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Environment

ENTANGLED

Directed by David Abel

How climate change has accelerated a collision between one of the world's most endangered species, N. America's most valuable fishery, and a federal agency mandated to protect both.

ENTANGLED chronicles the efforts to protect North Atlantic right whales from extinction, the impacts of those efforts on the lobster industry, and how the National Marine Fisheries Service has struggled to balance the vying interests.

There are now estimated to be about 350 right whales, making them among the planet's most endangered species. The main threat to their survival, scientists say: millions of lobster lines that stretch from New England up through Atlantic Canada, standard gear for North America's most valuable fishery. Exacerbating that threat is climate change, which has sparked a collapse in the whale's food supply in the warming waters of the Gulf of Maine, forcing them to search for food in areas where they had rarely been seen before. As a result, their population has been plummeting.

DVD / 2021 / (Grades 10-12, 9 -12, College, Adults) / 75 minutes

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NO FEAR NO FAVOR

Directed by Mirra Bank

African communities on the front lines of the poaching crisis fight to protect their wildlife for future generations.

Shot over two years in Zambia's Kafue National Park--one of the largest intact wilderness areas in the world--as well as in Kenya and Namibia, NO FEAR NO FAVOR illuminates the wrenching choices faced by impoverished Africans who live where community meets wilderness--on the front lines of Africa's poaching crisis. The film follows follows local women and men who fight the illegal wildlife trade through cooperative law enforcement and innovative conservation.

Through community conservancies, the people in these communities protect wildlife and the region's wilderness heritage, return eco-tourism profits to local people, and generate sustainable livelihoods -- especially for women and girls.

DVD / 2020 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 66 minutes

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BEATRIX FARRAND'S AMERICAN LANDSCAPES

Directed by Stephen Ives

Lynden B. Miller explores the life and work of America's first female landscape architect, Beatrix Farrand.

BEATRIX FARRAND'S AMERICAN LANDSCAPES follows award-winning public garden designer Lynden B. Miller as she sets off to explore the remarkable life and career of America's first female landscape architect, Beatrix Farrand. Farrand was responsible for some of the most celebrated gardens in the United States and helped create a distinctive American voice in landscape architecture.

Although she created gardens for the rich and powerful, including John D. Rockefeller, Jr., J.P. Morgan, and President Woodrow Wilson, she also was an early advocate for the value of public gardens and believed strongly in the power of the natural world to make people's lives better.

Through the documentary, Miller journeys to iconic Farrand gardens, engaging designers, scholars and horticulturists in a spirited dialogue about the meaning and importance of this ground-breaking early 20th-century woman. Lynden Miller's experience as New York City's most prominent public garden designer is woven into a wide-ranging biography of Farrand's life and times.

DVD / 2019 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 62 minutes

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BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, THE: COHOUSING'S PROMISE

Directed by John de Graaf

Cohousing offers both privacy and community-the best of both worlds!

Originally a Danish creation, cohousing struggled to gain popularity in its country of origin for years. That is, until a film was made that explained its merits and how people found it enhanced their lives. Now a new film by award-winning filmmaker John de Graaf promises to have the same effect on U.S. audiences.

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS explores the concept of cohousing as expressed through first-hand observations of residents of four cohousing communities-including the first one in the United States-and observations by architect Charles Durrett, who brought the concept to the US from Denmark.

DVD / 2019 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 27 minutes

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CONCERNED CITIZEN, A: CIVICS IN ACTION

Directed by Bo Boudart

A CONCERNED CITIZEN documents the work of Dr. Riki Ott, a whistleblower who predicted the Exxon Valdez oil spill hours before it happened and came to the aid of her Alaskan community in their battle to get fair compensation for their loss of health and income.

More recently Riki, a toxicologist, author, and activist, has been organizing the Gulf coast communities as they struggle to recover from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. Taking the lessons she learned as an activist, she is also spearheading the campaign called Ultimate Civics, a complete civics curriculum she developed that empowers students to participate in their democracy. Recognizing the power of money in politics she advocates for a constitutional amendment to end corporate personhood, and to reform campaign finance laws. She lectures nationally and internationally, inspiring students from fifth grade through universities and adults to take action and showing by example how one person can make a difference.

"It is my hope that, as people's health, livelihoods, and property are harmed by these extreme oil activities, people will understand the need to shift off oil to safer energy options and take action to achieve true energy independence. This is the movement that I see growing in all regions of our country."

