Watch 2023 Discussions + Films

Recordings from Earth Day Mini Film Fest, April 2023

 

RECORDED VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; click “The Street Project” for free access on YouTube.

FILM DESCRIPTION: “The Street Project” is the story about humanity’s relationship to the streets and the global citizen-led fight to make communities safer. Digging deep into the root causes of traffic violence, the filmmakers engage a diverse array of experts including street historian Peter Norton, city planner Jeff Speck, and urban design expert Mikael Colville-Andersen. These expert interviews are interwoven with the stories of real people working to make their communities safer.

RECORDED VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; accompanying film is not streaming yet. Check the film website to learn more.

FILM DESCRIPTION: How would you reinvent some part of your world using nature as a model? In “Biocentrics”, this and other provocations are answered by the eyes and voice of biologist Janine Benyus. Traveling to different corners of the planet, the film reveals the birth and principles that guide biomimicry, a transdisciplinary methodology of technological innovation inspired by a master with 3.8 billion years of experience.

 

RECORDED VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; access accompanying film for $1 from the “Invisible Hand” website.

FILM DESCRIPTION: Produced in-part by award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo, “Invisible Hand: Rights of Nature Documentary” takes you behind the curtain of the global economy where ‘Rights of Nature’ becomes “capitalism’s one true opponent.” People in Toledo, Ohio, vote to grant Lake Erie the right to exist while others in Grant Township, Pennsylvania, protect groundwater from industrial waste. They, along with Defend Oh:yo’ and Standing Rock, are joined in an international fight to protect more than just water. They fight for their community, democracy, and for Nature as a living entity unto itself.

RECORDED VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; click “Remothering the Land” for free access on YouTube. Subscribe to kweliTV to access “Follow the Drinking Gourd.”

Remothering the Land. This short film, a co-production with Patagonia Films, highlights traditional Indigenous farming practices as a source of resiliency for local communities, as well as solutions for the larger issues facing our Mother Earth.

Follow the Drinking Gourd is a feature documentary about the Black food justice movement. Family-friendly, funny and moving, this film connects the legacy of slavery, capitalism and climate change to our fight for food security.

RECORDED VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; accompanying film is not streaming yet. Find a schedule of film festivals, theaters and cinemas where it will screen in the future by clicking here.

FILM DESCRIPTION: Filmed across the West and narrated by Golden Globe and Emmy nominated actor David Oyelowo, “Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire” takes viewers on a journey with the top experts in the nation to better understand fire. The film follows the harrowing escape from Paradise, California as the town ignited from wind-driven embers and burned within a few hours of the fire's start. It then continues to the even more recent fires of the last two years, when Oregon, California and Colorado suffered their worst wildfires in recorded history.


Recordings from One Earth Film Fest, March 2023

RECORDED VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; access accompanying film from one of several streaming platforms for $5.99. Learn more here.

FILM DESCRIPTION: Filmed over four years of hope and crisis, “To the End” captures the emergence of a new generation of leaders and the movement behind the most sweeping climate change legislation in U.S. history. The award-winning team follows four exceptional young women— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, activist Varshini Prakash, climate policy writer Rhiana Gunn-Wright, and political strategist Alexandra Rojas—as they grapple with new challenges of leadership and power and work together to defend their generation’s right to a future.

RECORDED VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; access accompanying film from one of several streaming platforms for $3.99 or $4.99. Learn more here.

FILM DESCRIPTION: This visually jaw-dropping debut feature by photographer-turned-filmmaker Alejandro Loayza Grisi is lensed by award-winning cinematographer Barbara Alvarez and won the Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema Dramatic) at the Sundance Film Festival.

In the arid Bolivian highlands, an elderly Quechua couple has been living a tranquil life for years. When an uncommonly long drought threatens everything they know, Virginio and Sisa must decide whether to stay and maintain their traditional way of life or admit defeat and move to the city.

RECORDED EVENT AND VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; click ‘The Falconer’ to access on Amazon Prime for $2.99. Click ‘Mardi & The Whites’ to access free on Vimeo.

The Falconer. This intimate portrait film follows master falconer Rodney Stotts on his mission to build a bird sanctuary and provide access to nature for his stressed community. “The Falconer” weaves Rodney's present-day mission with the story of his past, both of which are deeply rooted in issues of social and environmental injustice, and consistently orient the viewer to his worldview: nature heals.

Mardi & The Whites. Mardi Fuller has a rich relationship with nature that has evolved and deepened throughout her life.


RECORDED VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; access accompanying film on Curiosity Stream. Learn more here.

FILM DESCRIPTION: “Going Circular” dares to imagine a future where humankind not only survives, but flourishes, by rethinking global paradigms and respecting the limits of our planetary resources.

Meet four groundbreaking thinkers who navigate environmental, economic, and social crises of the modern age. They each discover that the solutions for creating a circular economy and planet have already been perfected in nature itself.

RECORDED EVENT FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; accompanying feature film is NOT STREAMING YET but is available via film festivals. Check this website link. Click to access ‘Vandals.

Powerlands. A young Navajo filmmaker investigates displacement of Indigenous people and devastation of the environment caused by the same chemical companies that have exploited the land where she was born. On this personal and political journey she learns from Indigenous activists across three continents.

