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Do you recycle?
The seemingly innocuous question comes with all sorts of ethical baggage these days: for many Americans, recycling is not just an initial step into a greener life, but also an activity suffused with moral weight. While many will argue about the significance of individuals and families recycling items they might otherwise throw away, there’s no doubt that creative and innovative reuse of materials is critical for the health of the planet… and the people who reside on it (along with all of those other species). Tonight, the Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas for a Small Planet goes beyond the blue bin many of us place on the curb, and looks at three organizations that are taking recycling in some interesting, and effective, directions.
By Joel Bittle •
April 17, 2008
On Tuesday, April 22, the Sundance Channel will present as part of their The Green series “The Greening of Southie,” a documentary on the construction of Boston’s first green residential building, the Macallan, which is seeking a LEED gold rating. If the idea of watching a documentary on the construction of a condo building doesn’t sound too exciting to you, I cannot recommend this film enough to anyone who is or wants to be a part of green building. It presents the challenges and excitement of building green with equal measures of idealism and cynicism, juxtaposing the suits who see the project as ideas and paper with the laborers who actually have to put the building together. As the project grows, the two come closer to understanding the other side.
Fittingly, the film begins with a group of incredulous workers in hard hats listening to a project manager describe what a green building is. It turns out he doesn’t exactly know himself. “What does it give you?,” “what’s the point?” they ask. “I can’t answer that exactly,” he responds. But the skeptical laborers make jokes, dismissing the whole idea. After the manager explains that the condos will have “double flush” toilets, one man jokes, “I use that a lot - that system. One never seems to do the job.”
Editor’s note: We’re excited to hear that King Corn is coming to the small screen, and that its creators have a new film coming out. Thanks to our friends at Eco-Libris for sharing this post with us; it was originally published on Saturday, April 5, 2008.
Two weeks ago Eylon Israely conducted an interview with King Corn’s Director and Producer, Aaron Woolf . Today we’ve got interesting updates on the film and its creators.
Firstly, If you haven’t seen this documentary yet, here’s your chance - King Corn airs on PBS on April 15! So mark it down in your calender.
And there’s also a new film from the creators of King Corn - The Greening of Southie. The film will have its world premiere on the Sundance Channel on Earth Day, April 22 at 9:40PM. This time, the filmmakers explore green building, and they’re focusing on the first green residential project in one of the favorite neighborhoods: South Boston, or Southie as everyone calls it. Here’s a little bit more about it:
Nope, not another April Fool’s joke: the Sundance Channel will be rolling out the second season of The Green starting tonight, hosted by Simran Sethi and Majora Carter. At 9 EST, a new episode of the award-winning series Big Ideas for a Small Planet will air. Subtitled “Power,” tonight’s show “explores the booming field of alternative energy as it introduces several individuals who are working to develop clean, renewable energy from resources like the sun, wind and even cow manure.”
Following that, Sundance will air its original documentary Garbage Warrior. I got a chance to screen this film a few weeks ago as part of a package I received from Earth Circle Cinema, and it’s well worth staying up past your bed time (if that’s an issue). Garbage Warrior tells the story of architect and Earthship creator Michael Reynolds, and his thirty-five+ year quest to create self-sufficient, sustainable buildings made from natural materials and society’s “waste”: “tires, beer cans, glass, and plastic bottles.”
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a good documentary can change your vocabulary.
Josh Tickell’s new film, Fields of Fuel, has just won the Audience Award for Documentary at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. The film, which opened last Monday to a standing ovation, is a sharp, compelling look at biofuels and the history of America’s dependence on foreign oil. From home-made biodiesel to OPEC corruption, it covers the myriad reasons why we should be changing our fuel to change our lives.
Tickell, the man who essentially introduced the world to biodiesel, has brought us an outstanding contribution to the discourse on biofuels: Fields of Fuel says in ninety minutes what we’ve all been trying to sum up for years. Here’s the trailer:
I’m here in a bitterly cold Park City, Utah, for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Current temperature outside is 5, and the night before last registered at a polar -10 degrees F.
But hey, I’m at Sundance.
For the next ten days I’ll be on the lookout for films and panels pertaining to biofuels or the planet. It looks like Josh Tickell, the well-known author of From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank (who’s primarily responsible […]
By Leah Edwards •
January 2, 2008
Here’s a creative business idea: pair U.S. and British television producers and an environmentalist with a Chinese documentarian and environmental activists and government official to come up with a television series for the Chinese market funded by U.S. investors.
U.S. production company, Landreth Associates, is working with the Chinese CCTV Economic Movie and Television Center and The International Cultural Exchange Audiovisual Publishing House (an agency of the Chinese Ministry of Culture), on what is to be a weekly documentary television show in China called “Seizing the Moment in China” beginning in the summer of 2008.
Sometimes the best way to get a message across is on the big screen, or at least Martin O'Brien thinks so. He's the director and producer of Freedom Fuels, an educational documentary about biodiesel, ethanol, and straight-vegetable-oil fuels. If you ever wondered what Daryl Hannah, Willie Nelson, and Woody Harrelson have in common (hint: biodiesel), you should check this out. Here's the trailer:
I had the opportunity to meet Martin at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where he was taking
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Expressing the importance of eco-fashion to the general public is no easy task. The entire clothing industry is often seen as flagrant and a secondary part of life - something that we have to be a part of in our society, but many would rather do without.
For the fourth episode of their Big Ideas For A Small Planet series, the Sundance Channel takes on the challenging topic
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By Amy Stodghill •
April 18, 2007
Photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand (best known for his work in the book Earth From Above) has joined forces with with producer Luc Besson to create an environmental feature film, Boomerang. Besson hopes to create a film that will show audiences that the world's environmental problems are all linked. The 60 country shoot begins next week on a soy farm in Brazil, where rainforests are cut down to produce feed for livestock in other countries.
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By Amy Stodghill •
March 26, 2007
Image: NOVA Dimming The SunThe Earthwatch Institute presented their annual Earthwatch Film Award to Dimming the Sun, a NOVA/WGBH documentary about climate change.
Dimming the Sun explores the phenomenon known as global dimming, where air pollution is discovered to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the earth.
Through interviews with climate scientists and other experts, the documentary reveals several theories about the effects of global
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