Films
In this Video Op-Ed, the videomakers debunk a recycling myth that has lulled us into guilt-free consumption for decades.
This short film does a great job breaking down the mysterious world of recycling and the greenwashing surrounding the word “recycling”.
A short view of land restoration in the central Texas hill country. Restoration there turned an overgrazed, dry, and dusty ranch into a forest with lakes, fresh springs, and wildlife.
Pacific salmon swim up rivers from the ocean in order to spawn, returning to the exact same stream they originated from. In the Snake River watershed, salmon used to reach central Idaho and Wyoming. With the removal of 4 dams produce minimal electricity, over 500 miles of salmon river habitat could be restored.
This film documents the life of a Ladakhi shepherdess who lives at 16,000 feet above sea level with 300 sheep and goats from her brother’s lens. Following her for multiple seasons, he guides the viewer through his sister’s daily life and the forces that threaten her livelihood—from the wolves and snow leopards of the mountains, to climate change’s ramifications on the region’s temperatures. Through images of the majestic Himalayan landscape, the familial connection between filmmaker and subject, and the intimate connection between a woman and her animals; this film works to restore awe in the natural world and the unbreakable connection between humans and their land.
As we begin to understand the interconnectedness of the modern world, the ecosystem of the Northern Rockies in the United States has been one of our primary sources of learning. The grey wolf was exterminated there in the early 1900’s and the ecosystem began to fall apart ever since. All life suffered: from the largest elk and grizzly bears, to the insects, fish, and grasses, in what is termed a “trophic cascade.” When wolves were reintroduced in 1995, that change reversed in just a matter of years. The film asks: “how do wolves change rivers?” reminding us of the inextricable connection between species in nature.
In this ten minute short film, filmmaker and adventure photographer Forest Woodward tells a story of his father’s relationship with the Colorado River, stressing the strong connection between humans and wild spaces. The film, supported by the river advocacy organization American River, reminds the viewer of the importance of protecting our wild spaces. The Important Places is a touching, feel-good film about family and the places we deem sacred, portraying American land conservation through an emotionally evocative lens.
This short film introduces viewers to the Draper family, a Navajo family descending from participants of the “Long Walk”—a systematic forcing of Navajo people off their land by US military in 1864—as they stay connected to their ancestral lands of Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Two young girls, Tonisha and Tonielle Draper, live typical “American lives” on the surface, but are active in the reclamation of their Navajo heritage, reconnecting with ancestors, and showing deep reverence to the land within the canyon walls. Though an uplifting, hopeful film about connection, Canyon Song urges viewers to acknowledge the ability of natural spaces to serve as powerful reminders of history and culture—and necessitates their preservation through its implication of the preservation of an entire community’s tradition.
Life After Water is a nine minute short film depicting the increased stress being placed on farmers in the American West in the wake of increasingly frequent droughts. The film follows Jesus Ramos—an orange farmer in California’s Central Valley—who explains how water shortages threaten his family’s livelihood, food production, and the future of farming alike. Jesus’s family is not alone in this struggle for livelihood, as it is noted that drought-produced problems continue to plague farmers throughout the region. Jesus’s story suggests that it is not just farmers who are under threat, but the livelihood of the entire food-dependent country. As Jesus contemplates a lifestyle without his fields, Life After Water necessitates viewers to contemplate themes of agriculture, water use and food security—and the role of sustainability in conjunction with each.
This nine minute short film emphasizes the ‘environment versus economy’ debate that underlies many modern conversations about land use and conservation. Focused on the controversial issue that surrounds prospects of expanding industry on Gotland, Sweden’s largest island, The Limestone Conflict portrays the battle that is sparked when threats of mining creep into pristine landscape. Media, police, activists and industry workers are involved in the battle, highlighting the ability of changing land use plans to pull stakeholders from all aspects of a community into their reach, and unveiling deep problems that cost-benefit analyses simply cannot solve.
Follow two filmmakers down India’s most sacred river—the Ganges, termed “Ma Ganga,” or “Mother Ganges” by many Hindus. Seen as a source of life, the river is a sacred body that flows 1,569 miles through the subcontinent. But it’s purity is threatened by increasing industrial emissions, damming, household trash, human remains, and sewage, all of which are exacerbated by unhindered population growth. “But if we worship it, how can we defile it?,” one woman in the film asks, calling attention to the contradiction of the world’s most holy river being threatened by the byproducts of a rapidly industrializing world. Holy (un)Holy River prompts the viewer question to question: how can a so-called ‘source of life’ put the lives of anyone bathing or drinking it at risk? Where can restoring the life of the Ganges begin?
What happens to our waste after we toss it? Plastic China illustrates the harrowing social ramifications of waste that permeate the lives of those in the country that is the world’s largest plastic waste importer. Following the daily life of Yi-Jie—an eleven year old girl whose family lives on a plastic waste site—the viewer gains chilling insight into how destructive making a living on plastic waste recycling can be for participating families. As Yi-Jie’s schooling is thrown to the wayside along with the mental health of entire families, the viewer learns that our trash takes on a life of its own, seeping deep into the lives of families thousands of miles away—posing public health and environmental threats along with it. Plastic China highlights themes of poverty, inequality, economic “growth” and environmental health in the wake of our generation of consumption.
Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman challenges the public’s perception of what conservationists look like in America, inserting images of cowboys, ranchers, and fishermen living along the Mississippi into the conversation. Based on the book by Miriam Horn, the film is described as a moving tale that chronicles “conservation heroes who are feeding the world while stewarding the land and water.” The film embeds conservation within America’s heartland, simultaneously highlighting the largely forgotten heroes of the movement who push for sustainable practices in their everyday tasks.
This film introduces the viewer to Dick Goin, a vibrant aging man with a deep reverence for the Elwha River on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula—a body of water that him and his family have personally and professionally relied on since the 1930s. With the river’s salmon population steadily decreasing due to damming, Goin fights to bring back the salmon. Ultimately, The Memory of Fish demonstrates the direct threat being placed on individuals as a result of widespread habitat destruction that stems from modern policy as Goin aims to bring life back to the river that has, in many ways, sustained his own life.