 Poster by Patricia Herkey |
On Friday, April 16, Earthworks and SUNY Fredonia’s Academic Community Engagement Center (FACE) will host a film festival from 4 to 10 p.m. at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House, where six films will be shown throughout the night, all environmentally themed. The Earth Week event is free and open to the general public.
All of the films within the film festival have been chosen for their eye-opening environmental themes and potential interest to residents of Chautauqua County. The films will be played consecutively between 4 and 10 p.m. at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House, which is located at 9 Church Street in Fredonia. Audience members can watch just one or all of the films.
The festival will begin at 4 p.m. with Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home (2007), which documents the experiences of an average suburban family who is asked to hold onto every scrap of garbage within their household for three months, and then follows where that garbage goes. The film offers a captivating look into how even the common family in North America can affect the environment.
Next in the line-up, starting at 5:15 are the multiple award-winning films Crude Impact (2007) and Burning the Future: Coal in America (2008). The short, riveting documentaries examine the environmental, social, and economic consequences of our fossil fuel consumption and provide inspirational visions for change.
Starting at 6:30 will be Homo Toxicus (2008), which explores the devastating effects that toxic chemicals have on the human body, and how these commonplace chemicals affect our daily lives. David Suzuki, the host of CBC’s The Nature of Things has said, “Homo Toxicus sheds light on the intrinsically personal dimension of environmental problems. When we pollute nature, we end up polluted ourselves." The extent to which one can relate to this film is astonishing, especially as Director Carole Poliquin reveals the thousands of chemicals we’re exposed to simply through the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the plastics all around us. Poliquin presents startling facts to her audience, such as the 247 toxic substances that have been found in newborn infants, and asks viewers to challenge existing environmental and safety regulations.
The festival will complete its coverage of current environmental issues with Fresh (2009) starting at 7:30 and A Sea Change: Imagine a World Without Fish (2009), which starts at 8:45. More than just a critique of our industrial food system, Fresh celebrates the farmers and business owners who are building local food networks and re-inventing the way we eat. This re-invention is aimed at solving problems such as morbid obesity and food contamination, which the film follows in an emotional and inspiring way. A Sea Change; Imagine A World Without Fish will finish the night by examining how the burning of fossil fuels and other pollution is reshaping the chemistry of our oceans and how oceans as a whole have become wildly acidic. The highly acclaimed and often moving documentary broadens our discussions of climate change and skillfully explores the solutions we need to save our oceans.
Generously funded through a Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo grant, this Earth Week event is sponsored by Earthworks, the students of SUNY Fredonia’s “Writing, Sustainability, and Social Change”, SUNY Fredonia’s FACE Center and Sustainability Committee. For more information about the festival, please contact Dr. Christina Jarvis at 716-673-3430.
