"A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet" -- the 2012 documentary that has been billed as the video history of the environmental movement, is now hitting theaters across the country. Visit the film's website for more info on screenings in your area.
"'A Fierce Green Fire' is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement – grassroots and global activism spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change. Directed and written by Mark Kitchell, Academy Award-nominated director of "Berkeley in the Sixties," and narrated by Robert Redford, Ashley Judd, Van Jones, Isabel Allende and Meryl Streep, the film premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2012, has won acclaim at festivals around the world, and in 2013 begins theatrical release as well as educational distribution and use by environmental groups and grassroots activists.
Inspired by the book of the same name by Philip Shabecoff and informed by advisors like Edward O. Wilson, "A Fierce Green Fire" chronicles the largest movement of the 20th century and one of the keys to the 21st. It brings together all the major parts of environmentalism and connects them. It focuses on activism, people fighting to save their homes, their lives, the future – and succeeding against all odds."
The 2013 "Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival" just wrapped and has announced its winners. The film that took the "Best of Fest" award is "Cafeteria Man," a film about providing better school lunches to children in urban areas.
"Cafeteria Man is a story of positive movement that shows what's possible in our nation's schools. It’s about the aspiration of activists and citizens coming together to change the way kids eat at school. It’s about overhauling a dysfunctional nutritional system. And, it’s the story of what it takes, and who it takes, to make solutions happen."
Winning the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival "Best of Fest" award is quite the endorsement; Green Earth Cinema readers should seek out this film.
There are a lot of environmental documentaries about water, but "Watershed" stands out as one of the best of 2012. The film premiered at the "Environmental Film Fest in the Capital" early last year and is now making its way around the environmental film festival circuit. "Watershed" is narrated by long time environmental advocate Robert Redford, and was produced by James Redford -- Robert's son. The film focuses on the Colorado River, and makes the alarming claim that overuse of the river now prevents it from reaching the sea.
To find a screening in your area visit the "Watershed" website here.
Green Earth Cinema recently talked with the folks at ML Lincoln Films about their upcoming documentary "Wrenched." "Wrenched" profiles radical environmentalist Edward Abbey (who is very popular in the world of film lately-- see this previous post). This is what the crew at "Wrenched" had to say about their upcoming film:
Green Earth Cinema: What motivated your team to make "Wrenched"?
"Wrenched" Crew: The film grew out of ML Lincoln's concern for the massive disappearance of wilderness and the wild rivers in the West. Her previous award-winning documentary, "Drowning River," celebrates the environmental activism of 1950's starlet, Katie Lee, and tells the story of her 50-year battle against the Arizona politics and corporate agendas which destroyed Glen Canyon by damming the river.
During that project, ML was inspired by the many committed environmental activists that have spent their lifetimes trying to save the West through direct action. A major source of their inspiration was credited to Edward Abbey.
Green Earth Cinema: What is it about Ed Abbey that captivates so many people's imaginations?
"Wrenched" Crew: He was a contrary, opinionated, politically incorrect and unvarnished man's man with a talent for communicating the awe of the natural world. His ability to drive people to action gave him a power uniquely his own. His frustration with mainstream environmentalist groups, and what they saw as acceptable compromises, fueled his writing and inspired a generation to engage in direct action.
"Wrenched" Crew: "Wrenched" looks at the successes and failings of the environmental movement through the lens of Edward Abbey. It follows his philosophy of direct action and asks what we can learn from his legacy.
Green Earth Cinema: What do you think Ed would make of today's environmental movement (read: has the movement lost its "radicalism")?
"Wrenched" Crew: This is a tough one. We feel comfortable postulating that he would still rail against the corporatization of the big environmental groups but applaud the efforts of smaller entities like "The Center for Biological Diversity." We think he would, as we do, support the efforts of Tim DeChristopher and his ingenious monkey wrenching of the BLM several years back. Whether or not he would feel the movement has lost its radical edge only he could say, so we'll have to stick with the epithet on his gravestone, "No Comment".
Green Earth Cinema: Ed Abbey was a prolific writer. He wrote non-fiction, fiction, and even published a book or two of aphorisms. Do you have a favorite quote, passage, or aphorism? Would you share it?
"Wrenched" Crew: "My job is to save the fucking wilderness. I don't know anything else worth saving," George Hayduke from The Monkey Wrench Gang
Green Earth Cinema: What's next for "Wrenched"?
"Wrenched" Crew: We look forward to finishing the film this Spring and using it as a catalyst to re-introduce Abbey's spirit of anarchism and rebellion.
