Contested Streets: Breaking New York City Gridlock

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

Stefan Schaefer/2008/57 min (25 min clip)/FAMILY

Through interviews with leading historians, urban planners, and government officials, Contested Streets: Breaking New York City Gridlock explores the history and culture of New York City streets from pre-automobile times to the present. This examination allows for an understanding of how the city, though the most well served by mass transit in the United States, has slowly relinquished what was a rich, multi-dimensional conception of the street as public space to a mindset that prioritizes the rapid movement of cars and trucks over all other functions.

Central to the story is a comparison of New York to what is experienced in London, Paris and Copenhagen. Interviews and footage shot in these cities showcase how curtailing automobile use in recent years has improved air quality, mitigated noise pollution and enriched commercial, recreational and community interaction. Congestion pricing, bus rapid transit (BRT) and pedestrian and bike infrastructure schemes and looked at in depth. New York City, though to many the most vibrant and dynamic city on Earth, still has lessons to learn from Old Europe. Written by Stefan Schaefer.

Programming note:  will be screened with Working Bikes and Bikes Belong.

A Wild Idea

Sunday, Mar 3, 1P/Oak Park Public Library - Tickets

26 min/

A Wild Idea is an award-winning documentary about the Yasuni-ITT Initiative, Ecuador's unprecedented proposal for fighting global climate change.  In exchange for payments from the world community, the country will leave untouched its largest oil reserves. If the proposal is accepted, it will conserve the Amazon’s biodiversity, protect the rights of indigenous people and avoid the emission of millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

A Wild Idea was directed and produced by Verónica Moscoso as her master's thesis at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.  

The film takes the viewer to the Yasuní National Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, capturing the rain forest’s stunning biodiversity. It also focuses in the millions of barrels of oil lying beneath the part of the park known as the ITT Block.

Exploiting the ITT seemed to be the logical step Ecuador had to take, but political changes have transformed the way the country views oil development. Through testimony representing different perspectives and rich archival video, A Wild Idea shows how the seemingly utopian ideal of keeping valuable oil underground turned into an official proposal.

As the film progresses, the complex initiative becomes easy to understand. The audience sees what’s at stake if the proposal is not accepted. And the political twists and turns that made it possible and that could also threaten the success of this revolutionary idea.

If accepted, the Yasuní-ITT initiative will protect perhaps the most biodiverse place on Earth. It would also respect the rights of two of the last nomadic indigenous people that live there in voluntary isolation. And it would avoid the emission of hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

A Wild Idea is a thought provoking film that explores the complexity of oil development within a fragile ecosystem, its local and global implications, and its effects on the planet as a whole.

AWARDS: Best Student Film at the Green Screen Film Festival in 2011; Official Selection of Toronto International Film Festival.

Programming note:  will be seen with Pipe Dreams.

A Sea Change

Sunday, Mar 3, 3P/Holley Court Terrace, Oak  Park - Tickets

Barbara Ettinger/2009/60  min/Mature theme

 Imagine a world without fish.  It’s a frightening premise, and it’s happening right now.  A Sea Change follows the journey of retired history teacher Sven Huseby on his quest to discover what is happening to the world’s oceans.  After reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s “The Darkening Sea,” Sven becomes obsessed with the rising acidity of the oceans and what this “sea change” bodes for mankind. His quest takes him to Alaska, California, Washington, and Norway as he uncovers a worldwide crisis that most people are unaware of.

Speaking with oceanographers, marine biologists, climatologists, and artists, Sven discovers that global warming is only half the story of the environmental catastrophe that awaits us. Excess carbon dioxide is dissolving in our oceans, changing sea water chemistry. The more acidic water makes it difficult for tiny creatures at the bottom of the food web to form their shells. The effects could work their way up to the fish 1 billion people depend upon for their source of protein.

A touching portrait

A Sea Change is also a touching portrait of Sven’s relationship with his grandchild Elias. As Sven keeps a correspondence with the little boy, he mulls over the world that he is leaving for future generations. A disturbing and essential companion piece to An Inconvenient Truth, A Sea Change brings home the indisputable fact that our lifestyle is changing the earth, despite our rhetoric or wishful thinking.

The first of its kind

A Sea Change is the first documentary about ocean acidification, directed by Barbara Ettinger and co-produced by Sven Huseby of Niijii Films. Chock full of scientific information, the feature-length film is also a beautiful paen to the ocean world and an intimate story of a Norwegian-American family whose heritage is bound up with the sea.

Programming note: will be seen with Stories of TRUST Alaska.

A Forest in Flux

Saturday, Mar 2, 3P/River Forest Park District - Tickets

Travis Kidd/2012/11 min/FAMILY

A Forest in Flux explains the impacts of a recent mountain pine beetle outbreak in the Rocky Mountains. The film takes a narrative approach to explain the ecology of the mountain pine beetle to kids aged 8-12. We follow a young boy on his quest to discover what is killing all the pine trees in his back yard.  He uses a smart phone to do take photos of what he sees and does research about the clues he is finding.

This is a fine cut of the Travis Wade Kidd's second year film for the MFA program in Montana State University's Master of Fine Arts program in "Science and Natural History Filmmaking" in Bozeman, Montana.

