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January 2 - 6, & 12, 2008 The 2008 Princeton Environmental Film Festival will include films and speakers on a range of environmental concerns and issues. |
Schedule of Film Screenings and Talks
View by day: Jan 2 | Jan 3 | Jan 4 | Jan 5 | Jan 6 | Jan 12
Wednesday January 2, 2008
Noon
TALK: Building a Sustainable Community
Wendy Kaczerski, member of the Princeton Environmental Commision, will talk about efforts by the commission to build a sustainable community. The Princeton Environmental Commission is charged with the protection, development and use of natural resources in Princeton Borough and Township. We will view a short film The Story of Stuff.
1:00 p.m.
FILMS: What Will We Eat? and The Organic Opportunity
Screening of the two films will be followed by discussion with filmmaker Chris Bedford and then a panel discussion on the local food movement.
FILM: What Will We Eat?
Running time 26 minutes. 2006.
Directed by Chris Bedford.
“What Will We Eat?” is a new 26 minute film that reveals the growing crisis in industrial agriculture and how a grassroots coalition of consumers and small farmers is inventing a healthy, humane, homegrown alternative.
Filmed primarily in West Michigan, “What Will We Eat?” focuses on the success of the Sweetwater Local Foods Market in Muskegon – Michigan’s first farmers' market to exclusively sell local produce raised according to organic standards and products from animals raised humanely. The story is told through the voices and experiences of small farmers and their customers.
FILM: The Organic Opportunity 
Running time 25 minutes. 2007.
Directed by Chris Bedford.
The film tells the story of how one county – Woodbury County, IA – took action to make local, organic food production a key to their community’s economic development. Woodbury County and its major city, Sioux City, have faced economic decline as a result of the industrialization of agriculture over the last half century. The number of farms declined. The meat processing industry almost disappeared. Rural towns faced extinction.
Today, this decline has reversed as the county instituted the nation’s first intentional program to encourage the development of a new local food system based on organic and humane agricultural practices. This film is meant to be shown to Chambers of Commerce, elected local and county government officials, bankers and economic development corporations. Its goal is to begin a new conversation about local, healthy food as the key to economic development.
3:30 p.m.
TALK: Growing the Local Food Movement in the Garden State
A panel of speakers will be moderated by
Fran McManus, Whole Earth Center.
Participants include:
Raoul Momo, Terra Momo Restaurant Group
Gab Carbone, bent spoon ice cream
Barbara Stange, Simply Natural Living
Sherry Dudas, Honey Brook Organic Farm
Kelly Harding, Cherry Grove Farm
Pam Mount, Terhune Orchards
Magazines and newspapers across the country have proclaimed that local is the new organic. The number of farmers' markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms, and Buy Local campaigns is rising rapidly across the US as miles to market becomes an important part of the equation that consumers consider when they make food choices. But local food advocates caution that consumer support is only one part of the solution and that we must think more creatively about addressing marketplace impediments if we want to create an economically and ecologically viable local food system. Join local food businesses and farmers as they discuss challenges and opportunities in the buy local food movement as well as innovative programs in other communities that we might adopt here in New Jersey.
6:30 p.m.
Opening Reception with Refreshments
7:00 p.m.
FILM: The Next Industrial Revolution
Running time 55 min. 2001. Directed by Chris Bedford and Shelley Morhaim.
With the world facing grim environmental consequences from human activity, Time Magazine "hero of the planet" Bill McDonough has identified an exciting path to a positive future. In McDonough and partner Michael Braungart's vision, humanity takes nature as our guide, reinventing technical enterprises to mimic natural processes. Can't happen? It's already happening--at Nike, at Ford, at Oberlin College, at Herman Miller Furniture, and at Steelcase. Shot in Europe and the U.S., the film explores how businesses are transforming themselves to work with nature and enhance profitability.
The film will be followed by Q&A with filmmaker Chris Bedford.
Chris Bedford is co-founder and President of the Sweetwater Local Foods Market – Michigan’s first farmers market to exclusive sell locally grown fruits and vegetables raised in a manner that enhances biological diversity and builds soil health AND meats, eggs, and cheese from animals raised humanely without antibiotics or hormones. His film, “What Will We Eat?” tells the story of a citizen’s movement to build a healthy, local food supply for Michigan.
From 2001-2004, he was the National Campaign Coordinator for Sustainable Agricultural Programs of The Humane Society of the United States. From 1998 to 2003, he served on the national Sierra Club’s Water Committee, helping to design and implement a nationwide campaign against the destruction caused by industrial animal production.