Green Earth Cinema: Anything else you'd like to add about the film?
"Wrenched" Crew: We want the film to speak for itself so we hope folks will get out and see it once it's done. We would however like to encourage everyone to read Ed's books, especially Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang.
A lot of people like wildlife films;
films that showcase the savage existence of lions, tigers, and bears. The
problem is that many wildlife films simplify the complexity of nature. They
"anthropomorphize" nature by explaining it in human terms (think:
"March of the Penguins"), or
alternately, turn nature into a spectacle (think: "Shark
Week"). Only a very few wildlife films transcend this
sensationalism.
Karearea:
The Pine Falcon (2008) is amongst those few wildlife films
that avoid clichés, exaggerations, and manufactured drama. It's also one of the few wildlife films that actually tells a story. Karearea focuses on
George Chance— famous falcon photographer, and director Sandy Chrichton. Chance
is slowly losing his eyesight, and Chrichton seeks to fulfill Chance's final
wishes by delivering him video of his beloved birds. The only problem is
falcons are notoriously hard to photograph, and— to complicate things even
further, much of the Pine Falcon's habitat is threatened by logging.
"Karearea: The Pine Falcon" was screened at 60 festivals across the globe but never
aired on US television.
Learn more about the film at the
Karearea website.
Green Earth Cinema recently caught up with documentary director Lindsay Jaeger. Her new film, "Everett Ruess: Wilderness Song" chronicles the life of the vagabond poet Everett Ruess. Ruess vanished in the Escalante Canyon region of Utah in the mid 1930s and, subsequently, became something of a wilderness folk hero.
Green Earth Cinema: Can you give us a brief synopsis of your film? Who was Everett Ruess? What does he represent?
Lindsay Jaeger: Everett Ruess was an aspiring artist and writer who grew up in a Los Angeles family of creative intellectuals. He devoured books and admired symphonies. He loved nature and felt more at home in the deep solitude of the wild than in bustling cities.
As a teenager during the Great Depression, Everett left home and set out to live and travel in the wilderness. After a few years of lone treks spanning hundreds of miles of exploration in the American Southwest, he vanished. The mystery of his disappearance has never been solved.
The film follows in the footsteps of Everett. Those who encountered him as boys in the cowboy ranching town of Escalante, Utah recount the last time Everett was ever seen. Pat Jenks, a hundred-year-old man, animatedly describes hosting Everett after finding him, dehydrated, walking on the side of the road near the Painted Desert in Arizona. Members of the Navajo Nation share their perspectives on the territory where Everett lived and befriended Native Americans while reveling in ancient ruins and striking scenery. A current embodiment of Everett's legacy of passionate and selfless devotion to the environment, activist Tim DeChristopher, explains how and why he disrupted a 2009 federal oil and gas land auction under the threat of prison.
In the end, I felt that a story about the region and its vast iconography became almost synonymous with a story about Everett Ruess. Everett loved the encounters he had with people on the trail. He celebrated the beauty and isolation of the natural landscape, utterly and completely.
Green Earth Cinema: What motivated you to make "Everett Ruess: Wilderness Song"?
Lindsay Jaeger: I feel a kinship with both Everett and the people and places represented or described in his work. I grew up for much of my life near Escalante, Utah, the town where Everett was last seen in 1934. I relate to his expressions of wonder and his captivation with the wilderness and beauty of the area.
I shot this film mostly alone. I wanted to create, on some level, a sense of Everett's subjectivity as a young person, seeing the world for the first time, relating to people on an intimate and genuine level. I wanted it to feel intuitively formed and rough around the edges. So, because of this, I avoided any sterile or antiseptic methods. I worked without a crew or excessive equipment that could have created any reservation or distractions. The shots are handheld and imperfect-- I like to think of the camera as "breathing" -- rather than overly posed or locked-off. I relaxed and allowed the process of "one person on a journey" to unfold before me, rather than trying to overly sculpt and control interactions or portrayals.
Whether I realized it at the outset, I think that my overarching goal has become to make a story - or just create an impression - about the American West, with Everett Ruess as the perfect conduit. I didn't set out with something to prove or to try to solve the mystery. I was more impressed with the way Everett chose to live his life - his ideals - than I was interested in focusing on possible scenarios surrounding his death.
I think that there have been well-formed hypotheses about what happened to Everett. There are also complete collections out there of his words and his artwork, as well as various studies, references, and theories related to Everett, posed over the years. There are obsessive fact-finders, fetishists, and archivists who seek to gather his original possessions and learn more with every physical clue...
