Photos by Helen Quinn-Pasin and Cassandra West
By Cassandra West
Festive. And loud. That was the mood and volume at the 2023 One Earth Film Festival kick-off party Friday night as whistles, cheers, applause and cowbell noisemakers delivered on this year’s theme, “Let’s Get Loud!”
The 12th annual festival roared back to a fully in-person event, while filmmakers, whose works are featured selections this year, joined via Zoom and were projected on a large screen for everyone to see.
Since the last in-person event in 2020 before the pandemic forced the festival in a virtual experience, One Earth didn’t miss a beat in capturing the spirit that has defined it since the beginning. Chicago environment and social justice activists, Oak Park residents who helped launch the fest, passionate volunteers and long-time donors returned in full force. The evening felt like a reunion and a chance to make new friends.
Sue Crothers, director of the festival’s Young Filmmakers Contest (YFC) who couldn’t join in person, sent a video message from Australia. Perhaps one of the biggest supporters on the planet of young and aspiring filmmakers, she asked everyone “to open your eyes to young filmmakers” and come to the Gene Siskel Film Center on Sept. 17 to see this year’s contest winners.
Victor Lim of WBEZ
The evening other speakers were Victor Lim, representing WBEZ, the festival’s long-time media sponsor, and Ana Garcia-Doyle, One Earth’s executive director.
Longstanding partnerships were highlighted in remarks delivered by Jared Policicchio, Chicago’s Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer, who bought greetings from the City of Chicago. Noting the festival’s theme, Policicchio said, “I feel confident that each film is going to deliver on this year's theme. Let's get loud, which, by the way, in my opinion, has nothing to do with the volume of the theater or on your home computer. We all get loud when we tell the world's stories of environmental justice. And injustice. And when we are spurred to reflection and action as a result of those stories.”
“We all get loud when we tell the world’s stories of environmental justice. And injustice.”
Policicchio did the honor of declaring “the 12th year of One Earth Film Festival officially launched.”
And with that declaration, the room got loud. And then quiet and attentive as everyone viewed the 15-minute documentary “Wood Hood.” Named best short film at the 2022 Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival, “Wood Hood” features a 15-year-old from New York City who loves skateboarding and craves a "quiet place" to escape the chaos of his daily environment. The film follows him and a group of other Black male youth on a weekend-long group camping trip with @campingtoconnect, a mentorship program that teaches leadership, brotherhood, and inclusion in the outdoors.
“Wood Hood” was a perfect set up for the evening’s keynote speaker Jahmal Cole, founder & CEO of the change-making Chicago-based youth nonprofit, My Block, My Hood, My City (M3). M3’s mission speaks to how justice and empowerment—tools for restoring both people and planet—can remake our blocks, our neighborhoods, our cities, our countries, and our world.
And he delivered on that mission in his 20-plus-minute keynote that described his early family life, pro-sports ambitions and college experiences and on through today as the leader of a civic education nonprofit and published author who was named in 2018 a Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Magazine. He described his job as having ”inherent external and internal facing dimensions, intent on listening to and discerning the voices of the community. . . [and] having to translate the messages I receive into programs and actions that are empowering and affirming.”
He ended by asking, “What’s something you can do to make a positive impact on your block?”
Message received and everyone in sync with the theme “Let’s Get Loud!”