Tag Archives: environment

This April, Bitter Seeds Comes to Public Television

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Airing on public television throughout April, Bitter Seeds is an examination of the debate surrounding biotechnology and the future of farming.

Biotechnology is changing the way farming is done all over the world. Advocates believe the “New Green Revolution” is the only way to provide sufficient food for the world’s growing population while opponents raise environmental concerns and fear that GMOs drive small-scale farmers off the land. Bitter Seeds explores the controversy — from a village in India that uses genetically modified seeds to U.S. government agencies that promote them.

Directed by Micha Peled, the filmmaker behind China Blue and Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town, Bitter Seeds premieres on public television this month (check local listings).

World Mourns Passing of Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai

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Wangari Maathai, the first environmentalist and African woman to win the Nobel Prize, passed away while having treatment for ovarian cancer on Monday.

Wangari Maathai, the first environmentalist and African woman to win the Nobel Prize, passed away on Monday while having treatment for ovarian cancer. Maathai was the founder of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization encouraging women and families to plant trees.

She was recently the focus of the Independent Lens documentary Taking Root: The Story of Wangari Maathai and was featured in DIRT! The Movie. Maathai will be remembered for her work in women’s rights, democracy, and the environment.

Watch the trailer for Taking Root: The Story of Wangari Maathai >>
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If A Tree Falls Opens in NYC

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The documentary will premiere at the IFC in New York City on June 22.

Filmmakers Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman are happy to announce the theatrical release of their documentary If a Tree Falls, which premieres at the IFC in New York City on June 22 and will move on to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC, among other cities. The film offers a behind-the-curtain look at the Earth Liberation Front, the radical environmental organization that the FBI calls the “number one domestic terrorism threat” in America.
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The Garbage Dreams Game Nominated in 2nd Annual Games for Change Awards

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The Games For Change Awards recognize excellence in games that address current, pressing social issues.

The Garbage Dreams Game, developed to complement the acclaimed Independent Lens documentary by Mai Iskander, received a nomination in the 2nd Annual Games for Change Awards in the Transmedia category.  The awards recognize excellence in “games for change” that address current and pressing social issues and will be presented at the NYU Skirball Center on Wednesday, June 22 and streamed live.
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America Ferrera Celebrates Earth Day

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The Independent Lens host wishes everyone a happy and healthy Earth Day

We all do our best to recycle, compost, and try to be thoughtful about what and how we consume. But there’s more to being green than hybrids and food scraps. It takes real commitment — both individual and collective.

Join Independent Lens and this year’s host America Ferrera for enlightening visions that will change how you look at your planet, and make you think about getting more involved. However you decide to make the world better and healthier — Happy Earth Day!

 

Taking Root with Lisa Merton on Earth Day

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Lisa Merton’s Taking Root was broadcast on Independent Lens in April 2009 and brought together more than 4,000 people to Community Cinema events in 50 cities across the country.

As we ring in Earth Day celebrations across the country, we wanted to highlight some of the extraordinary films that ITVS had the opportunity to take out to communities through broadcast and on-the-ground engagement. On Thursday, we profiled Dirt! The Movie and filmmaker Eugene Rosow. Today we’re featuring Lisa Merton and her documentary Taking Root.

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An Environmental Conversation with the Filmmaker of Dirt! The Movie

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Eugene Rosow’s film Dirt! The Movie broadcast on Independent Lens in April 2010 and brought together more than 6,000 people to Community Cinema events in 60 cities across the country.

As we gear up for Earth Day celebrations and events across the country, we wanted to reflect on two extraordinary films that ITVS had the opportunity to take out to communities through broadcast and on-the-ground engagement efforts in recent years. Today and tomorrow, we’ll be catching up with filmmakers whose projects continue to have a deep impact on inspiring and sustaining individual and community action on issues related to environmental conservation. Today’s conversation features filmmaker Eugene Rosow.

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A Love Story Set Within an Environmental Nightmare

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Filmmaker Bennett Cohen sets his FUTURESTATES short The Dig on the verge of an environmental collapse. The film is streaming free today on FUTURESTATES.tv.

As the world faces an environmental apocalypse, a group of archaeologists venture into a toxic desert wasteland, determined to unearth a lost civilization. Can this ancient disaster help them avert their own ruin? Watch The Dig today, and find other shorts from the second season of the online original series FUTURESTATES.

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We are the garbage collectors. Always blessed.

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Garbage Dreams records the tremblings of a culture at a crossroads… the film digs into the politics of a life that few would choose but many depend on.  -The New York Times

Welcome to the world’s largest garbage village located on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. The Zaballeen (Arabic for “garbage people”) recycle 80 percent of the trash they collect — far more than other recycling initiatives. But now multinational corporations threaten their livelihood. Follow three teenage boys, born into the business, who are forced to make choices that will impact the survival of their community.

Garbage Dreams premieres tonight, Tuesday, April 27 at 10:00 on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Recycling is not just good for the environment — it’s also sound economic practice. Take on the role of the Zaballeen and turn trash into cash by playing the Garbage Dreams interactive recycling game.

Los Angeles and San Francisco Proclaim April 20th to be “Dirt Day”

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The cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco have issued proclamations naming April 20th to be “Dirt Day” in honor of Dirt! The Movie, the award-winning documentary airing nationwide on PBS’ Independent Lens tonight at 10 PM (check local listings). San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry will sign the official Dirt! Day Proclamations in their respective cities today, to ignite the discussion about safeguarding soil and the billions of organisms it contains.

Dirt! The Movie tells the story of the underappreciated stuff beneath our feet. Narrated by award-winning actress, author and activist, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dirt!, tells the story of Earth’s most valuable and least valued source of fertility from its miraculous beginning to its current crippling degradation. Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, the film deftly combines science and humor as it digs into the history and current state of the living organic matter from which we all come and where we will all one-day return. An eclectic group of passionate dirt lovers appear in Dirt! – from world-class biologists to Rikers Island convicts, from community activists to Nobel Laureates – to offer viewers answers to problems while inspiring us to clean up the mess that we have created.

Don’t miss Dirt! The Movie tonight on Independent Lens (check local listings).

Watch an interview with Jamie Lee Curtis, the narrator for Dirt! >>