waste

Sunday, March 14, 6:30 p.m. CDT

FILM DESCRIPTION: When so many are struggling for connection, inspiration and hope, “Fantastic Fungi” brings us together as interconnected creators of our world. “Fantastic Fungi” is a consciousness-shifting film about the mycelium network that takes us on an immersive journey through time and scale into the magical earth beneath our feet, an underground network that can heal and save our planet. Through the eyes of renowned scientists and mycologists like Paul Stamets, best-selling authors like Michael Pollan, Eugenia Bone, Andrew Weil and others, we become aware of the beauty, intelligence and solutions that fungi kingdom offers in response to some of our most pressing medical, therapeutic, and environmental challenges.

Tickets available to North American viewers only.

Flint: Who Can You Trust?

Flint: Who Can You Trust?

Anthony Baxter/2020/119 min/Social Justice, Water, People & Cultures, Health

Saturday, March 6, 6:30 p.m. CST

FILM DESCRIPTION: Filmed over 5 years and long after the story was front page news, “Flint: Who Can You Trust?” is full of new twists and turns. Journalist/filmmaker Anthony Baxter goes beyond the headlines in Flint, Michigan, where a government poisoned its own citizens’ water supply, to show the complete breakdown of authority, public trust and faith in the truth itself. “Flint” is a powerful investigation of the breathtaking scope of toxic pseudo-science, celebrity activism, and official negligence. The film reveals the devastating impact on poor people and people of color, which make up the majority of the residents in Flint, as they continue to seek justice and clean water. Featuring Marc Ruffalo and narrated by Alec Baldwin. Produced by Richard Phinney and Sabrina Schmidt Gordon.

Tickets available to U.S. viewers only.

Gather: The Fight to Revitalize Our Native Foodways

Gather: The Fight to Revitalize Our Native Foodways

Sanjay Rawal/2020/83 min/Food & Agriculture, Historical Perspectives, People & Cultures, Social Justice

Saturday, March 6, 3 p.m. CST

FILM DESCRIPTION: “Gather” is an intimate portrait of the growing movement among Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide. “Gather” follows Nephi Craig, a chef from the White Mountain Apache Nation (Arizona), opening an Indigenous café as a nutritional recovery clinic; Elsie Dubray, a young scientist from the Cheyenne River Sioux Nation (South Dakota), conducting landmark studies on bison; and the Ancestral Guard, a group of environmental activists from the Yurok Nation (Northern California), trying to save the Klamath river.

The Great Green Wall

The Great Green Wall

Jared P. Scott/2019/92 min/Climate Change, Health, Social Justice, People & Cultures

Tuesday, March 9, 6:30 p.m. CST

FILM DESCRIPTION: Take an epic journey along Africa's Great Green Wall—an ambitious vision to grow an 8,000km "Wall" of trees stretching across the entire width of the continent to restore land and provide a future for millions of people. Traversing Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, Niger and Ethiopia, Malian musician and activist, Inna Modja follows the burgeoning Great Green Wall through Africa’s Sahel region—one of the most vulnerable places on earth (temperatures are rising 1.5 times faster than the global average)—laying bare the acute consequences of accelerating climate change the Wall aims to counteract: drought, resource scarcity, radicalization, conflict and migration. By Executive Producer Fernando Meirelles (Academy Award and Golden Globe Nominated Director of City of God and the Constant Gardener).

Tickets available to U.S. viewers only.