One Earth Film Festival: Film Descriptions and Trailers (Sorted by Film Title) For last-minute film and venue changes, please stay tuned to this page. Running times are provided below, but approximately 30 min are also planned for post-film discussions.
Most films are FREE with a suggested donation of $5. The Green Carpet Gala (Restoring Earth and I Wish I Went to Ecuador) is $25; please support us by buying tickets!
- View/print a PDF of the full film descriptions in alphabetical order.
- View/print a PDF of the full film descriptions in the order of show times.
- See all films in at-a-glance film schedule view.
- Visit One Earth Film Festival main page.
| Film Title | Awards | Release Date | Running Time | Rating/Appropriate for | Credits | Showtime/Venue |
| A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet | Sundance Film Festival Official Selection | 2012 | 119 min | Not rated. Adults. | Mark Kitchell, Director/Producer. | 4/28 @ 5 p.m. - Dominican University, Main Campus, 7900 W Division, River Forest, Parmer Building, Room #108 (on the far western side of the campus). |
| A Fierce Green Fire is the first film to take on environmentalism as a whole, to bring together all the parts and eras, from conservation to climate change. It explores how the issues built into an international cause, the largest movement the world has ever seen and perhaps the most crucial in terms of what’s at stake. View trailer. | ||||||
| Angela’s Garden | Student Award, Long Form Production, by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences | 2011 | 16 min | Not rated. Adults and youth 16+ | Co-Directors/Producers Chris Bentley, Kristofor Husted, Matthew O'Connor | 4/28 @ 1:30 p.m. - Euclid Avenue United Methodist Church (with "Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai") |
| *Local film maker | A film about Angela Taylor her community garden on Chicago's west side. View trailer. | |||||
| A Sense of Wonder (clip) | Official Selection, Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival | 2010 | 30 min clip | Not rated. Adults and youth 13+. | Christopher Monger, Director. Karen Montgomery, Producer. | Sat. 4/28 @ 5 p.m. -Holley Court (with "Silent Spring")gister |
| Featured in Rachel Carson tribute program | When pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, the backlash from her critics thrust her into the center of a political maelstrom. Despite her love of privacy, Carson's convictions about the risks posed by chemical pesticides forced her into a very public and controversial role. View trailer. | |||||
| Biophilic Design: The Architecture of Life | Official Selection, Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital | 2011 | 56 min | Not rated. Adults. | Bill Finnegan, Director/Producer. Stephen Kellert, Executive Producer. | Sat. 4/28 @ 12 noon - River Forest Library |
| Biophilic Design is an innovative way of designing the places where we live, work, and learn. We need nature in a deep and fundamental fashion, but we have often designed our cities and suburbs in ways that both degrade the environment and alienate us from nature. . . . Biophilic Design points the way toward creating healthy and productive habitats for modern humans. View Trailer. | ||||||
| Kids! Children's Short Film Program (ages 3-7) | Various awards and acknowledgements | Various release dates. | 30 min combined | Various. Youth age 3-7. | Various, See below for details. | Sun 4/29 @ 9:30 a.m. - W. Beye Elementary School |
| Adult must accompany ALL children at this program. | 26 minutes of films, including: Fletcher & the Springtime Blossoms (8 min - 2011, DC Environmental Film Fest selection), The Lost Thing (15 min - 2010, Academy Award winner) and Electric Car (3 min - 2011, Grammy Award Nominee). Film program followed by 20 min of guided discussion. | |||||
| Kids! Children's Short Film Program (ages 8-11) | Various awards and acknowledgements | Various release dates. | 58 min combined | Various. Youth age 8-11. | Various, See below for details. | Sun 4/29 @ 11:00 a.m. - W. Beye Elementary School |
| Adult must accompany children under 12. | 58 minutes of films, including: Turtle World (9 min, 1996, DC Green Fest feature), The Cow who Wanted to be a Hamburger (6 min, 2010, Annie Award), The (original) Lorax (25 min, 1972, based on Dr. Seuss' award-winning tale), The Story of Bottled Water (8 min, 2010, EthicMark award), I Wish I Went to Ecuador (6 min, 2011, Grand Prize Kids for Kids UK Film Fest), and Declaration of Interdependence (4 min, 2011, award-winning director). Film program followed by 20 min of guided discussion. | |||||
