The Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival on Tour
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Reception: 6 pm | Film Fest: 7 pm | Q&A: 10 pm

The evening starts with a reception where you can meet representatives from local environmental groups and enjoy food, $2 beer and wine bar featuring Great Lakes Brewery beers and organic wines, and entertainment. Then enjoy a screening of The Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival on Tour, nine environmental films helping to raise awareness of the natural world and our role in it. Join David Beach, director of the Museum's GreenCityBlueLake Institute, for a Q&A session after the films. Hosted by the Nature League.

Tickets: 
Please call the Museum Box Office at (216) 231-1177 or register online.
Non-members: $15; Museum members: $10; High school students: $5 
Tickets will not be mailed; there will be a guest list at the door.

Film Selections

Carpa Diem
Sergio Cannella
Before sleeping, a child in her apartment is lovingly watching a fish in the aquarium. In the meantime her younger brother is being mindless of the open tap the water flowing out of the washbasin. . .a waste that could turn into a tragedy. Many awards, including: Best Short, Vatavaran FF; Best Spot, Festival International Du Film Sur L’Énergie de Lausanne. (Italy, 2006, 2min) www.sergiocannella.it 

Climate: A Crisis Averted
Free Range Studios
Looks back from the year 2056 and recounts how ordinary citizens in 2006—realizing that global warming was a scientific fact and not a climatic theory—take action to demand clean energy and other planet-friendly options. Produced by Free Range Studios in Washington, DC and Berkeley, CA, the piece describes how a movement called RenewUS effected real change with an action plan, a "call-to-arms" about global warming. (USA, 2 min)www.freerangestudios.com

For The Price of a Cup of Coffee
Hypatia Porter
Follow the life cycle of a paper cup and the environmental repercussions of a society reliant on convenience. Filmed in the San Francisco Bay Area with interviews from local activists and experts. Maybe you will remember now to bring your own cup to the cafe! Best Documentary Epidemic Student Film Festival, Best Environmental Documentary, Cabbagetown Short Film Festival, Toronto. (USA, 2007, 15 min) www.sfenvironment.org 

Fridays at the Farm
Honorable Mention – Wild & Scenic Film Festival
Richard Power Hoffman
Feeling disconnected from their food, a photographer/filmmaker and his family decide to join a community-supported organic farm. Moving from passive observer to active participant, the filmmaker photographs the natural processes of food cultivation. Featuring lush time-lapse and macrophotography sequences compiled from nearly 20,000 still images, this personal essay is a meditation on the miracles of life. Best Short, Green Film Festival, Seoul, Korea. Best Documentary, Sapporo Short Film Festival, Japan. (USA, 2006, 19 min) www.coyopa.com

A Forest Returns
Jean Andrews and Steve Fetsch
The Success Story of Ohio's Only National Forest as told By Ora E. Anderson Documentary that presents an inspirational message about citizen participation and forest advocacy during the 1930s Depression era. Film producer, Jean Andrews, was inspired by Ora Anderson, a storyteller featured in documentary, as he traces the rebirth of a forest in Southeastern Ohio after generations of clear-cutting and farming. The project came about through her friendship with Anderson and her academic interest in the historical geography of Appalachian Ohio. Ninety-three year-old Ora Anderson, an Athens-area resident, nature writer, and radio commentator, was a journalist living in Southeastern Ohio during the Great Depression. In the video, Anderson vividly recalls the environmental and social conditions that led to the establishment of the Wayne National Forest. This video illustrates our evolving relationship with the land through Anderson's movingly personal account, archival photographs, 1930s newspaper reports, "then and now" imagery, and features music composed and performed by Southeastern Ohio musician Bruce Dalzell. (USA, 30 min) www.ohiolandscape.org 

Gimme Green
Isaac Brown, Eric Flagg
Lawns are undeniably an American symbol. But what do they really symbolize? Pride and prosperity? Or waste and conformity? Gimme Green is a humorous look at the American obsession with the residential lawn and the effects it has on our environment, our wallets and our outlook on life. From the limitless subdivisions of Florida to sod farms in the arid southwest, Gimme Green peers behind the curtain of the $40-billion industry that fuels our nation's largest irrigated crop—the lawn. College Television Award, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; Best Documentary Short, Beverly Hills Shorts Festival; Best Documentary Short, Phoenix FF; plus more. (USA, 2006, 27 min) www.gimmegreen.com

Oil and Water Project
People's Choice Award – Wild & Scenic Film Festival
Seth Warren
Two kayakers embark on an endless summer-style 35,000 km road trip from Alaska to Argentina in a retro-outfitted Japanese fire truck without a single drop of petroleum. They converted their regular diesel engine to run on everything from pig lard to palm pulp and they traveled for 9 months in pursuit of the best whitewater in the Americas. The pair coordinated with schools, local governments, farmers, agricultural research centers and media to conduct demonstrations advocating for the use of alternative energy all along the way. Best Environmental Film, Taos Mountain Film, Everest Award Recipient for Advocacy. (USA, 2007, 33 min) www.oilandwaterproject.org

The Story of Stuff
Annie Leonard and Free Range Studios
Film that takes viewers on a provocative and eye-opening tour of the real costs of our consumer driven culture—from resource extraction to iPod incineration. Annie Leonard, an activist who has spent the past 10 years traveling the globe fighting environmental threats, narrates the Story of Stuff, delivering a rapid-fire, often humorous and always engaging story about "all our stuff—where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away." Leonard examines the real costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, and she isolates the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. The Story of Stuff examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of "planned obsolescence" and "perceived obsolescence"—and how these notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today. (USA, 19 min) www.storyofstuff.com

Water Loving Doggies
Will Kier
There are places in this world and moments in time when PARADISE does exist...join some furry friends down on the Yuba. (USA, 2007, 2:40 min)