And The Winners Are...

The votes are in, and Green Community Connections is pleased to announce the winners of the first ever One Earth…Our Earth Young Filmmakers Contest!  We are extremely happy to report that we received 12 films in the first year of the contest across the different age categories.   Thank you to all of the participants for making the first year of the contest so successful.  A lot of hard work and dedication were put into these films, and we are so proud of these young filmmakers.

 The Winning Films

Let’s Talk About Water – Lea Kichler , Lincoln Park High School, Chicago IL (High School Category)

Sporktagion – Heritage Earth Action Team – Heritage Middle School, Berwyn, IL (Middle School Category)

A Wasteful Santa – Mann School Group, Horace Mann Elementary School, Oak Park, IL (Elementary School Category)

Awards Presentation and Additional Screenings

Each winning filmmaker will be awarded a cash prize as well as a matching grant to put towards the nonprofit of their choice.  The public award ceremony will take place on Saturday, March 2, 11:00 am at Beye School in Oak Park (230 N Cuyler Ave).  The winning films will be shown and awards  will be distributed.  A reception with light refreshments will follow.

Each winning film will also be screened as part of the One Earth Film Festival general film program as follows:

• Let's Talk About Water:  Fri 3/1, Pleasant Home (217 Home Ave, Oak Park), 7P and Sat 3/2, Oak Park Village Hall (123 Madison Street), 12:30P, before Waterlife/Stories of Trust Oregon
• Sporktagion:  Sat 3/2, River Forest Library (735 Lathrop Ave), 3:00P, before Bag It/Majestic Plastic Bag
• A Wasteful Santa:  Sun 3/3, The Brown Cow (7347 W. Madison St, Forest Park), 3:00P, before The Clean Bin Project/Working Bikes

Please come out to join us and celebrate the amazing pool of young talent during the film festival, March 1-3!

The Contest

As part of the 2^nd Annual One Earth Film Festival, the Young Filmmakers Contest was created with the following goals in mind:

• To engage and educate children and adults in Oak Park, River Forest, and surrounding communities about sustainability issues in the areas of water, waste, food, transportation, and energy.
• To help viewers understand the urgency of sustainability issues in the above-mentioned topics, and share potential solutions.

Students in grades 3 through college were invited to submit environmental film entries with topics covering water, waste, food, transportation or energy.  Comprised of a panel of 10 judges, both in the media/film industry and volunteers from Green Community Connections, the young filmmakers were judged on their ability to address their chosen topic/s while being engaging, informative, inspiring, and creative in the execution of their film.  Submissions were to follow the established guidelines and show a strong (research-supported) understanding of the topic/s and related, key issues, as well as share solutions to the issues at hand.

One Earth Film Festival Announces Official 2013 Selections!

We are thrilled to announce the list of One Earth Film Festival 2013 Official Selections, presented here in an alphabetical sort.  Read the film synopses and view the trailers to start planning your festival weekend.  Tickets/reservations are available.  Get an at a glance schedule here.  See a schedule list here.

While we are making every effort to schedule each of the films listed here, sometimes problems arise that necessitate a change in the program.  Therefore, please be aware that the films and schedule are subject to change.

Check back often for programming notes and updates.

The Age of Stupid - Sat Mar 2, 3P - Mature theme

Bag It   is your life too plastic? - Sat Mar 2, 3P - FAMILY

Bikes Belong - Sat Mar 2, 3P

Black Gold - Thu Feb 21, 7P (clip); Sat Mar 2, 7P

Call of Life - Sun Mar 3, 6P - Mature theme

Chasing Ice - Mon Feb 11, 7P; Sat Mar 2, 10:30A - Rated PG

Change for the Oceans - Sat Mar 3, 12:30P - FAMILY

The Clean Bin Project - Sun Mar 3, 3P - FAMILY

Contested Streets:  Breaking New York City Gridlock - Sat Mar 2, 3P

Declaration of Interdependence - Fri Mar 1, 7P; Sun Mar 3, 6P

Designing Healthy Communities PBS Series: Searching for Shangri-La - Sat Mar 2, 12:30P

Dying Green - Sat Mar 2, 12:30P - Mature theme

Fairtrade Africa - Thu Feb 21, 7P; Sat Mar 2, 7P

First Snow in the Woods - Sat Mar 2, 10A - FAMILY

Food Patriots (70 mn rough cut) - Tue Feb 12, 7P - FAMILY; Sun Mar 3, 12P (clip only)