In addition, he is a nationally known advocacy film maker and strategic campaign consultant whose work has won three dozen awards for excellence. He is currently President of the Center for Economic Security, a non-profit located in Montague, Michigan that develops education and organizing campaigns to bring ecological intelligence to governmental and commercial decision making.
Thursday January 3, 2008
Noon
FILM: Designing a Great Neighborhood: Behind the scenes at Holiday
Running time 54 min. 2005. Directed by David Wann.
To people driving past the old Holiday Drive-In Theater site in Boulder, Colorado, it might seem like a new neighborhood has sprung out of the ground overnight. But those who worked on the project's development know better. Collectively, hundreds of thousands of decisions and choices were made to create the 330-home neighborhood, where affordability and sustainability are primary goals. It wasn't exactly a simple mission. The film follows the progress of the Wild Sage Cohousing Community project, where future residents participate in the design of their own neighborhood. The stated architectural goal at the Wild Sage site in Boulder is a "zero emissions" neighborhood in which solar energy, energy efficiency, and changes in behavior eliminate the need for fossil fuels.
Following the film:
1:00 p.m.
TALK: Transforming the Landscape with Green Buildings
A panel of speakers will be moderated by Athena Sarafides, green building advocate.
Participants include:
Daniel Hernandez, Architect, LEED AP and Principal, Topology, LLC
Mark Biedron, LEED AP and Co-Founder, Trustee, and General Contractor, The Willow School, Gladstone, NJ
Ronald Berlin, Architect
In the United States, buildings account for 39% of total energy use, 12% of the total water consumption, 68% of total electricity consumption and 38% of the carbon dioxide emissions. Green buildings reduce the environmental impacts of buildings and offer us opportunities to live, work and play in healthier spaces. Each of the panelists will react to the film and discuss their views on green buildings, using examples from their own practice.
4:00 p.m.
FILM & TALK: Isles: Self-Reliant Families in Healthy, Sustainable Communities
Film running time 13 min. Produced by Telequest of Princeton, NJ.
Marty Johnson, President of Isles, Trenton, NJ, will discuss Isles' work with a special focus on healthy homes, lead poisoning prevention, energy efficiency, community gardening, open space redevelopment, exercise and nutrition.
The Trenton-based community development and environmental organization was founded 26 years ago by Johnson, Princeton University '81 and Isles President.
Isles is a nationally-recognized nonprofit that applies a range of strategies to meet the complex demands of low wealth communities. Five integrated departments support core urban needs and opportunities: Environment & Community Health; Real Estate Development; Financial Self-Reliance; Community Planning & Research; and YouthBuild Institute.
Friday January 4, 2008
Noon
TALK: Edible Gardens: Princeton Public Schools Are Growing Gardens for their Classrooms, Cafeterias and the Community
A panel of speakers will be moderated by
Diane Landis Hackett of the Princeton School Garden Cooperative.
Participants include:
Judy Wilson, Superintendent of Princeton Regional Schools
Chad Lebo, Elementary School Science Teacher
Dorothy Mullen, Garden Based Educator
The four Princeton public elementary schools are using garden based education to enhance everything from learning ABC's to plotting and graphing in math. Community Park, Johnson Park, Littlebrook and Riverside Elementary schools each have thriving edible gardens that have been funded through an innovative local business partnership between the Whole Earth Center and the bent spoon ice cream shop. The Princeton middle and high schools are currently planning edible classrooms at each of their campuses for the spring. Join Princeton School's Superintendent, Judy Wilson, teachers and other educators who will discuss why outdoor classrooms are such an attractive addition to the schools, how they address curriculum standards and health and wellness mandates and supply produce to local area businesses.
Princeton School Garden Cooperative's K-5 garden based curricula.
2:00 p.m.
FILM: Too Hot Not To Handle
Running time 53 min. HBO video, 2006. / executive producer, Laurie David ; produced by Susan Lester ; produced by Joseph Lovett ; written by Susan Joy Hassol ; segment directors, Maryann De Leo, Ellen Goosenberg Kent ; segment producers, Vibha Bakshi, Rosemary Sykes ; Lovett Productions ; Home Box Office.
A primer on global warming, Too Hot Not To Handle features contributions from leading scientists in the field. In addition to in-depth discussions of such subjects as the greenhouse effect, hurricanes, snowpack, hybrid vehicles, and alternative power sources, the film shows how businesses, local governments, and citizens are taking positive actions to reduce global warming emissions.
