Live! from the Green Carpet
January and February are exciting months for movie buffs like me. And no, I’m not referring to Golden Globes, Oscar nominations, or Screen Actors Guild awards. I’m talking about two wonderful “green” film festivals, both right here in our own watershed: the recent Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Nevada City, and the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival.
For The Bay Institute, this year’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival was particularly exciting because it included the first public screening of “Taking Root,” a film-in-progress about our STRAW (Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed) Project. I recently talked to David Donnenfield, who is co-producing the film with Kevin White (Kevin also has two films in this year’s Ocean Film Festival: Restoring Balance: Removing the Black Rat from Anacapa Island and Returning Home: Bringing the Common Murre back to Devil’s Slide Rock.) I asked David how the two came to be making a movie about kids working to save an endangered freshwater shrimp.
Taking Root is part of a larger project entitled How on Earth, which began with the goal to survey the spectrum of restoration work happening across the country. David and Kevin wanted to look at projects large and small, in different regions and involving different constituencies and different issues. They also were interested in documenting projects initiated by kids-one of the things that drew them to our STRAW Project, founded in 1992 by a class of fourth-graders.
David attended film school at UCLA (after he “got the bug” while starring in a high school film), but says he was always more interested in social issues than theatrical production. As to why he finds the topic of environmental restoration of particular interest, David points to the late environmentalist David Brower’s 3-part concept of “Global CPR”– Conservation, Preservation, and Restoration. While we’ve all heard about conservation and preservation, David notes, “We felt that very little of the story of restoration had been told.” That’s a critical oversight, since “in the face of worldwide environmental decline, there is less and less to preserve but more to restore.”
In talking about their process for making films, David explains that they do a lot of research up front to understand the issues, the players, and how the story fits into the “big picture.” But there is also that sense of “serendipity and discovery” when they actually get out into the field, and that’s a large part of what they bring back to the editing room.
And, in fact, editing is the next big challenge for Taking Root. Production on the full-length film (which will run about 1/2 hour) is nearly complete, but David and Kevin are still raising funds to complete the editing. Meanwhile, folks around our office are already looking forward to next year’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival, where we hope to be nibbling organic popcorn and cheering the completed film’s premiere.
Ann Dickinson is Communications Manager for The Bay Institute (www.bay.org), a nonprofit research, education, and advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and restoring San Francisco Bay and its watershed, “from the Sierra to the sea.”
Ocean Film Clips and Whale Tail Shaped Tortilla Chips
This weekend the Fifth Annual San Francisco Ocean Film Festival (SFOFF ) took place at the Fort Mason Center Cowell Theater. This year’s event was a carbon neutral event, thanks to CarbonFund.org’s “CarbonFree Surfing” project - a program to let ocean-minded folks address their carbon footprints.
Roger Payne and Lisa Harrow opened the Festival at the Cowell Theater Thursday night with ” SeaChange: Reversing the Tide” . On Friday , the Festival welcomed attendees with a party at the Aquarium of the Bay which featured organic food, a silent auction, live music and dancing On January 31st and February 1st, SFOFF 2008 hosted school groups invited from around the Bay Area to view special film screenings and talks organized through SFOFF’s Educational Program. One of the organic foods that created a lot of comments was an organic, kosher tortilla chip which is shaped like a Whale’s Tail and the company gives 10% back to ocean conservation. This unique tortilla chip has a delicious flavoring called “Alaea” that comes from the Hawaiian Islands. The Whale Tail chips were donated by a local organic food distributor Lucas Moen of West Coast Distribution. Laurie Jake a volunteer with SFOFF contacted Ric and his wife Terry the co founders of Whale Tails Tortilla Chips to request product donation for this year’s Seven Seas Cafe. Laurie said “It was fun to work with the Sea/C menu theme Chips (Whale Tails), Carrot Ginger Soup, Caprese Sandwich ,Curried Rice & Chickpea Salad, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Crystal Geyser Juices, Coffee & Chamomile Tea. Ric and Terry donated their organic chips last year and we were glad to hear that they now have distribution in San Francisco. We want to thank West Coast Distribution for their generous donation and helping us with our fund raising”
A few of the stars gracing the giant screen during this year’s four day festival were swimmers braving the waters of the North Pole, sea birds coming back from extinction in Bermuda, deep dives into marine science, coastal cultures, ocean exploration, saltwater sports. and eco-savvy fishermen in Papua New Guinea. Now in its 5th year, SFOFF is the largest film festival of its kind in North America.
I echo the love for films, especially film festivals. Sundance film festival is always entertaining and my favorite so far.