For the Price of a Cup of Coffee - Thu Feb 21, 7P

A Forest in Flux - Sat Mar 2, 3P - FAMILY

Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of Our Lives - Sat Mar 2, 12:30P

Houston, We Have a Problem - Sat Mar 2, 3P - Mature theme

Ingredients:  The Local Food Movement Takes Root - Sun Mar 3, 12P

Killowatt Ours - Sun Mar 3, 12:30P - FAMILY

Last Call at the Oasis - Sat Mar 2, 7P - Rated PG

The Majestic Plastic Bag - A Mockumentary - Sat Mar 2, 3P - FAMILY

The Mantis Parable - Sat Mar 2, 12:30P - FAMILY

Papiroflexia - Sat Mar 2, 12:30 - FAMILY

Pipe Dreams - Sun Mar 3, 1P

Play Again - Sat Mar 2, 3P - FAMILY

Ride of the Mergansers - Sat Mar 2, 12:30A - FAMILY

A Sea Change - Sun Mar 3, 3P

A Simple Question: The Story of STRAW - Sun Mar 3, 12:30P - FAMILY

Snowflakes and Carrots - Sat Mar 2, 10A - FAMILY

Split Estate - Sat Mar 2, 12:30P

The Story of Change - Sun Mar 3, 12:30P

Surviving Progress - Sun Mar 3, 12:30P

Stories of TRUST - Calling for Climate Recovery - Various programs - FAMILY

Waterlife - Sat Mar 2, 12:30P

A Wild Idea - Sun Mar 3, 1P

Working Bikes - Sat Mar 2, 3P

The views and opinions expressed in any film and/or discussion are those of the producers of the films and/or the persons making the statements during the film program and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of One Earth Film Festival or Green Community Connections or any of their sponsors.

One Earth Film Festival 2013 Schedule

See  One Earth Film Festival 2013 Official Selections below, in an at-a-glance layout.  Download the 2013 film schedule as a pdf. For a list of films and links to descriptions and trailers, go here.

Tickets/reservations available now!   Most events are free; suggested donation is $5 per film or $15 for unlimited films. As seating is limited we request that you RSVP by selecting the films that you plan to attend.

The views and opinions expressed in any film and/or discussion are those of the producers of the films and/or the persons making the statements during the film program and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of One Earth Film Festival or Green Community Connections or any of their sponsors.

Soul Food Junkies

Sunday, Mar 3, 3P/

St. Martin's Episcopal Church,

Chicago

Tickets

Byron Hurt/2011/63 min/FAMILY

Soul Food Junkies explores the health advantages and disadvantages of Soul Food, a quintessential American cuisine. Soul food will also be used as the lens to investigate the dark side of the food industry and the growing food justice movement that has been born in its wake.

AWARDS: Best Documentary Urbanworld Film Festival 2012; CNN Best Documentary Award American Black Film Festival 2012

The Mantis Parable

Saturday Mar 2, 12:30P/

William Beye Elementary School

, Oak Park -

Tickets

Josh Staub/2005/8 min/FAMILY

The charming tale of a humble caterpillar trapped in a bug collector's jar and in need of a helping hand.

AWARDS:  screened in over 40 festivals around the world and has won more than a dozen top awards, including twice qualifying for Oscar nominations.

Stories of TRUST - Calling for Climate Recovery

Playing at various venues throughout One Earth Film Festival 2013 (see below for details) -

Tickets

Kelly Matheson; Christi Cooper-Kuhn/2012/9 min per segment/FAMILY

Stories of TRUST: Calling for Climate Recovery, is about the perfect trifecta of youth, law and justice.  This series of short documentaries features the voices of daring youth from across the country who went to court to compel the government to protect our atmosphere, in trust, for future generations.  Calling for Climate Recovery is a 10-part groundbreaking documentary series of nine young people who bravely share their stories of harm, activism and hope around the climate crisis.  

These youth have gone to court to hold their governments accountable for protecting the Public Trust resources that are essential for their well being and survival. What they want is simple: real Climate Recovery Plans, guided by our nation's best science, not dictated by politics and fossil fuel lobbyists. They come from California, Montana, Alaska, Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Massachusetts, but their stories cross state lines and tell a common American story.