Vandals. The 6-minute film “Vandals” by Suzie Kang, April Chang, and Emily Wong screened prior to the feature film. “Vandals” won the top post-grad prize in the 2020 One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest.

RECORDED VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; click for free access ‘No Climate. No Equity. No Deal.’ Join Paramount+ to watch ‘Wasteland: Iowa.’ Click to access ‘Take Action Against Lead.’

No Climate. No Equity. No Deal. This film follows the grassroots movements in Illinois that led to the passage of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. 

Wasteland: Iowa. For more than 150 years farmers in Iowa have been raising corn & pigs and the people of Iowa have been drinking untreated water from rivers polluted with nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides and livestock excrement.

The 5-minute film Take Action Against Lead screened before the above feature films. Filmmaker Lion Birnecker won the top middle school prize in the 2022 One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest.


RECORDED VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; accompanying film is NOT STREAMING YET but is available via film festivals. Check this website link.

FILM DESCRIPTION: Lars Henrik Ostenfeld travels to Greenland with three of the world’s leading glaciologists to see just how fast the ice sheet is melting, and to understand the consequences of climate change. The ice at the poles is melting, which will result in enormous rises in sea level and have major consequences for the world. But how fast will it really go? The film travels with pioneering glaciologists on their expeditions into the inland ice of Greenland. Top-notch science meets breathtaking visuals when one of them descends into a 200 meter deep moulin hole to find out about the bottom of the ice sheet. What they find may sound the alarm for our planet's climate and is a clear call to act now.

RECORDED VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; accompanying film is NOT STREAMING YET but is available via film festivals. Check this website link.

FILM DESCRIPTION: Uniquely structured upon the personal storytelling of native West Virginians, “Devil Put The Coal In The Ground” is a meditation on the suffering and devastation brought on by the coal industry and its decline. From the realities of a crumbling economy, to the ravages of the opioid epidemic, to the irreparable environmental damage and its tragic impact on human health—the film is a cautionary tale of unfettered corporate power, and an elegy to a vanishing Appalachia.

RECORDED VIRTUAL DISCUSSION FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; accompanying film is NOT STREAMING YET but is available via film festivals. Check this website link.

FILM DESCRIPTION: From the Himalayan forests to the Sydney Peace Prize: how environmental activist, author and Indian scientist Dr. Vandana Shiva became the rock star of the organic food movement.

Impressed by Einstein at an early age, Shiva studied physics then philosophy in India and Canada. She came to understand that science cannot be ‘one-eyed' and must consider all elements at play. This attitude led her to form Navdanya in 1991, a national movement to protect living resources. The grassroots initiative established over 40 seed banks across India, and her galvanizing activism put her at loggerheads with GMO multinational Monsanto and others.


Children’s Films (7 to 12+)

RECORDED EVENT FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; access some of the accompanying films. Click for free access to ‘Hargila.’ ‘Cracked’ and ‘Birth of Form’ are not streaming yet.

Birth of Form [Kuumba Umbo]. A young boy befriends an African buffalo, but when tragedy strikes, he dedicates his life to commemorating his lost friend.

Cracked. A little girl lives in a village with her mother where water sources are dwindling by day. This little girl never loses hope though; she tries to do the best she can, sacrificing for nature.

Hargila. Produced by the Cornell Lab’s Conservation Media center in partnership with Dr. Purnima Devi Barman, "Hargila" documents India’s grassroots effort to save the endangered Greater Adjutant Stork..

Children’s Films (3 to 6+)

RECORDED EVENT FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time; access some of the accompanying films. Click ’Cloud Chaos’ to see the film. ‘Sweet Cocoon’ is available on iTunes and Amazon for $1.99. ‘Cool for You’ and ‘Hush Hush Little Bear’ are not streaming yet.

Cloud Chaos. When a mother bird gathers a portion of white cloud for her nest, the cloud becomes angry at first in this heartwarming story of forgiveness and cooperation.

Cool for You. “Cool For You”, an animated film based on the book of the same title, explains global warming to children in a friendly way.

Hush Hush Little Bear [Čuči čuči]. Bear cubs have a good time playing merrily with a ball of yarn, but soon enough find themselves all tangled up.

Sweet Cocoon. “Sweet Cocoon” is an award-winning animated short about a plump caterpillar who can't get into her cocoon without the help of two friendly beetles.

One Earth Film Fest Launch Party + Filmmakers Toast

RECORDED EVENT FOR ONLINE VIEWING any time. Click ‘A Revolution Dance Against Petcoke’ to see the film. “Wood Hood” is not streaming yet.

This brief program began with a previous One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest-winning film (“A Revolution Dance Against Petcoke”); opening remarks by Jared Policicchio, Chicago’s Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer; and the exclusive screening of the short film “Wood Hood,” followed by a keynote from Jahmal Cole, Founder & CEO of the change-making Chicago-based youth nonprofit, My Block, My Hood, My City (M3). M3’s mission speaks to how justice and empowerment—tools for restoring both people and planet—can remake our blocks, our neighborhoods, our cities, our countries, and our world.