Despite the confinement and anxieties surrounding this past year, 149 students age 8 to 25 managed to make and submit films to the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest. Of those, 10 will receive top prizes at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 13, in the Awards Celebration, while 15 Honorable Mention films will be screened during the Earth Day Festival in April.
For the past 9 years, the One Earth Film Festival has filled up to 600 volunteer slots for everything from registration table greeters to clean up crews. This year. . . well. . . it’s going to be a little different. Due to COVID restrictions on large gatherings, we’re going virtual and national for our 10th anniversary season March 5-14.
Instead of a brew and view at Great Central Brewery or an after-service film at St. Giles Church, we’re bringing click-to-watch parties to sofas across the country.
We’re getting a new look and a new name! GCC Midwest Inc is now One Earth Collective. Our 501(c)(3) organization will retain the same board of directors and has a new logo and new digital home at www.oneearthcollective.org.
One Earth Collective has three program areas: One Earth Film Festival, which celebrates its 10th anniversary season in 2021; One Earth Youth Voices, which focuses on programs for youth ages 8-25; and One Earth Local/Green Community Connections, which focuses on local sustainability programs in Oak Park and River Forest, Illinois.
Who We Expect to See Where and Doing What
Some of you might have already heard of Christian Cooper via the 2019 One Earth Film Festival screening of "Birders: The Central Park Effect." Far more of us had a first introduction to him via his disturbing encounter with a dog walker in Central Park on Memorial Day and the subsequent news reports.
"Those who have fewer resources often take the brunt of environmental degradation and pollution, but their voices and faces are now being heard and understood and seen. At long last, people are recognizing that the crucial focus of our environmental movement cannot be LED bulbs and recycling but breathable air and drinkable water. What we say about the environment must be placed in a context of justice, of anti-racism. The environmental movement in its best and broadest sense is about justice."
