Environmental film fest's 7th year
The seventh annual Environmental Film Fest will be held from 11a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday, March 17, 2012, at Olin Auditorium at Augustana College, 733 35th St. Rock Island, Ill.
Admission is free. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. Movies roll at 11 a.m. Healthy snacks and drinks will be provided. There will be fun and inspirational 5-minute short films before the feature films.
Parking is available along 38th St. and 7th Ave. and in lots on the campus map (Olin Center is no. 60 on map).
The event is sponsored by the Eagle View Group of the Sierra Club, Augustana College and Radish Magazine.
Schedule of award-winning films
Vanishing of the Bees
11 a.m. (57 min.) (view trailer)
"A ‘bees knees' of a film. Powerfully argued and very timely."
— Sunday Times
Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing hundreds of varieties of fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables. This movie examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and mother earth.
Burning the Future
12:30 p.m. (30 min.) (view trailer)
"A totally engaging exploration of an important and sensitive environmental issue...alongside An Inconvenient Truth, makes a major contribution to the sustainability debate."
— IVCA Clarion Award for Theatrical Films
Burning the Future: Coal in America, writer/director David Novack examines the explosive conflict between the coal industry and residents of West Virginia. Confronted by emerging "clean coal" energy policies, local activists watch a world blind to the devastation caused by coal's extraction. Faced with toxic ground water, the obliteration of 1.4 million acres of mountains, and a government that appeases industry, our heroes demonstrate a strength of purpose and character in their improbable fight to arouse in protecting their mountains, saving their families, and preserving their way of life.
White Water, Black Gold
"Traces the paths of both an imaginary drop of water and drop of oil while investigating what threats the oil sands project may have on the third largest watershed in the world."
-- Calgary Herald
1:20 p.m. (57 min.) (view trailer)
"White Water, Black Gold" is an investigative point-of view documentary that follows David Lavallee on his three-year journey across western Canada in search of answers about the activities of the world's thirstiest oil industry: the Tarsands. In the course of his journey he makes many discoveries: new science shows that water resources in an era of climate change will be increasingly scarce (putting this industry at risk); first nations people living downstream are contracting bizarre cancers; the upgrading of this oil threatens multiple river systems across Canada and the tailings ponds containing the waste by-products of the process threaten to befoul the third largest watershed in the world.
Death of a Forest
2:40 p.m. (15 min.)(view trailer)
With global warming evident in many places around the world, the forests of North America are undergoing huge changes. The pine beetle and pine trees have co-evolved together and until the past 2-3 decades, the numbers of beetles have been kept in check by very cold winters that would kill the beetles, thus limiting their lifespan and ability to reproduce. However, with warmer temperatures during the winters, the beetles are surviving in astounding numbers and are killing the forests of the western US and Canada. To date millions of acres of forests and billions of trees are dead and there is no end in sight. Some estimates predict that by 2013, 80% of the North American forests could be gone. In addition, we are losing forests that otherwise provide a carbon sink for our production of greenhouse gases, and as the trees die, they emit more carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. Nothing, except very cold winter weather, will stop the beetles.
YERT — Your Environmental Road Trip
3:15 p.m. (113 min.) (view trailer)
"Looking for the great American road trip in an age of climate change? "
— Huffington Post
YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip): 50 States. 1 Year. Zero Garbage? Called to action by a planet in peril, three friends hit the road - traveling with hope, humor, and all of their garbage - to explore every state in America (the good, the bad...and the weird) in search of the extraordinary innovators and citizens who are tackling humanity's greatest environmental crises. As the YERT team layers outlandish eco-challenges onto their year-long quest, an unexpected turn of events pushes them to the brink in this award-winning docu-comedy. Featuring Bill McKibben, Wes Jackson, Will Allen, Janine Benyus, Joel Salatin, David Orr, and others.
For more information about the Eagle View Group, Sierra Club go to http://illinois.sierraclub.org/eagleview or contact Kathryn Allen at kasavelie@aol.com.