The screening will be followed by discussion with
Dr. Thomas G. Kreutz,
Senior Technical Staff Member,
Princeton Environmental Institute
4:00 p.m.
FILM: Kilowatt Ours
Running time 65 min. 2007. A film by Jeff Barrie.
Kilowatt Ours follows filmmaker Jeff Barrie on his 18-month journey across the southeast United States, where more than six tons of coal are burned to generate electricity for the average home annually.
Barrie takes viewers from our light switches at home to the sources of our energy, examining social and environmental consequences such as global warming, mountain top removal, air pollution, childhood asthma and mercury contamination. Leaving the devastation behind, the story makes an uplifting turn, uncovering hope-filled examples
of conservation, efficiency and renewable power at work today.
Barrie makes the case that environmental problems could be minimized by utilizing alternative technologies that are available today. The solutions are surprisingly accessible and affordable to the average American. Kilowatt Ours presents viewers with an ambitious plan for shifting America’s energy paradigm towards conservation and renewable power.
The film screening will be followed by a talk by Mike Strizki, Advanced Solar Products. Mike's 3,000-square-foot New Jersey house is run completely independently of the local power grid, using solar panels and a hydrogen storage system. He is a founding member of The Hopewell Project, a New Jersey non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of sustainability issues through educational and community outreach programs. Partnering with schools, foundations, and environmental organizations, they provide educational materials, resources and hands-on learning experiences to K-12 and university students, as well as interested adults.
7:00 p.m.
FILM: Everything's Cool
Running time 60 min. 2007. A film by Daniel Gold, Judith Helfand, Chris Pilaro and Adam Wolfensohn; Directed by Daniel Gold and Judith Helfand
Everything's Cool is a film about America finally "getting" global warming in the wake of the most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action. The film chronicles a group of global warming messengers are on a high stakes quest against industry-funded nay-sayers, to find the to find the iconic image, the magic language, the points of leverage that will finally create the political will to move the United States from its reliance on fossil fuels to the new clean energy economy.
The film screening will be followed by Q&A with Judith Helfand (Writer, Director, Producer) and Adam Wolfensohn (Producer).
Judith Helfand (Writer, Director, Producer)
Filmmaker, activist and educator Judith Helfand is best known for her ability to take the dark, cynical worlds of chemical exposure and heedless corporate behavior and make them personal, resonant, highly charged, and entertaining. Her films, "The Uprising of '34" (Co-directed with George Stoney), the Sundance award winning "Blue Vinyl" (for which she and Co-Director Daniel Gold were nominated for two Emmy's), and its Peabody award winning "prequel" "A Healthy Baby Girl" (a five-year "video-diary" about her experience with DES related cancer), explore home, class, corporate accountability, intergenerational relationships and the ever shrinking border between what is "personal" and what is a critical part of the public record.
Adam Wolfensohn (Producer)
For the past six years, Adam has been neck deep in climate change as a media producer, consultant, grant-maker and investor. From 2002 to 2003, he managed Conservation International's program to make the 2003 Pearl Jam and Warped Tours climate neutral with avoided deforestation offsets. Since 2003, he has been producing "Everything's Cool" as well as directing clean energy investments for Wolfensohn & Co. Before his left turn into the environmental world in 2000, he wrote and produced award-winning music for numerous film, theater and television productions at tomandandy and his own studio, Red Ramona. He is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Trustee of the Alaska Conservation Foundation and President of Bang on a Can.
FREE cool refreshments provided courtesy of the bent spoon ice cream will be served.
Saturday January 5, 2008
10 a.m.
Talk: From Crisis to Innovation: Lessons From the Universe for Today, by Author Jennifer Morgan.
Earth is in the midst of the most massive extinction of species since the dinosaurs perished 65 million years ago. Do crises serve a function? Is there something we can learn from cataclysmic events that have happened throughout the story of the universe?
Jennifer Morgan will discuss crises of the past and show how innovations can happen inside of destruction. By learning lessons from the past, we can be empowered to act within the heat of our own present day crisis. Jennifer will also do a short dramatic reading from Mammals Who Morph about the current crisis.
International speaker and award winning author Jennifer Morgan has wowed audiences of all ages with her books, lectures and dramatic storytelling on the story of the universe from the big bang to today. For ages 8 to 80 and beyond, according to the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the titles of her books are Born With a Bang, From Lava to Life, and Mammals Who Morph.
More information about Jennifer and her books.
11:00 a.m.