| Dirt! The Movie | Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Nomination | 2009 | 86 min | Not rated. Adults and youth 14+. | Bill Benenson & Gene Rosow, Co-Directors/Producers. Laurie Benenson, Executive Producer. | Sun. 4/29 @ 5 p.m. - Pleasant Home, Closing Event |
| Co-sponsored by Keep Oak Park Beautiful | DIRT! The Movie--directed and produced by Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow--takes you inside the wonders of the soil. It tells the story of Earth's most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility--from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation. View trailer. | |||||
| Food Patriots (Work in Progress, 19 min) | Featured at Greentown Chicago | 2012 | 19 min | Not rated. Adults and youth 16+. | Jeff Spitz, Jennifer Amdur Spitz, Directors/Producers. | Sun 4/29 @ 2 p.m. - River Forest Village Hall, Community Room (with "Fresh: New Thinking About What We're Eating") |
| *Local film maker | Food Patriots is focused on an issue that directly touches all of us -- food. We aim to tell a story that unlocks the potential for healthier lives, a less polluted environment and new jobs that would evolve naturally if Americans shift by just 10% the way they buy, eat and educate the next generation about food. View trailer. | |||||
| Fresh: New Thinking About What We're Eating | Official Selection, Environmental Film Festival | 2009 | 70 min | Not rated. Adults and youth 16+. | Ana Sofia Joanes, Director/Producer. | Sun 4/29 @ 2 p.m. - River Forest Village Hall, Community Room (with "Food Patriots") |
| FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet. View trailer. | ||||||
| Fuel | Winner Sundance Film Festival, Best Documentary Audience Award | 2008 | 112 min | Not rated. Adults and youth ages 14+ | Josh Tickell, Director. Daniel Assael, Rebecca Harrell, Chip Rosenbloom, Greg Reitman, Producers. | Sat. 4/28 @ 1:30 p.m. - Oak Park Village Hall; Sun. 4/29 @ 1:30 p.m. - River Forest Park District |
| Eleven years in the making, FUEL is the in-depth personal journey of filmmaker and eco-evangelist Josh Tickell, who takes us on a hip, fast-paced road trip into America’s dependence on foreign oil. Combining a history lesson of the US auto and petroleum industries and interviews with a wide range of policy makers, educators, and activists such as Woody Harrelson, Sheryl Crow, Neil Young and Willie Nelson. Animated by powerful graphics, FUEL looks into our future offering hope via a wide-range of renewable energy and bio-fuels. View trailer. | ||||||
| Greenwashers | Silver Sierra Award at Yosemite International Film Festival | 2010 | 51 min | Not rated. Adults and youth 11+. | Bret Malley, Director. | Sun. 4/29 @ 1:30 p.m. - Green Home Experts |
| Adult must accompany children under 12. | Featuring renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben and business executive Scot Case, Greenwashers is a satirical documentary that blurs the line between green and greed, truth and believability, environmentalism and marketing. Misleading consumers about the environmental benefits of a product or service has become a new marketing standard and Greenwashers takes this practice to the extreme. Following a pair of Greenwashers, the film illustrates the various strategies, sins, and consequences of greenwash. View trailer. | |||||
| I Wish I Went to Ecuador | Grand Prize, Kids for Kids UK Film Fest | 2011 | 6 min | Not rated: youth ages 6+. | David Bunting, Producer/Animator. Bricknell Primary School (Hull, UK), Writers/Animators. | Fri, 4/27 @ 7 p.m. - Green Carpet Gala, Oak Park Conservatory (with "Restoring Earth");Sun, 4/29 @ 11 a.m. - W. Beye Elementary School (with various selections in Children's Short Film Program) |
| Adult must accompany children under 12. | An immersive, animated documentary taking you into the heart of the Ecuadorian rainforest. A child's eye view of a life changing expedition by their teacher, Mrs Jones and their joint mission to preserve these vital forests. Pupils at Bricknell Primary School collaborated with animator David Bunting and local campaigning organisation, One Hull on Rainforest to create an animated campaign film about the Ecuadorian rainforest. View film. | |||||
| Journey of the Universe | PBS Documentary by award-winning film makers | 2011 | 57 min | Not rated. Adults and youth ages 16+. | David John Kennard, Patsy Northcutt, Directors. Evelyn Tucker, Brian Thomas Swimme, Writers. | Sat. 4/28 @ 5 p.m. - Euclid Ave. United Methodist Church |