DVD / 2019 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 41 minutes

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HAIDA MODERN: THE ART & ACTIVISM OF ROBERT DAVIDSON

Directed by Charles Wilkinson

Portrait of Haida artist, Robert Davidson, whose art and activism point the way towards a renewed connection with the natural world, perhaps saving us from ourselves.

Haida artist Robert Davidson is one of the foremost cultural icons of the age. HAIDA MODERN features candid and revealing conversations with the artist himself, along with commentary from art historians, politicians, musicians and family members detailing the importance and impact of Davidson's work. Highlighted in these conversations is the story of how Davidson carved the first totem pole raised on the island of Haida Gwaii in over 100 years - a spiritual and political act credited with sparking a reawakening of Indigenous culture in the Pacific Northwest.

In HAIDA MODERN, we see how Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens alike-inspired by Davidson's art-are coming together to forge political movements led by Indigenous activists and artists, fighting the critical environmental battles of our time. That is the great and enduring power of Robert Davidson's 14,000 year old indigenous Haida culture: the power of an art so beautiful, it must be seen over and again.

DVD / 2019 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 80 minutes

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LET THEM EAT DIRT: THE HUNT FOR OUR KIDS' MISSING MICROBES

Directed by Rivkah Beth Medow, Brad Marshland

Looks at the role microbes play in the development, physical and mental health of our children, and argues that good health begins with kids playing in the dirt.

Allergies, obesity, asthma, diabetes, auto-immune and intestinal disorders are all on the rise, with the incidence of some diseases doubling every ten years. New research points to changes in the ecosystem of microbes that live on and inside every one of us -- our microbiomes -- as a major cause. But how could one's gut microbes increase the odds of developing conditions as radically different as asthma and diabetes?

Hosted by Good Morning America's Becky Worley, and based on the book of the same name by B. Brett Finlay, PhD and Marie-Claire Arrieta, PhD, LET THEM EAT DIRT features families, doctors, and researchers who are sleuthing out what's harming our microbes -- and what we can do to reverse this dangerous trend.

DVD / 2019 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 58 minutes

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LOBSTER WAR: THE FIGHT OVER THE WORLD'S RICHEST FISHING GROUNDS

Directed by David Abel

Climate-changed ocean temperatures shift New England's lobster fishery across national boundaries, sparking international tension.

The buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is warming the oceans, and the waters off New England's coast are seeing some of the most dramatic temperature increases on the planet. This is having a major effect on lobster populations and the fishermen who rely on them. The southern New England lobster fishery has collapsed and the catch has moved north into cooler waters.

LOBSTER WAR documents an escalating conflict between the United States and Canada over waters that both countries have claimed since the end of the Revolutionary War.

The disputed 277 square miles of sea known as the Gray Zone--the swath of water surrounding Machias Seal Island at the entrance to the Bay of Fundy--were traditionally fished by US lobstermen. But as the Gulf of Maine has warmed lobsters have migrated north and the Gray Zone's previously modest lobster population has surged. As a result, Canadians have begun to assert their sovereignty in the area, contesting American claims to the bounty and foreshadowing potential conflicts exacerbated by climate change.

DVD / 2019 / (Grades 10-12, Adults, College) / 74 minutes

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ONCE WAS WATER

Directed by Christopher Beaver

Las Vegas provides an example to the world of how any city can and must create its own sustainable water solutions.

Las Vegas is perhaps the most famous resort city in the world. It is also the thirstiest city in the driest state in the US, so it has had to be proactive in developing solutions that conserve and redistribute water, their most precious resource. Currently the city is faced with only 2.6 inches of rain per annum, a seventeen-year drought, a constantly expanding population and competition for shared resources. As a result, the city has been forced to create its own sustainable water solutions and in the process has turned itself into an example for other desert regions.

Everything to do with their water supply and disposal is watched, measured and checked. Water is recycled and returned to the source. Every drop is monitored acoustically to detect possible leaks within 6500 miles of pipes. 40% of the water is recycled for indoor use and returned to Lake Mead, 40% of what goes out comes back, but the remaining 60% is for outdoor use and either evaporates or goes back into the ground.

The film follows the story of Patricia Mulroy, the controversial founder of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Her strength and leadership "helped launch a quiet revolution that will shape Colorado River politics far into the future, and perhaps provide a path to safety in the face of intensifying water scarcity."

The story of Las Vegas's approach to water sustainability is full of surprises, and we hear it from many different perspectives. After all, the strip is just a small part of the valley, but it is the engine that provides the cash to enable the experimentation that has created these models for survival.