Talk: Growing Up Green: The Best Environmental Books for Children and Teens
by Authors Linda Oatman High and John Morano.
Authors Linda Oatman High and John Morano present a book talk about the best books for children and teens on the subject of environmentalism.
Linda Oatman High is an author of books for children, teens, and adults, with her book Barn Savers based in the recycling of old barns. John Morano is a professor of journalism at Monmouth University, and the author of an eco-adventure series of books for teens and adults, including titles A Wing and a Prayer, Makoona, and Somewhere Out There.
More information about Linda and her books.
More information about John and his books.
Noon
Talk and Photo/Video Presentation:
Miami2Maine: An Ocean Conservation Campaign
by Margo Pellegrino
Medford Lakes, New Jersey resident Margo Pellegrino, an avid canoeist and environmentalist, set out from Miami Beach in May 2007 on an 11-week expedition to paddle some 2,000 miles north in an effort to raise awareness about problems threatening the world's oceans. Motivated by her concern for the future of the ocean and her kids, she took to the inland waterways and the ocean from Miami to Maine; by working with the East Coast Chapters of Surfrider Foundation, the National Environmental Trust, Mordecai Land Trust, and others along the way, she was able to garner significant media attention for her mission of “ocean awareness and conservation.” Seeing the danger in “all talk, no action,” Margo felt she needed to show her two young children, as well as everyone she could reach, that one person can make a difference.
More info about Margo and Miami2Maine.
2:00 p.m.
FILM: The Water Front
Running time 53 minutes. 2007. Directed by Liz Miller.
What if you lived by the largest body of fresh water in the world but could no longer afford to use it? Residents of Highland Park, Michigan, known as the birthplace of the auto-industry, have received water bills as high as $10,000; they have had their water turned off, their homes foreclosed, and are struggling to keep water, a basic human right, from becoming privatized.
The Water Front is the story of an American city in crisis but it is not just about water. The story touches on the very essence of our democratic system and is an unnerving indication of what is in store for residents around the world facing their own water struggles.
The film screening will be followed by a discussion moderated by Kimberly K. Smith, the Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and Humanities at Princeton Environmental Institute and Visiting Associate Professor in the Center for African American Studies, Princeton University. She will lead a discussion on class, race and inequality and the environmental problems facing metropolitan areas.
4:00 p.m.
FILM: The Unforseen
Running time 93 minutes. 2007. Directed by Laura Dunn.
Executive Producers:Terrence Malick and Robert Redford.
An ambitious west Texas farm boy with grandiose plans tires of living at the mercy of nature and sets out to find a life with more control. He heads to Austin where he becomes a real estate developer and skillfully capitalizes on the growth of this 1970s boomtown.
At the peak of his powers, he transforms 4000 acres of pristine Hill Country into one of the state's largest and fastest-selling subdivisions.
When the development threatens a local treasure, a fragile limestone aquifer and a naturally spring-fed swimming hole, the community fights back. In the conflict that ensues, we see in miniature a struggle that today plays out in communities across America.
This is no simple story, but a tale of personal hopes, victories and failures; a series of debates over land, economics, property rights and the public good; a meditation on the exchange of our irreplaceable natural resources for an often fleeting American dream.
Featuring one of the last interviews with the iconic Texas Governor Ann Richards, internationally acclaimed environmentalist Wendell Berry and Robert Redford, The Unforseen links the regional story of one community's struggle to protect their cultural capital to a larger examination of what Americans will give up in the name of progress and convenience. The film asks us to soberly examine where we are and passionately hope for something better.
The film screening will be followed by a discussion led by Linda J. Mead, Executive Director of the D&R Greenway Land Trust.
Sunday January 6, 2006
1:30 p.m.
FILM: Two Square Miles
Running time 93 minutes. 2005. A film by Barbara Ettinger.
Two Square Miles tracks the conflicts that unfold as a proposed multinational coal-fired cement plant threatens to reshape the small community on the banks of the Hudson River. Hudson's passionate citizens fight to save the town's unique character and its architectural heritage, breathing life into the exercise of local democracy.
The film immerses the viewer in an extended observation of life in an American small city experiencing rapid transition over the course of two years.
The questions that exist about the future of Hudson are similar to the concerns of citizens in towns and cities across America. How is the global economy affecting our communities?
Can a traditional small town main street with mom and pop stores still be viable with the 21st Century competition of big-box stores and consolidation? Can goals of environmental conservation and economic development co-exist?