| Using his skills as a masterful storyteller, acclaimed author and evolutionary philosopher Brian Swimme connects such big picture issues as the birth of the cosmos 14 billion years ago – to the invisible frontiers of the human genome – as well as to our current impact on Earth’s evolutionary dynamics. Through his engaging and thoughtful observations audiences everywhere will discover the profound role we play in this intricate web of life. View trailer. | ||||||
| Mother: Caring for 7 Billion | Winner Best Social Issue Documentary-DocuFest Atlanta | 2011 | 54 min | Not rated. Adults. | Christoph Fauchere, Director. Joyce Johnson & Christoph Fauchere, Producers. | Sat. 4/28 @ 2:30 p.m. - Ahimsa Yoga Studio |
| Chicago-area premiere | Mother, the film, breaks a 40-year taboo by bringing to light an issue that silently fuels our most pressing environmental, humanitarian and social crises - population growth. In 2011 the world population reached 7 billion, a startling seven-fold increase since the first billion occurred 200 years ago. . . Grounded in the theories of social scientist Riane Eisler, the film strives not to blame but to educate, to highlight a different path for humanity. View Trailer. | |||||
| Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us? | Winner of Director’s Choice Award, Rhode Island Intl Film Festival | 2010 | 82 min | Rated PG. | Taggart Siegel, Director. Jon Betz, Producer. | Sat. 4/28 @ 3 p.m. -The Buzz Café;Sun. 4/29 @ 2 p.m. - River Forest Library |
| Adult must accompany children under 12. | Taking us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, this engaging and ultimately uplifting film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva. Together they reveal both the problems and the solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature. View trailer. | |||||
| Restoring Earth | Featured in award-winning exhibit of the same name at Chicago's Field Museum. | 2010 | 20 min | Unrated. | Produced by the Field Museum, Chicago | Fri, 4/27 @ 7 p.m. - Green Carpet Gala, Oak Park Conservatory (with "I Wish I Went to Ecuador") |
| Adult must accompany children under 12. | “We want people to come away from the exhibition realizing that conservation is much more than they may have previously thought -- it's science that helps us understand our world, but it's also a lifestyle we can practice every day. . .We want to effect an attitude change – to make people care about nature instead of just learning about it. We’re trying to inspire." (- Chicago's Field Museum) Watch video from the Restoring Earth exhibit. | |||||
| Silent Spring | For PBS' award-winning American Experience | 2007 | 56 min | Not rated. Adults and youth 13+. | Peter Bratt, Director. Robert Chartoff and Lynn Hendee, Producers. | Sat. 4/28 @ 5 p.m. -Holley Court (with clip from "A Sense of Wonder") |
| Featured in Rachel Carson tribute program | Her 1963 warnings about the effects of pesticides and herbicides - especially DDT - sparked a revolution in environmental policy and created a new ecological consciousness. View trailer. | |||||
| Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai | Best Documentary Audience Award, Mendocino Film Festival | 2008 | 56 min | Not rated. Adults. | Lisa Merton & Alan Dater, Co-Directors/Producers | Sat. 4/28 @ 1:30 p.m. - Euclid United Methodist Church (with "Angela's Garden") |
| Taking Root tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy—a movement for which this charismatic woman became an iconic inspiration. View trailer. | ||||||
| Tapped | Best Documentary Anchorage Intl Film Festival | 2010 | 76 min | Not rated. Adults and youth ages 14+. | Stephanie Soechtig, Director/Producer. | Sun. 4/29 @ 2 p.m. - Oak Park Main Library
Co-sponsored by Oak Park Coalition for Truth and Justice and Oak Park Library as part of their monthly documentary film series. |
| Co-sponsored by Oak Park Coalition for Truth and Justice | Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce? Stephanie Soechtig's debut feature is an unfliching examination of the big business of bottled water. From the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car? and I.O.U.S.A., this timely documentary is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our water. View trailer. | |||||
| Kids! The Cow Who Wanted to be a Hamburger | Best Short Film, Annie Awards | 2010 | 6 min | Not rated. Youth ages 8+ | Bill Plympton, Director. | Sat. 4/28 @ 2 p.m. - River Forest Library (with "What's on Your Plate?") and Sun. 4/29 @ 11 a.m. during Kids age 8-11 Program |