I simply wanted to create a portrait, to reveal a sense of who and what he saw, a glimpse of what was actually experienced on his journeys, as well as some of the greater perspective of the area. As I have mentioned before, elsewhere, I felt that I needed to see the faces and hear the voices of those portrayed in this film. I think they are valuable pieces of the larger story of Everett's experience and the place he was dedicated to. They collectively provide a living reminder of something to be cherished, a uniqueness that is inevitably changing in today's world.
Green Earth Cinema: The story of Everett Ruess predates the story of Christopher McCandless-- of "Into the Wild" fame, by half a century. How does Everett's story compare to the stories that are told about McCandless?
Lindsay Jaeger: Part of my initial interest in Everett and the idea of telling his story was the basic universality of being a teenager and feeling like an outsider. He expressed some of those highly identifiable and relatable moments that simply go along with "coming of age." For anyone who has ever felt like they just don't fit in, or they're suffocated and rendered helpless by society, structure, and rules-- Everett is someone who decided to do something about it. He engaged in a reality in which he was constantly challenged, was the master of his destiny, enjoyed brilliant pay-offs and agonizing hardships. He put himself - and only himself - in charge of his fate. I believe that this self-designed scenario liberated him. I think the same is possibly true for McCandless.
Green Earth Cinema: What do you think people see in characters like Ruess and McCandless? Why does the mystery captivate so many people?
Lindsay Jaeger: It's my experience that the rush of survival and the glory of surpassing difficult physical feats - all while perceiving overwhelming, aesthetic, rare moments of natural scenery - can result in some of the most visceral and validating feelings possible... I think that both Ruess and McCandless discovered this "secret" of feeling alive and real. In their cases, they pursued it all the way, as far as they humanly could. Because they gave their lives in the name of an ardent cause, belief, or lifestyle, they bear remembering and, in some cases, are even turned into glorified martyrs and folk heroes.
Green Earth Cinema: Ruess wrote a good amount of poetry that was later compiled into the books "On Desert Trails" and "Everett Ruess: Vagabond for Beauty." Do you have a favorite passage from either of these books? If so, can you share it?
Lindsay Jaeger: Yes, well -- Dan Bern also dove into Everett's poetry and writing for this project and composed a wonderful album based on the material; it's the soundtrack of this film. My favorite piece of Everett's writing is also my favorite of Dan's songs, as well as the film's namesake -- "Wilderness Song." The words of the poem state:
Say that I starved; that I was lost and weary; That I was burned and blinded by the desert sun; Footsore, thirsty, sick with strange diseases; Lonely and wet and cold, but that I kept my dream! Always I shall be one who loves the wilderness: Swaggers and softly creeps between the mountain peaks; I shall listen long to the sea's brave music; I shall sing my song above the shriek of the desert winds.
Green Earth Cinema: What is the message you would like audiences to take away from a screening of "Everett Ruess: Wilderness Song"?
Lindsay Jaeger: I hope that people leave with a sense of Everett's ideals and that they feel inspired to share some of these values in regards to the wild. I hope that they're compelled to learn more about his life and the place where he chose to live it.
Green Earth Cinema: What's next for "Everett Ruess: Wilderness Song"?
Lindsay Jaeger: I recently made a website - everettruesswildernesssong.com - where you can keep up to speed with the goings on. The film will be available for purchase and/or download there by Spring 2013 at the latest. You can also look at plenty of "Bonus Scenes" there right now that didn't make the final cut. Some of them shade in further details about Everett and the people who have been inspired by him. Others describe integral elements in the larger canvas of issues related to the Southwest.
Green Earth Cinema recently interviewed Isaac Brown of Jellyfish Smack Productions. His new film "Terra Blight" examines the issue of e-waste and is currently touring the country.
Green Earth Cinema: Tell us a little bit about how you developed the idea for "Terra Blight." Was it a project you had in the works for a long time? Did you do much preproduction? What did it entail? How did you finally decide on the structure of the film-- following e-waste from the US to Ghana? Isaac Brown: The idea for Terra Blight was in the works for a while. For years I’ve been fascinated with how much we waste in America (Americans make up 5% of the world’s population but consume 25% of its resources). We are always looking for different ways of telling that story. Another film I directed— "Gimme Green"— explored the topic through America’s obsession with lawns. After finishing that film, we decided to find another everyday object that we take for granted and center a film around it. The computer seemed like the perfect symbol for many reasons: we tend to worship them, few consider what it takes to make one, and electronic waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the world.