How can citizens and activists concerned about the direction of their communities be involved in the democratic process, and can idealistic goals drive real political change? And, in the wake of divisive political campaigns, can new and productive political alliances that serve the common good be forged?
This energetic exploration of small town America at the turn of the 21st Century is a journey beneath the surface of a classic American town, where the layers are peeled back to reveal and celebrate the wide-ranging diversity and unusual characters that make small town America so unique.
The film screening will be followed by Q&A with Barbara Ettinger, Director/Producer; Sven Huseby, Producer; Ben Kalina, Associate Producer; and Sam Pratt, Founder, Friends of Hudson.
Barbara Ettinger, Director/Producer:
Barbara Ettinger lives in Germantown, NY, 10 miles outside of Hudson. Her first feature documentary, Martha and Ethel, told the heartfelt story of two women and their childhood nannies. It competed at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival; screened at the Toronto Film Festival, and won Best Documentary at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Martha and Ethel was purchased by Sony Pictures Classics for national and international theatrical release, and was shown nationally on Cinemax. She received a Bachelor of Arts at Manhattanville College, completed the certificate program at the International Center for Photography, where she studied documentary and portrait photography, and was awarded a Master of Arts from Stanford University in education. She took a break from filmmaking to co-found the Native American Preparatory School in New Mexico, and after 6 years returned to the Hudson Valley to resume filmmaking. She, and her husband Sven, immediately became involved in their local community and the fight against a proposed coal fired cement plant, and as a result, made the film Two Square Miles. They are currently working on a film called A Sea Change about ocean acidification.
Sven Huseby, Producer:
Sven Huseby is retired as Headmaster of the The Putney School in Putney, Vermont, and he is a member of of several boards where he focuses on issues of organizational capacity, and he is an avid cyclist.
Ben Kalina, Associate Producer:
Ben Kalina's fiction short, Diorama, won the top prize at the 2007 Sehseuchte film festival in Germany, Europe’s largest student film festival. He co-directed Leaps of Faith: Views on American Power, the Invasion of Iraq and Citizenship in a Time of War", and he has been working with Barbara Ettinger and Sven Huseby at Niijii Films since 2003 as associate producer and 2nd cinematographer on "Two Square Miles", and as associate producer on "A Sea Change".
Sam Pratt, Founder, Friends of Hudson:
Sam Pratt abandoned a career as a journalist for national publications to devote himself to environmental activism and grassroots organizing. In Two Square Miles, he spearheads the fight against the massive, coal-burning St.Lawrence Cement plant proposal. Pratt was the fiercely devoted co-founder and executive director of Friends of Hudson, the grassroots organization which grows from 40 to over 4,000 members in the course of its battles against outdated, polluting proposals. The outspoken positions that he takes in his efforts to preserve the health, welfare and environment in the city of Hudson and the Hudson Valley region frequently upset the political status quo. Currently Pratt is focusing on film and design projects.
4:00 p.m.
FILM: Quark Park
Running time 60 min. 2007. A film by Chris Allen.
Quark Park is the story of bohemian garden artist Peter Soderman, and self confessed "cold hearted realist" Yale architect Kevin Wilkes. Together they create two distinct art collaborations in Princeton, New Jersey, on the same vacant lot eventually slated for "Condomonium."
In 2004 from his cell phone in a pick-up truck Peter convinces literary luminaries from the university community to pair up with local architects and builders to enshrine a bucolic paradise that Peter and Kevin call "Writers Block". Disassembled at the end of the summer, two years later, a new project called "Quark Park" was created as a collusion of art and science. Both projects won New Jersey AIA awards.
Quark Park is laden with interviews of academic celebrities and average Joes who get caught up in the non-stop, action-packed whirlwind of thought, work, and borderline delusion.
While both gardens are gone, Chris Allen’s documentary exemplifies what a community can accomplish for itself when a small group of people are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve a goal. Its two-fold message is clear ~ the greatest love that you can give a community is your labor ~ and that anything on that premise can be grown out of a garden.
The screening will be followed by by Q&A with filmmaker Chris Allen, and with Peter
Soderman and Kevin Wilkes. They will talk about the film, experiences building Writer's Block and Quark Park, and Kevin and Peter will also talk about their next creative venture, Poet’s Alley.
Refreshments will be served.
Saturday January 12, 2008
11:00 a.m.
TrashIn' the Big Apple
Running time 8 minutes. 2007. Co-produced by Alison Byrne, Anne Catherine Hundhausen and Allison Steinberg as part of the Integrated Media Arts MFA program at Hunter College in New York City, where their focus is social-issue-driven nonfiction media.
