Environmental Film Festival Shows Beauty of World and Threats to Life
VOICE ONE:
I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Bob Doughty with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. The Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C., has been bringing movies to America's capital for seventeen years. This year, the twelve-day festival showed more than one hundred and thirty movies from thirty-four countries.
The movies were shown in fifty-two museums, embassies, and other places around the city this month. Many movies were about the state of the world's oceans and sea life. The aim of the festival is to educate people about environmental issues affecting our planet.
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MOVIE: "After feeding the world for hundreds of years, we showed our gratitude by nearly wiping cod off the face of the earth. Today, the species is 1 . And for the fisherman of Aveiro, the consequences have been devastating."
VOICE ONE:
That was from the movie "The State of the Planet's Oceans" made by Hal and Marilyn Weiner. Its first public showing took place during the film festival at the National Museum of Natural History. The movie tells about the effects of overfishing on local economies and on the health of the oceans. The movie also shows how climate change is threatening this ecosystem. In a striking closing scene, the ocean expert Sylvia Earle talks about the importance of protecting the beautiful world that lives under the sea.
We asked audience member James Edwards how watching a movie about the environment can affect people.
JAMES EDWARDS: "I think a film like this can make a difference by raising people's awareness of not only the problems that are out there, because a lot of films are gloom and doom, but solutions that are out there. What are other people doing, what can you do?"
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Mister Edwards is an independent filmmaker in Washington, so he is very interested in the work that other people are doing. And, he says the subject of oceans interests him especially because he has been scuba diving since he was a child.
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The Museum of Natural History showed many other movies about the ocean. These included "Fisheye Fantasea" which explores how fish see in the ocean. "Cracking the Ocean Code" is about the work of scientist J. Craig Venter. In the movie he travels around the world documenting the genetic information of small sea creatures.
At the Library of Congress, festival visitors could watch "The Silent World" directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle. When this movie 2 in nineteen fifty-six, it was the first to show scuba diving exploration to the world. The movie takes place during a trip across the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
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VOICE ONE:
The Environmental Film Festival in Washington was started by Flo Stone. We asked her what gave her the idea to begin this event.
FLO STONE: "I founded the festival in nineteen ninety-three. I'd worked on other film festivals, one on cultural diversity at the Natural History Museum in New York City. But in Washington, I thought it would be wonderful to do a festival on the environment very broadly, cooperating with many museums, universities, libraries, environmental organizations and even embassies from around the world."
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Miz Stone says the National Museum of Natural History asked if this year's festival could pay special attention to the subject of oceans.
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| Flo Stone |
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Not all movies at the festival were about oceans. One movie shown at the National Building Museum is called "Designing a Great Neighborhood: Behind the Scenes at Holiday." It tells about building a community housing project in Boulder, Colorado. The future owners of the houses work together with different building designers to create environmentally safe houses that do not pollute.
MOVIE: "When solar panels supply both hot water and space heating, the goal of zero emissions begins to look achievable."
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The neighbors consider choices including solar energy, clean water and plantings.
The movie gives an interesting lesson in how city communities can come together to build healthy and safe housing that is not costly.
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Several movies at the festival examined trash in different parts of the world. "Cartoneros" was shown at the Embassy of Argentina.
Its director, Ernesto Livon-Grosman, was there to introduce his film. The movie is about trash pickers who collect paper in the streets of Buenos Aires. Then they sell the paper to sorting centers who prepare trash for recycling.
The movie shows many people criticizing the work of the cartoneros. But in a country that was suffering a major recession, this kind of work was a good way for unemployed people to make money. And, the cartoneros provide a service to the city that is environmentally helpful.
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The documentary "Recycled Life" tells about people living in the garbage collection area in Guatemala City. The movie tells about the many families who live and work there.
