By Keith Rockmael •
July 17, 2009
The new flick 500 Days of Summer, which generated much buzz as the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, rolls out in limited release today. Lot’s of people are talking about it as a romantic comedy meets Memento which in film terms means that those with ADD or short attention spans might be confused by this rambunctious romantic romp. But for us, the buzz doesn’t just lie in the zigzagging sex talk but rather in the architecture talk. Even more specifically in the Green architecture talk.
Looking for information on solar panels, organic vegetables, or endangered species? You go to one of your favorite green blogs, right? But if you’re looking for a film review, or a preview of an art exhibit, or information on pending education legislation, you head to a different blogosphere… unless it’s eco-focused, you won’t find those things on sustainablog or other environmentally-focused sites.
On Tuesday, the Sundance Channel quietly rolled out an effort to change that. Billed as “film, art, music, design and more as we see it - filtered through that space between the underground and the mainstream,” the new SUNfiltered blog provides an eclectic range of content… and, as with the company’s television programming, green is a part of the mix.
As a company with a sensitive finger on the cultural pulse, it’s no surprise that Sundance has made eco-consciousness a part of the new blog. Of course, you’d also expect them to hire a smart, savvy blogger with an eye for cutting-edge green developments to cover this beat, right?
You’d expect that. What you’ll get, however: me.
By Clayton B. Cornell •
January 21, 2009
Honda, one of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival’s official sponsors, parked their hydrogen fuel-cell powered FCX Clarity right in the middle of Main Street Park City. The car has been getting a lot of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ by most passer-bys, which may explain why the attendants looked slightly uncomfortable when I asked how much the car costs and how many are actually on the road.
By Jennifer Lance •
May 26, 2008
Get your minds out of the gutter: Green Porno is not about rainforest condoms or green brothels! This Sundance Channel show by Isabella Rossellini features short films about bizarre sexual mating habits of insects, bugs, and other creatures.
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.”
This is the first car (I’m aware of) to run on biodiesel made from algae. It debuted at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. See the story here: First Cars Run on Algae Biodiesel; Breakthrough Production Possible - Gas 2.0.
By Clayton B. Cornell •
January 31, 2008
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:
By Clayton B. Cornell •
January 18, 2008
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 [...]
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 Rebecca Carter •
April 13, 2007
We've heard about it for months now. The Sundance Channel is launching a new block of programming called "The Green" on April 17. Each Tuesday night at 9pm you'll be able to tune in to a block of green programming.