DVD / 2019 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 55 minutes

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OVERLOAD: AMERICA'S TOXIC LOVE STORY

Directed by Soozie Eastman

Before she starts a family, Soozie Eastman wants to discover whether it's possible to reduce her body's--and by extension everybody's--toxic burden.

Before starting a family, Soozie Eastman, daughter of an industrial chemical distributor, embarks on a journey to find out the levels of toxins in her body and explores if there is anything she or anyone else can do to change them. Soozie has just learned that hundreds of synthetic toxins are now found in every baby born in America and the government and chemical corporations are doing little to protect citizens and consumers.

With guidance from world-renowned physicians and environmental leaders, interviews with scientists and politicians, and stories of everyday Americans, Soozie uncovers how we got to be so overloaded with chemicals and explores whether there is anything we can do to take control of our exposure.

Just as she feared, extensive blood testing reveals alarming levels of chemicals such as organophosphates and PBDEs in her body, so she undertakes a rigorous detox regimen of dietary changes, exercise and informed product choices designed to manage and minimize her toxic body burden.

She's determined to find out: Can we hit the reset button, or is it too late?

DVD / 2019 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 71 minutes

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BACKFIRED: WHEN VW LIED TO AMERICA

Directed by Dale Bell

Investigates the largest auto scam in the world, tracing VW's deliberate installation of defeat devices in their diesel cars to circumvent California and US vehicle emissions standards.

BACKFIRED: When VW Lied to America tells the inside story of the VW scandal as it unravels beginning at West Virginia University in 2013 where a group of unsuspecting students accidentally discover the defeat device while doing rare on-road testing. They immediately share their stunning discovery with CARB (California Air Resources Board) that verifies the findings and engages with the EPA and DOJ to plot carefully filing suit against VW's top executives. VW is slapped with the largest fine in US auto history: $15 billion in what's now known as "Dieselgate." And, it gets worse. Most recently, it was discovered that VW secretly tested emissions from defeat devices on innocent monkeys at a lab in New Mexico.

From West Virginia to California, to Washington DC, to Germany and Paris, we hear from those who broke the case and sought justice. BACKFIRED will leave viewers with new insight into the role of regulators, the power of money, and the willingness of major corporations knowingly to endanger the health of millions and to increase carbon emissions dramatically. Most important, it will inspire viewers to think about our obligation to our children and to continue the fight for clean air and a livable planet.

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adults) / 61 minutes

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COOKED: SURVIVAL BY ZIP CODE

Directed by Judith Helfand

Judith Helfand's searing investigation into the politics of "disaster," by way of the deadly 1995 Chicago heat wave.

Chicago suffered the worst heat disaster in U.S history in 1995, when 739 residents-mostly elderly and black-died over the course of one week. As COOKED links the deadly heat wave's devastation back to the underlying manmade disaster of structural racism, it delves deep into one of our nation's biggest growth industries: Disaster Preparedness.

Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand, uses her signature serious-yet-quirky connect-the-dots-style to forge inextricable connections between the cataclysmic natural disasters we're willing to see and prepare for and the slow-motion disasters we're not. That is, until an extreme weather event hits and they are made exponentially more deadly and visible.

But whether it was the heat wave in Chicago or Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, Irma and Maria, all of these disasters share something key: they reveal the ways in which class, race, and zip code predetermine who was living on the edge to start with, who gets hurt the worst, who recovers and bounces back-and who doesn't. In COOKED, Helfand challenges herself and others to truly see and respond to the invisible man-made disasters taking place in towns and cities across the country before the next "natural" disaster hits.

COOKED is an adaptation of "HEAT WAVE: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago" (2002), Eric Klinenberg's groundbreaking book.

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 82 minutes

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GLADESMEN: THE LAST OF THE SAWGRASS COWBOYS

Directed by David Abel

In a classic battle of competing interests, gladesmen and their airboats are being banned from Everglades National Park in the world's largest attempt to restore a damaged ecosystem.

Gladesmen: The Last of the Sawgrass Cowboys is an award-winning documentary about the federal government's ban on Florida's iconic airboats in much of the Everglades. The measure is part of the world's largest and most expensive effort to repair a damaged ecosystem, a vast river of sawgrass and cypress swamps that has been ravaged by more than a century of development, pollution, and other environmental degradation. The outcome will determine the future of the region's water supply and its ability to withstand rising sea levels. It may also lead to the demise of the Gladesmen, who for more than a century have hunted alligators and gigged frogs, sought peace on isolated tree islands, and taken refuge from the ever-increasing development that has carved up the Everglades.