Smart, funny and informative, TrashIn' the Big Apple addresses the environmental impact of landfilling food. With expert interviews, a tour of Rikers Island composting facilities, a dynamic host and illustrative animated sequences, this film offers an educational journey through New York City's waste, exploring solutions to a mounting problem.
The screening with be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Alison Byrne.
Noon:
The Recyclergy
Running time 33 minutes. 2006. Directed and produced by Jeremy Kaller.
For decades the San Francisco Bay Area has been a hub for the recycling movement. Even the garbage companies have a long history of recycling practices. After the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, community, non-profit recycling centers appeared in schools, garages, and neighborhood centers-with the goal of bringing recycling to their cities. Now in 2006, only two non-profit recycling organizations remain in San Francisco.
Despite the lack of surviving community recycling centers, the Bay Area is still home to a unique community of recyclers who push the envelope of possibilities. Featuring interviews with recycling pioneers and music by Rube Waddell, The Recyclergy is an entertaining examination of a fading subculture.
1:00 p.m.
Gimme Green
Running time 27 minutes. 2006. A film by Isaac Brown and Eric Flagg.
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.
1:30 p.m.
TALK: Restoring Native Habitats in Princeton Preserves and Backyards
Steve Hiltner, Natural Resources Manager for Friends of Princeton Open Space, will talk about the need for habitat restoration in town, projects begun thus far, the parallels between nature preserves and backyards, and an incremental approach to displacing unneeded lawn with low-maintenance native plantings.
2:30 p.m.
A Greener Greater Newark
Running time 30 minutes. 2007. Produced by NJN Public Television.
Writer/Producer: Bob Szuter; Executive Producers: Elizabeth G. Christopherson, Janice Selinger.
Twenty years ago, the Greater Newark Conservancy started teaching Newark’s kids, teachers, and citizens how to create natural spaces and explore nature study within the city.
It recently opened an educational garden -- the Prudential Outdoor Learning Center -- in the Central Ward. In addition, Parks for People-Newark, a program initiated by the national conservation group Trust for Public Land, has also helped facilitate the efforts of local residents who join together to create desperately-needed city parks.
A Greener Greater Newark also profiles the neighborhood leaders and residents these groups depend on, the citizens who’ve committed their time and resources to educating kids and beautifying blocks. Together, they are defying the odds to, slowly but surely make Newark a greener city from the ground up.
The film screening will be followed by a Q&A with Bob Szuter, producer, NJN Television, and Robin Dougherty, Executive Director of the Greater Newark Conservancy.
4:00 p.m.
Manufactured Landscapes
Running time 87 min. 2006. Directed by Jennifer Baichwal.
Peter Mettler, cinematographer. Nick de Pencier, Daniel Iron and Baichwal, producers. Starring: Ed Burtynsky.
Manufactured Landscapes is both a stunning portrait of Edward Burtynsky, internationally celebrated photographer who specializes in large-scale studies of industrial vistas, and an exploration of the aesthetics and social and spiritual dimensions of globalization around the world today. Acclaimed filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal follows Burtynsky to China and to Bangladesh, where he captures the effects of the massive industrial revolution those countries currently are undergoing.
Winner Best Canadian Feature, Toronto International Film Festival.
Reviews:
“Absorbing…The almost freakishly crystalline detail and obsessively exacting compositions of Mr. Burtynsky’s work can bring to mind that of Ansel Adams, though the subject matter means that it more rightly belongs to the technological sublime than to the natural sublime.” – Manohla Dargis, THE NEW YORK TIMES
“An extraordinary, haunting, beautiful, insightful, touching and thought-provoking movie!”
– Al Gore
“Stunning! Like Burtynsky’s work, the film is gorgeous and haunting.” – Anthony Kaufman, UTNE READER
“The shots expand on Burtynsky’s work, capturing not just the physical scale but the physical sense of moving through these massive factories and landscapes in time. An extraordinary visual record of change on an unprecedented scale.” – NEW YORK MAGAZINE
7:00 p.m.
King Corn
Running time 90 min. 2007. A Film by Aaron Woolf, Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney.
King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.
For more information contact Susan Conlon:
(609) 924-9529 ext. 247 or by email: sconlon@princetonlibrary.org
See what we did last time around:
Film/lecture schedule of the 2007 Princeton Enviornmental Film Festival.
All screenings and lectures will be FREE and open to the public, and held in the 1st Floor Community Room of the library, at 65 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, NJ.