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.
The Green Community Connections/One Earth Board welcomed three new members at its November board meeting. They will join the other four sitting directors. We are grateful and excited to have them join the board. Their unique talents, expertise and perspectives will help us further our mission to support the growth of environmental awareness and inspire the adoption of solution-oriented actions through inclusive educational events and programs.
A trip to Chicago to accept his first-place award in the One Earth Film Festival’s Young Filmmakers Contest brought Nathan Goswick more than he expected. The 17-year old’s winning entry, “Plastic Bags,” captured the attention of Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, a nonprofit that presses corporations on sustainability.
“The oil drilling happening in the Amazon is a form of colonization and is a saddening reality, but an important story that needs to be told and understood. Capturing this story meant carrying a camera everywhere and filming as much as possible. Much of the creative process was understanding the importance of preserving the words of those I interviewed and how to effectively support them through visual imagery and audio.”
Out of 196 entries total, the following nine finalists will also be recognized for their Honorable Mention films, which will screen at a separate event in April, near Earth Day. In addition, a few of these films will be incorporated into the One Earth Film Festival as “trailers” before feature films between March 6 and 15, because the content for these shorts enhances or matches the feature film content.
Recently, South Korean filmmaker, Bong Joon Ho, swept the 92nd Academy Awards, opening the door for a cross-cultural vision in cinema. Meanwhile, the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest had a parallel surprise. Suzie Kang took the top prize at the post grad level for her animated film "Vandals." From South Korea originally, she graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts last spring.