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 86 minutes

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GUARDIAN

Directed by Courtney Quirin

Against the backdrop of BC's spectacular Great Bear Rainforest, Guardians and the salmon they monitor are victims of science censorship and reckless extractive industries.

Part hermit, part biologist, Guardians live on boats, full-time, in one of the last pristine frontiers of the world to monitor salmon, the backbone of the ecosystem, economy, and culture along British Columbia's coast. But, in an age of science censorship and soaring resource extraction in the form of fracking for oil and natural gas, Guardians and the wildlife they have dedicated their lives to protect are now disappearing.

GUARDIAN is a cautionary tale about the role of science in environmental decision-making and the repercussions of its censorship.

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 76 minutes

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INTO THE CANYON

Directed by Pete McBride

Two Friends. 750 miles. One Question. If the Grand Canyon isn't worth saving, what is?

Filmmaker/photographer Pete McBride and writer Kevin Fedarko set out on a 750-mile hike through the entire length of the Grand Canyon. From the outset, the challenge was far more than they bargained for. More people have stood on the moon than have completed a continuous through hike of the Canyon. McBride and Fedarko took a sectional approach, achieving a feat that many adventurers have taken decades to complete. Others have lost their lives trying. But their quest was more than just an endurance test - it was also a way to draw attention to the unprecedented threats facing one of our most revered landscapes.

Throughout their passage, McBride and Fedarko encountered an astonishingly diverse and powerful landscape, rich in history, that is now facing perhaps the gravest crisis in the 98-year history of the Grand Canyon National Park.

INTO THE CANYON is a story of extreme physical hardship that stretches the bonds of friendship and a meditation on the timeless beauty of this sacred place. It is an urgent warning about the environmental dangers that are placing one of America's greatest monuments in peril and a cautionary tale for our complex relationship with the natural world.

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 84 minutes

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PLANE TRUTHS

Directed by Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin

With the "Pivot to Asia" increased activity at the navy base on Whidbey Island, WA is making life unbearable for locals and wildlife - collateral damage in the ever increasing militarization of our society.

The recent expansion of Navy training activities in the Northwest has many local residents concerned. Will more of our communities become collateral damage?

Community members on Whidbey Island, the San Juans, and the Olympic Peninsula are disturbed by an increase in noise caused by new EA-18G "Growler" jets based at Naval Air Station Whidbey (NAS)--and a significant proposed expansion of daily Growler test flights. On Whidbey, communities have been additionally impacted by water system pollution caused by chemicals (PFOA & PFOS) used for firefighting on NAS landing strips.

PLANE TRUTHS explores a variety of perspectives on these issues from farmers, current and retired military personnel, environmentalists and other citizens of the affected areas. Viewers will learn how the noise of the Growler jets has affected daily life and business operations in many communities, about the regional environmental impacts of expanded Growler flights and newly approved Navy training in Olympic National Forest, the potential economic ramifications of increased Navy activity and associated population growth, and the status of--and Navy response to--water system pollution on Whidbey Island.

As the ideology of perpetual war becomes ever more embedded in our economy, communities near US bases here and around the world face similar problems.

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 7-9, Colleges, Adults) / 33 minutes

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SEQUEL, THE: WHAT WILL FOLLOW OUR TROUBLED CIVILIZATION?

Directed by Peter Armstrong

Looks at the influential work of David Fleming, who dared to re-imagine a thriving civilization after the collapse of our current mainstream economies and inspired the Transition Towns movement.

Opening with a powerful 'deep time' perspective, from the beginning of the Earth to our present moment, this film recognizes the fundamental unsustainability of today's society and dares to ask the big question: What will follow?

Around the world, fresh shoots are already emerging as people develop the skills, will and resources necessary to recapture the initiative and re-imagine civilization, often in the ruins of collapsed mainstream economies.

We encounter extraordinary projects and people from four continents, from renegade economist Kate Raworth, conservative philosopher Roger Scruton and Gaian ecologist Stephan Harding to localization revolutionary Helena Norberg-Hodge, inspirational practivist Rob Hopkins, eco-pioneer Jonathon Porritt and philanthropist/composer Peter Buffett. They are cultivating a resilience not reliant on the impossible promise of eternal economic growth; developing diverse, convivial, satisfying contexts for lives well lived.

All were inspired by the posthumously published lifework of the late David Fleming, "Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It", a work of rare depth that is rekindling optimism in the creativity and intelligence of humans to nurse our communities and ecology back to health.

