Save the date: September 20th, 2012
The Wild and Scenic Film Festival was conceived by a California watershed advocacy group (the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL)) in 2003 and has since flourished into the largest film festival of its kind in North America. In 2004, environmental groups started asking if they could bring the festival to their community, and gradually a touring version of the Wild and Scenic Film Festival developed. Five years later, the tour now visits over 90 communities nationwide. The Wild and Scenic Film Festival on Tour aims to provide grassroots environmental organizations with a means for generating local activism.
www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org
For this year’s Wild and Scenic Film Festival in State College, five of our eleven films that we selected deal with youth in the outdoors and environment. Our feature film, “Mother Nature’s Child,” addresses the importance of youngsters spending time playing and exploring the outdoors. We have also chosen four Brower Youth Award films, each film highlighting different youth who have taken on environmental issues and made a difference for the better.
Feature Film:
Mother Nature’s Child – 57 minutes
This film examines the benefits to children of unstructured outdoor play, risk-taking, urban connection with nature, healthy rites of passage, the use of technology, and what it means to educate the ‘whole child.’ See the trailer for Mother Nature’s Child.
Youth Feature Short Films:
Brower Youth Awards: Alex Epstein – 4 minutes
Inspired by community service trips to New Orleans post-Katrina, Alex co-founded New York 2 New Orleans Coalition, a network of New York City high school students mobilizing around the parallel struggles of New Orleans and their own communities.
Brower Youth Awards: Kyle Theirmann – 4 minutes
Kyle used surfing as his inspiration to create a five-part video series called Surfing for Change, which urges people to make small adjustments in their daily actions to help save the environment.
Brower Youth Awards: Junior Walk – 4 minutes
Junior lives in one of the many coal-dependent communities of West Virginia. Mentored by the late anti-strip-mining activist Judy Bonds, he continues to challenge Big Coal’s power in Appalachia.
Brower Youth Awards: Rhiannon Tomtishen & Madison Vorva – 4 minutes
These two friends created Project ORANG (Orangutans Really Appreciate and Need Girl Scouts) in 2007 to earn a Girl Scouts award. They discovered that the Girl Scout’s iconic cookies contain palm oil, the cultivation of which is a leading cause of orangutan habitat destruction. The girls campaigned to switch the palm oil with a more eco-friendly oil, and have since partnered with Rainforest Action Network.
Half-Length Feature Film:
Connecting the Gems – 27 minutes
Follow two National Geographic Adventurers of the Year on their 520-mile trek through one of the Northern Rockies’ premier wildlife corridors. See the trailer for Connecting the Gems.
Corner Plot – 10 minutes
In the midst of commuter traffic, shopping malls and office buildings inside the beltway lives 89-year-old Charlie Kolner. Charlie, with the help of his only daughter, continues to work his land, share his produce and enjoy the farm life he’s always known.
Look to the Ground – 4 minutes
Bobby McMullen is an extreme athlete with an inspiring story – he is legally blind. This film is a snapshot of how Bobby worked against the odds to become a top mountain bike downhiller.
Ice – 7 minutes
In the thriller style narrative, this short film aims to promote a message of climate change awareness by using the cinematic medium for what it’s best at; affecting people at an emotional level.
Timber – 1 minute
This short animated film uses the trimming of a beard to make a point about use of natural resources.
One Plastic Beach – 8 minutes
Richard Lang and Judith Selby Lang collect plastic debris from a beach in Northern California and turn it into art. Their works are a vivid reminder of plastic pollution in our seas.
Here are the venue details:
Thursday, September 20, 2012 at 7pm
The State Theatre
Tickets are $14 adults; $12 students; $16 at the door
Purchase tickets online at http://thestatetheatre.org/whats-on/wild-and-scenic-film-festival/. Tickets are also sold in downtown State College at Appalachian Outdoors, 123 South Allen Street and at ClearWater Conservancy, 2555 North Atherton Street. For mail-order tickets, call ClearWater at 814.237.0400.