As far as preproduction, we read lots of books, talked to experts, read articles, watched news segments/films, and generally immersed ourselves in the topic over a four-year period. The structure of the film really came out in editing. We knew we wanted to follow the life cycle of the computer from creation to disposal and that became a framework to build from. Green Earth Cinema: "Terra Blight" premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City earlier this year. What was the experience like? How was the film received?
Isaac Brown: Premiering at Slamdance was a great experience. It really put the film on the map and was a big help in getting distribution offers. The audience seemed incredibly moved by the film.
Green Earth Cinema: "Terra Blight" is currently on a six week "awareness raising" tour. Tell us about the tour, where the film is going, and what you hope this tour helps to accomplish in terms of "awareness."
Isaac Brown: One thing that we hear from many in the e-waste recycling industry is that awareness is their biggest hurdle to overcome. Many people do not realize how toxic this material is and haven’t thought about their place in this global cycle of waste.
We recently received an Outreach Grant from The Fledgling Fund that helped us take the film on a 25-stop tour around the United States. We hope each screening serves as jumping off point for a conversation about this very serious issue, and that the audience will continue spreading the word long after. Several schools have been inspired to do e-waste collections following the screening.
Green Earth Cinema: Getting down to the issues... What can people in the USA do to reduce e-waste? Where do you see the solution to this problem coming from-- individuals, governments, corporations, NGOs?
Isaac Brown: We’ve created a “Take Action” page on the film’s website where people can get involved. I really think the solutions are going to have to come from all of us (since we are all part of the problem).
Green Earth Cinema: What's next for "Terra Blight" (after the six week tour)?
Isaac Brown:Terra Blight does have distribution, so there are plenty of ways to see it. The film is on iTunes (as well as many other VOD sites)
We’re still waiting to see where it will have its Television premiere, but DVDs will be available in the coming weeks and we’re hoping to see it on sites like Netflix and Hulu sometime in 2013.
There have been many documentaries that examine
the negative impact industry has upon the environment, but few on the
environmental impacts of war. "Scarred Lands & Wounded Lives"
(2008) changes that. The film offers an in depth look at one of the least known
casualties of war— the ecosystems and geographic spaces war is waged in. From
wholesale deforestation in World Wars I and II, to the nuclear legacy of the
Cold War, “Scarred Lands & Wounded Lives” suggests that most wars continue
after “cease fire” agreements have been made. Unexploded Ordinances (or land
mines) in Cambodia, the toxic legacy of Agent Orange in Vietnam, and the oils
spills of the first Gulf War have lingering effects upon the populations of war
torn areas. “Scarred Lands & Wounded Lives” asks the question: how should the
toxic legacy of war be addressed? Watch the entire film online at Vimeo.com and
visit the film’s website.
A slew of environmental films are invading Dallas as part of the 25th annual Dallas Videofest (Sept 26th to 30th)!
Amongst the featured environmental films are "The Lightbulb Conspiracy," a feature length documentary about the history of planned obsolescence in manufacturing, "Veins in the Gulf," a second feature doc about the plight of southern Louisiana's coastline, and a number of other important environmental shorts.
Veins in the Gulf is a documentary that traces the environmental crisis of southern Louisiana, the political decision-making challenges surrounding coastal flooding, and a rapidly disappearing bayou culture.
Mission of Mermaids is a short film about the current state of the oceans. Director Susan Cohn Rockefeller takes a radically personal approach in the film and invokes a mythical spiritual connection to the oceans through the metaphor of the mermaid.
A glimpse into the inter-workings of a small-scale, family-owned and operated organic ranch in Greenville, Texas, during the worst drought in recorded history.
Rumors about a "Monkey Wrench Gang" film have been flying over the last few years but things are now starting to heat up! The film, based on Edward Abbey's classic book of environmental literature, is slated to be directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman— the team that brought us the documentary "Catfish."
"Deadline Hollywood" claims that the film's producers have had the film in mind for 15 years and only now feel that they have the right actors for the characters: "George Hayduke," "Doc Sarvis," "Bonnie Abzugg," and "Seldom Seen Smith."
Whether they'll pull it off or not remains to be seen, but the film's first legal battle is already underway.
The "Hollywood Reporter" claims that "Edward R. Pressman Film" has "demanded a halt to work" on a similar film entitled "Night Moves," calling "the unproduced work" a "blatant rip-off of the popular Edward Abbey novel." Hollywood Reporter also claims that, "Edward R. Pressman Film, producers of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and American Psycho, purchased the exclusive film rights to Abbey's 1975 book and say that another film on the market is derived from that same work."
Whether or not "Cactus Ed" would approve is anyone's guess, but one thing is for sure, a Monkey Wrench Gang film is long overdue.