Programming notes:

TRUST: Oregon - Oak Park Village Hall, Saturday Mar 2, 12:30P with Waterlife

TRUST: PA - Oak Park Village Hall, Saturday Mar 2, 3P with Houston, We Have a Problem

TRUST: AZ - River Forest Village Hall, Sunday Mar 3, 12:30P with A Simple Question: The Story of STRAW

TRUST: CA - River Forest Village Hall, Sunday Mar 3, 12:30P with A Simple Question: The Story of STRAW

TRUST: Montana - Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, Sunday Mar 3, 12:30P with Killowatt Ours

TRUST: Alaska - Holley Court Terrace, Sunday, Mar 3, 3P with A Sea Change

Snowflakes and Carrots

Saturday, Mar 2, 10A/

William Beye Elementary School

Oak Park

Tickets

Samantha Leriche-Gionet/2010/4 min/FAMILY

A little girl steals the carrots from all the snowmen in town.  The filmmaker's graduation film from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema (Concordia University).

AWARDS:  Winner of the Hermina Tyrlova Award for Young Artist at Zlin Film Festival 2011. Official Selection, Rhode Island International Film Festival. Official Selection, Chicago International Children's Film Festival 2010.

Working Bikes

Saturday, Mar 2, 3P/Greenline Wheels, Oak Park - Tickets;

Sunday, Mar 3, 3P/Brown Cow, Forest Park - Tickets

2012/5 min

Follows the Chicago organization by the same name that removes discarded bikes from the waste stream and then rehabs the bikes for donation.

Programming note:  will be screened with Contested Streets and Bikes Belong (Saturday).  Will also be shown with The Clean Bin Project (Sunday).

Dying Green

Saturday, Mar 2, 12:30P/

Oak Park Public Library

Tickets

Ellen Tripler/2011/26 min/Mature theme

Have you chosen to live a greener life?  One man has and he has taken it one step further: he not only wants to live green but he wants die green as well and is helping others do the same.  Dying Green, a short documentary set in the foothills of the Appalachians, explores one man's vision of using green burials to conserve land.

Join filmmaker Ellen Tripler to discuss her film at this screening!

Dr. Billy Campell is the town's only physician, and his efforts have radically changed our understanding of burials in the United States.   His dream is to conserve one million acres of land.  This film focuses on the revolutionary idea of using our own death to fund land conservation and create wildlife preserves.

AWARDS:  CINE Golden Eagle Award; official selection Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital; Myrtle Beach int'l Film Fest; Montana Cine Intl film Fest; Student Academy Award 2012; College Television Award 2012

Programming note:  will be shown with Designing Healthy Communities PBS Series: Searching for Shangri-La.

Designing Healthy Communities PBS Series: Searching for Shangri-La

Saturday, Mar 2, 12:30P/

Oak Park Public Library

Tickets

2012/60 min

Dr. Richard Jackson explains the link between our health and the way our communities — especially our suburbs — are designed.  Obesity, asthma, diabetes and heart disease are all aggravated by the auto-centric way we live our lives today. It’s no secret that today’s generation of children are likely to have shorter lives than their parents because of their unhealthy lifestyles.  It doesn’t have to be this way. Well-designed communities can improve both physical and mental health, as Dr. Jackson explains in this four-part public television series and the accompanying book.  Searching for Shangri-La is part four of the series.

Public health has traditionally associated the “built environment” with issues such as poor sanitation, lead paint poisoning children, workplace safety, fire codes and access for persons with disabilities. If we are what we eat, it can also be said that we are what we build. We now realize that how we design the built environment may hold tremendous potential for addressing many of the nation’s – childhood and adult — current public health concerns. These include obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma, depression, violence and social inequities.

Almost everything in our built environment is the way it is because someone designed it that way. The project’s goal is to offer best practice models to improve our nation’s public health by re-designing and restoring our built environment. Our country faces grave challenges in environment, economy and health. The banquet is over. “Easy oil” has disappeared, so too other resources are being depleted. And global heating increasingly will threaten human and species survival worldwide. Economies built on ever increasing consumption have contracted and secure incomes are unlikely to be available to working people for a long time, if ever. And our medical care costs will continue to escalate for reasons of technology and population aging, but particularly as the tripling of obesity and doubling of diabetes rates show their health and cost effects.

In Designing Healthy Communities PBS Series: Searching for Shangri-La, Dr. Jackson searches past and present America for healthy, sustainable communities of all sizes and shapes that can serve as models for the rest of the nation. His journey takes him to Roseto, PA, Prairie Crossing, IL, New York City, Charleston, SC, and the forgotten 1960s urban renewal project of Lafayette Park in Detroit, MI, the brainchild of 4 men, including visionary architect, Mies van der Rohe.

Also included are walkability expert, Dan Burden, and the 1960s, humorous but insightful, candid camera-­‐style studies of people in public spaces by William Holly White.

Programming note:  will be shown with Dying Green.