| Adult must accompany children under 12. | The Cow who Wanted to be a Hamburger is a children's fable about the power of advertising, the meaning of life and ultimately the test of a mother's love. View trailer. | |||||
| The Last Mountain | Sundance Film Festival Official Selection | 2011 | 95 min | Rated PG. | Bill Haney, Director. Eric Grunebaum, Clara Bingham, Bill Haney, Producers. | Sat. 4/28 @ 2:30 p.m. - Oak Park Main Library |
| Adult must accompany children under 12. | In the valleys of Appalachia, a battle is being fought over a mountain. It is a battle with severe consequences that affect every American, regardless of their social status, economic background or where they live. It is a battle that has taken many lives and continues to do so the longer it is waged. It is a battle over protecting our health and environment from the destructive power of Big Coal. View trailer. | |||||
| The Warriors of Qiugang | Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject | 39 min | Not rated. Adults. | Ruby Yang, Director. Thomas Lennon, Producer. | Sat. 4/28 @ 12:30 - Oak Park Main Library | |
| Villagers in central China take on a chemical company that is poisoning their land and water. For five years they fight to transform their environment and as they do, they find themselves transformed as well. View trailer. | ||||||
| Kids! Turtle World | Featured at Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital & Washington DC Green Festival | 1996 | 9 min | Adults and children ages 11+. | Nick Hilligoss, Director. Dione Gilmour, Producer. | Sat. 4/28 @ 9:30 a.m. - River Forest Library (with "Water on the Table") |
| Adult must accompany children under 12. | In this highly acclaimed animated film, a lone sea turtle travels through space, her breath creating a whole new atmosphere. This becomes filled with forests, rivers, mountains and enterprising monkeys...so enterprising that they are forced to learn about sustainability the hard way. View trailer. | |||||
| Kids! WALL-E | Hugo Award. Academy Award, Best Animated Feature. | 2008 | 98 min | Rated G. | Disney/Pixar | Sat. 4/28 @ 9:30 a.m. - Oak Park Main Library |
| Adult must accompany children under 12. | What is mankind had to leave earth and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? After hundreds of years doing what he was built for, WALL-E discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL-E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans. Meanwhile, WALL-E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most imaginative adventures ever brought to the big screen. View trailer. | |||||
| Waste Land | Sundance Film Festival Best World Cinema Audience Award. Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature. | 2010 | 99 minutes | Rated PG. | Lucy Walker, Director. Angus Aynsley, Producer. | Sat. 4/28 @ 9:30 a.m. - Lake Theatre *Special Breakfast Screening |
| Co-sponsored by Keep Oak Park Beautiful. Adult must accompany children under 12. | Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. View trailer. | |||||
| Water on the Table | Eligible for Cinema Politica 2011 Audience Choice Award | 2010 | 56 min | Adults and youth ages 16+. | Liz Marshall, Director/Producer | Sat. 4/28 @ 9:30 a.m. - River Forest Library (with "Turtle World") |
| Water on the Table follows Council of Canadians activist Maude Barlow in her campaign to have water declared a human right and during her tenure as senior adviser on water to the UN. Barlow has been campaigning since the 1980s to get special protection for Canadian water and prevent it being sold commercially.” (From CBC News). View trailer. | ||||||
| Family! What’s on Your Plate? | 2009 (Official Selection, Seattle Intl Film Festival) | 2009 | 76 min | Not rated. Adults and youth ages 11+. | Catherine Gund, Director/Producer. Tanya Selvaratnam, Producer. | Sat. 4/28 @ 2 p.m. - River Forest Library (with "The Cow…Hamburger") |
| Also suited for older kids and adults. Adult must accompany children under 12. | WHAT'S ON YOUR PLATE? is a witty and provocative documentary produced and directed by award-winning Catherine Gund about kids and food politics. Filmed over the course of one year, the film follows two eleven-year-old multi-racial city kids as they explore their place in the food chain. Sadie and Safiyah take a close look at food systems in New York City and its surrounding areas. With the camera as their companion, the girl guides talk to each other, food activists, farmers, new friends, storekeepers, their families, and the viewer, in their quest to understand what’s on all of our plates. View trailer. | |||||