Conservation

Birders: The Central Park Effect

Birders: The Central Park Effect

Jeffrey Kimball/2013/60 min/Wildlife

Sunday, March 3, 11 a.m. [South]
St Benedict the African Parish, Chicago

FILM DESCRIPTION: “Birders: The Central Park Effect” reveals the extraordinary array of wild birds who grace Manhattan’s celebrated patch of green, and the equally colorful New Yorkers who schedule their lives around the rhythms of migration. The lively cast of characters features author Jonathan Franzen, as well as an idiosyncratic trombone technician, a septuagenarian bird-tour leader, and others. This charming, lyrical documentary transports the viewer to the dazzling, hidden world of America’s most famous park.

Dirt Rich

Dirt Rich

Marcelina Cravat & Eric Katsuleres/ 2018/86 min/Conservation

Sunday, March 3, 2 p.m. [South]
Windsor Park Lutheran Church, Chicago

Wednesday, March 6, 6:30 p.m. [Lake]
College of Lake County, Grayslake

Saturday, March 9, 2 p.m. [W Suburbs]
Triton College, River Grove

CHICAGO-AREA PREMIERE. FILM DESCRIPTION: “Dirt Rich” shifts the focus from greenhouse gas emissions to carbon drawdown, a viable solution for reversing the effects of runaway global warming in a timely manner. In “Dirt Rich,”  Marcelina Cravat  (“Angel Azul”) and Eric Katsuleres shine a light on geo-therapy strategies. Through regenerative agricultural practices, reforestation of abandoned land,  protection/restoration of carbon rich wetlands and keystone species, “Dirt Rich” illustrates how implementing these strategies will return our atmosphere to safe levels of carbon while growing soil, our most precious resource.  

Holy (un)Holy River (One Earth Film Festival 2019)

Holy (un)Holy River (One Earth Film Festival 2019)

Peter McBride & Jake Norton/2016/60 min/Health & Environment

Saturday, March 2, 1 p.m. [Central]
First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple, Chicago

Tuesday, March 5, 7 p.m. [Central]
Patagonia Chicago, Chicago
OEFF After Hours Event
Admission $20, includes reception

CHICAGO-AREA PREMIERE. FILM DESCRIPTION: This film takes you on an dramatic adventure to Ma Ganga (“Mother Ganges”), a waterway that is divine and defiled, revered and reviled. Once celebrated for its purity, India’s Ganges River now carries contaminates from its glacial headwaters, where freshly fallen snow contains zinc from industrial emissions. Water is diverted from the river for agriculture and other uses, and the 500 million people in the Ganges basin further pollute the river. “Holy (un)Holy River” asks the essential question: Can the Ganges survive?  

Into the Okavango

Into the Okavango

Neil Gelinas/2018/93 min/Environmental & Social Justice

Sunday, March 3, 2 p.m. [Lake County]
Gorton Community Center, Lake Forest
Admission $10, Students $5

Thursday, March 7, 7 p.m. [Dupage County]
College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn

FILM DESCRIPTION: The Okavango River Basin provides a vital source of water to about one million people, the world’s largest population of African elephants, and significant populations of lions, cheetahs and hundreds of species of birds. However, this once unspoiled oasis is now under siege due to increasing pressure from human activity. From National Geographic Documentary Films, “Into the Okavango” chronicles a team of modern-day explorers on their first epic four-month, 1,500-mile expedition across three countries to save the river system that feeds one of our planet’s last wetland wildernesses.

Living in the Future's Past

Living in the Future's Past

Susan Kucera/2018/86 min/Climate

Saturday, March 2, 10 a.m. [W Suburbs]
Classic Cinemas Lake Theatre, Oak Park
Admission $8

Saturday, March 2, 1 p.m. [Lake County]
Prairie Crossing School, Grayslake

Monday, March 4, 6 p.m. [South]
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

CHICAGO-AREA PREMIERE. FILM DESCRIPTION: In this beautifully photographed tour de force of original thinking, Academy Award® winner Jeff Bridges shares the screen with scientists, profound thinkers, and a dazzling array of Earth’s living creatures to reveal eye-opening concepts about ourselves and our past, providing fresh insights into our subconscious motivations and their unintended consequences.

Living the Change

Living the Change

Jordan Osmond & Antoinette Wilson/2018/85 min/Conservation

Thursday, Feb. 21, 7 p.m. [South]
Calumet College, Whiting, IN

Thursday, Feb. 28, 7 p.m. [W Suburbs]
Dominican University, River Forest
Admission $7

Wednesday, March 6, 6 p.m. [West]
Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago

FILM DESCRIPTION: “Living the Change” explores solutions to the global crises we face today—solutions any of us can implement—through the inspiring stories of people pioneering change in their own lives and in their communities in order to live in a sustainable and regenerative way. From forest gardens to composting toilets, community supported agriculture to timebanking, “Living the Change” offers solutions being used now that we can employ to combat climate change today

Sea of Hope

Sea of Hope

Robert Nixon/2017/48 min/Water

Wednesday, March 6, 5:30 p.m. [Central]
Reception at 5:30 p.m., Film at 6:30 p.m.
Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago

FILM DESCRIPTION: “Sea of Hope” is a stunningly filmed action adventure documentary that follows ocean legend Sylvia Earle, renowned underwater National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry, and writer Max Kennedy. Joined by their crew of teenage aquanauts, the team embarks on a year-long quest to deploy science and photography to inspire President Obama to establish new Blue Parks to protect essential habitats across an unseen American wilderness.

The Carnivore's Dilemma

The Carnivore's Dilemma

Benoît Bringer/2018/71 min/Sustainable Food & Agriculture

Saturday, March 2, 12 p.m. [West]
Loretto Hospital, Chicago

Sunday, March 3, 6 p.m. [South]
St. Paul & the Redeemer, Chicago

Sunday, March 10, 12:30 p.m. [Central]
Old St. Patrick's Church, Chicago

U.S. PREMIERE. FILM DESCRIPTION: Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Benoît Bringer questions what we give our children to eat. To feed a growing population, the world has embarked on a race to frenetic productivity that generates cruelty against animals, but also major health and environmental issues. Bringer reveals the terrible excesses of industrial breeding and meets women and men who invent another way of farming, respectful of nature and animals. “The Carnivore’s Dilemma” puts together positive and concrete initiatives that are already working and that could be our way of consumption tomorrow.