Six Films for a Healthier Planet

As a part of the Earth Week celebrations occurring this week a new component has been added this year in the form of a film festival. Fredonia’s Academic Community Engagement Center (FACE), EarthWorks, and students in Christina Jarvis’ “Writing, Sustainability and Social Change” course are putting on the Free Community Environmental Film Festival on Friday April 16 from 4 to 10 p.m. at the Fredonia Opera House on Church Street. The festival will entail six viewings of films that relate back to the over-arching theme of environmentalism.

The idea for the festival was the brain child of Jarvis. “The original idea for the film festival developed out of conversations with Mitch Cummings, head of EarthWorks, while I was writing my CFGB [Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo] grant. We had just teamed up for the hugely successful screening of “Addicted to Plastics” at the Grange,” said Jarvis. “Mitch and I thought that it would be great to do a larger community environmental film event, so I built the festival into my ‘Writing, Sustainability, and Social Change’ class.”

The films were nominated by students and EarthWorks members and then potential films were screened for two Saturdays. According to Jarvis the final entries were chosen because of their relation to sustainability and the interest that Chautauqua County residents may have in the topics.

The six films being shown will be:

At 4 p.m. “Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home,” which explores one suburban family’s experiences saving their household waste for three months and discovering exactly where that waste goes. This film sheds light on how even those who don’t think their actions affect the environment truly do.

At 5:15 p.m. “Crude Impact” will be shown, followed by “Burning the Future: Coal in America” at 5:45 p.m.. Both films examine the ever-expanding and prevalent issue of oil and coal as resources and the impact they have on the world around us.

At 6:30 p.m. will be “Homo Toxius,” which focuses on the widespread use of chemicals. This humorous but sobering documentary explores the links between the 100,00 toxic substances developed since World War II and rising health problems in human beings today.

“Fresh” will be shown at 7:30 p.m. and this film gives an insider look at what exactly goes into the food we regularly consume. It comments on the industrial food system, while celebrating farmers and business owners who are building local food networks and re-inventing the way we eat.

The final film, “A Sea Change: Imagine a World Without Fish” will be shown at 8:45 p.m.. This documentary examines the rising issue of ocean acidification and explores the solutions we need to implement in order to save our oceans.

“We chose ‘Fresh because it celebrates farmers and local food networks- Chautauqua County has mroe farms than any other county in the state, and the community has always been supportive of food-related sustainability events,” Jarvis said. “We chose ‘A Sea Change” because we are a Great Lakes region, and we wanted to include a water-related film.”

Students in Jarvis’ class were the main mode of publicity for the festival, using their writing, social networking and leadership skills to get the information out there. The festival aims to educate both students and community members about rising environmental issues that could potentially touch all of our lives.

Additionial reporting done by Travis Perry, Special to The Leader