Filmmaker Bio

Born and raised in Northeast/Lower Michigan, Kidd had a strong connection to the natural landscapes surrounding him.  He studied Ecology and Anthropology at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, a mid-sized adventure town in Michigan's rustic Upper Peninsula.  Kidd is an avid bird enthusiast and an amateur naturalist who had "always carried (with me) the goal of one day becoming a documentary filmmaker."

Kidd has produced several short student documentary projects on topics ranging from raptor migration studies, to research in cultural heritage, to forest ecology and, in Forest in Flux, the Mountain Pine Beetle outbreaks of the Rocky Mountain West.

AWARDS: Official Selection, Element Film Festival 2012

Programming note: will be shown with Play Again.

For the Price of a Cup of Coffee

Thursday, Feb 21, 7P/Whole Foods Market, River Forest preview night- RSVP call 708.366.1045

Hypatia Angelique Porter/2007/15 min

What is the cost of convenience?  For the Price of a Cup of Coffee is a short environmental documentary examining the life cycle of a paper cup and the repercussions of a society reliant on convenience.  Why are less than 1% of coffeeshop patrons bringing their own cup?  Why do we have so much garbage, and where does it go? What is the true cost of a disposable culture?

Shot throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including interviews with local activists, environmental experts and coffeeshop owners. This film is full of information that all consumers should know about the products that we use everyday, and the steps we need to make towards a more sustainable world.

AWARDS:  Festival Favorite, Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival 2008. Best Documentary, Epidemic Student Film Festival 2007.

Programming note:  will be screeened with Black Gold and Fair Trade Africa.

The Majestic Plastic Bag: A Mockumentary

Saturday, Mar 2, 3P/River Forest Public Library - Tickets

4 min/

This mockumentary is narrated by Academy Award-winner Jeremy Irons and tracks the “migration” of a plastic bag from a grocery store parking lot to the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” in the Pacific Ocean.

Programming note:  will be screened and discussed along with Bag It - is your life too plastic?

 

Bag It - is your life too plastic?

Saturday, Mar 2, 3P/River Forest Public Library - Tickets

74  min/FAMILY

Bag It has been garnering awards at film festivals across the nation. What started as a documentary about plastic bags evolved into a wholesale investigation into plastics and their effect on our waterways, oceans, and even our bodies.  Join the Bag It movement and decide for yourself how plastic your life will be.

Program note:  Bag It will be screened and discussed along with The Majestic Plastic Bag: A Mockumentary.

Film program sponsored by Keep Oak Park Beautiful.

Food Patriots (70 mn rough cut)

Sunday, Mar 3, 12P/

Euclid Avenue United Methodist Church

, Oak Park (clip) -

Tickets

Tuesday, Feb 12, 7P/

Washington Irving School

 - FREE;

Jeff Spitz; Jennifer Amdur Spitz/2013/70 minutes/Family

"Food Patriots" focuses on an issue that directly touches all of us — food. The film tells personal stories that show ordinary people taking control of food and creating healthier lives, a less polluted environment, a new sense of community and new jobs. Touched by his son's struggle with food-borne illness, filmmaker Jeff Spitz weaves one family's experience into a tapestry of stories about people who are changing the way Americans eat, buy and educate the next generation about food.

South East Oak Park Community Organization is sponsoring this FREE sneak preview of the 70  minute rough cut of the film.  Join Chicago-based filmmaker, Jeff Spitz, to view and discuss his film on Tuesday, February 12, 2013, at Washington Irving School (1125 S. Cuyler Ave., Oak Park, IL) in Oak Park at 7 p.m.  Join the Facebook event to receive updates.  Call 773-315-1109 for more information.

Fairtrade Africa

Thursday, Feb 21, 7P/Whole Foods Market, River Forest preview night- RSVP call 708.366.1045; Saturday, Mar 2, 7P/First United Church, Oak Park - Tickets

Rob Holmes (Founder/Pres. GLP)/2012/5 min

Fairtrade Africa - Short Version from Green Living Project on Vimeo.

AWARDS: Produced by award-winning media company Green Planet Films.

Programming note: will be screened with Black Gold and For the Price of a Cup of Coffee.

Killowatt Ours

Sunday, Mar 3, 12:30P /

Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore

, Forest Park -

Tickets

Jeff Barrie/55 min

Kilowatt Ours is a timely, solutions-oriented look at one of America’s most pressing environmental challenges.  Award-winning film Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Re-Energize America is a timely, solutions-oriented look at one of America’s most pressing environmental challenges: energy.  Filmmaker Jeff Barrie offers hope as he turns the camera on himself and asks, “How can I make a difference?” In his journey Barrie explores the source of our electricity and the problems caused by energy production including mountain top removal, childhood asthma and global warming.

Along the way he encounters individuals, businesses, organizations, and communities who are leading the way, using energy conservation, efficiency and renewable, green power all while saving money and the environment.

This often amusing and always inspiring story shows, “You can easily make a difference and here’s how!”

Jeff and his wife Heather share a plan to eliminate their use of coal and nuclear power at home by employing energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.  Through the Barrie's learning experience, viewers discover how they can save hundreds of dollars annually on energy bills, and use a portion of the savings to purchase renewable energy.

Kilowatt Ours invites viewers to help build a net zero nation, by conserving energy to the greatest extent possible at home, then using clean renewable energy to provide the electricity used.

Programming note: will be shown with Stories of Trust - Montana.