Straws + Searching for the Gold Spot

Linda Booker/2017/32 min/Waste

FILM DESCRIPTION: With colorful straw history animation and segments narrated by Oscar winner Tim Robbins, this award-winning short film, Straws, explains the problems caused by plastic pollution and empowers individuals to be part of the solution. It's estimated Americans use once and toss more than 500 million straws every day. Ocean Conservancy ranks plastic straws as the number five most popular found item 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, where animals and fish eat the broken plastic and get hurt or even killed.

Maya Khosla/2017/31 min/Conservation

CHICAGO-AREA PREMIERE.
FILM DESCRIPTION: Searching for the Gold Spot: The Wild After Wildfire is a film about the rapid and amazing comeback of the wild in forests after wildfire. The story follows teams of scientists and firefighters through the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades Mountains and beyond, and shows hundreds of living, breathing reasons why our publicly owned forests need to be saved from large-scale logging projects. The teams find rare black-backed woodpeckers, goshawks, spotted owls, their young, and many other animals using post-fire forests -- a surprise and a new sense of hope for all.

Saturday, March 3, 2 to 4 p.m. [Lake County]
Prairie Crossing Charter School, 1531 Jones Point Rd., Grayslake

Enjoy a Q & A session with Straws filmmaker Linda Booker to hear about her experiences researching and making this film. Engage in a discussion with members of Lake County Audubon Society and Openlands to learn how we can protect local forests and prairies and the wildlife that live in them. Plus, chat with local groups about campaigns to reduce straws pollution, as well as other community organizations offering ways to promote sustainability in your community. Facilitator: Geoff Deigan of Prairie Crossing Charter School.

Doors open 30 minutes before start time. Arrive early to avoid lines and get best seats. ADA compliant accessible venue. Refreshments available. Teens and young adults encouraged to attend.