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 7-9, College, Adults) / 61 minutes

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CHESHIRE, OHIO: AN AMERICAN COAL STORY IN 3 ACTS

Directed by Eve Morgenstern

Follows a community devastated by coal, starting with American Electric Power's buyout and bulldozing of this Ohio River town, after exposing them to years of harmful emissions.

A gun toting 83-year old woman refuses to sell her house to the power plant next door but the plant has moved ahead with their 20 million dollar deal to buy out most of Cheshire and bulldoze all the homes. What happened in this Ohio River town overrun by one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the world? A story of money, power and the increasingly difficult choices we face surrounding coal and the environment, CHESHIRE, OHIO makes us think twice about home.

Filmed over a decade, CHESHIRE, OHIO follows a community devastated by coal, starting with American Electric Power's buyout and bulldozing of this Ohio River community after exposing them to harmful emissions, and then returning several years later to the now almost emptied town as we follow the case of 77 plaintiffs who have filed a lawsuit against American Electric Power for cancer and other diseases they developed from working unprotected at the plant's coal ash landfill site.

As the cycle of pollution from coal continues, we see how one quintessential American town suffers from our reliance on carbon energy.

DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 75 minutes

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EARTH SEASONED, GAPYEAR

Directed by Molly Kreuzman

Diagnosed with learning difficulties, Tori finds her greatest teacher in nature, spending a "gap year" living semi-primitively with four other young women in Oregon's Cascade Mountains.

Earth Seasoned...#GapYear is the inspiring story of five young urban women who spend a gap year between high school and college living semi-primitively in a remote mountainside wilderness in Oregon. Told mainly through the story of Tori Davis, a teenager with learning difficulties, the film chronicles the group's four seasons in the woods as part of the Caretaker nature program. As the seasons succeed, the group has to adapt to what the wilderness provides and to what it withholds.

Through lyrical live action footage and smartly paced animation, the film reveals how separately and together the girls learn ancient skills of craftsmanship and teamwork and forge deep powers of resilience and self-reliance. Earth Seasoned has essential messages about talent, compassion and community and about the real conditions for human flourishing.

DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 75 minutes

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EVOLUTION OF ORGANIC: THE STORY OF THE ORGANIC MOVEMENT

Directed by Mark Kitchell

The story of organic agriculture, told by those in California who built the movement.

EVOLUTION OF ORGANIC, which brings us the story of organic agriculture, told by those who built the movement. A motley crew of back-to-the-landers, spiritual seekers and farmers' sons and daughters rejected modern chemical farming and set out to invent organic alternatives. The movement grew from a small band of rebels to a cultural transformation in the way we grow and eat food. By now organic has mainstreamed, become both an industry oriented toward bringing organic to all people, and a movement that has realized a vision of sustainable agriculture.

This is not just a history, but looks forward to exciting and important futures: the next generation who are broadening organic; what lies "beyond organic"; and carbon farming and sequestration as a solution to climate change -- maybe the best news on the planet.

The film is divided into four "acts".

Act I: Origins - Looks at the beginning of the organic movement in California when the 60s counter-culture moved back to the land.

Act 2: Building Organic - Follows the development of increasingly effective organic farming techniques concentrating on the soil and the microbial life within it.

Act 3: Mainstreaming Organic - Organic booms, growing 20% annually for two decades.

Act 4: Organic Futures - The next generation of organic farmers as well as carbon farming and sequestering carbon dioxide hold out great hope for combating climate change.

DVD / 2017 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 86 minutes

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FROM SEED TO SEED

Directed by Katharina Stieffenhofer

Through a group of Canadian organic farmers-both large-scale and small-scale-we experience a full growing season with all of its rewards as well as the challenges of a changing climate.

When Terry and Monique left the opera to pursue their true passion-ecological, small-scale farming-their story of community and resilience took center stage. FROM SEED TO SEED follows their young family and a diverse group of farmers in Southern Manitoba, for a season of challenges and rewards.

Scientists are working with these farmers using a blend of ancient traditions and cutting edge science to develop improved methods for growing food ecologically and in a changing climate.

This hopeful story provides a Canadian perspective on a global social movement that regenerates the land, farming, and communities toward a healthier future for us all.

DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 87 minutes

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KEEPERS OF THE FUTURE: LA COORDINADORA OF EL SALVADOR

Directed by Avi Lewis

Following El Salvador's civil war, a farmers' cooperative puts down roots, builds resilience and provides a model of how to mitigate climate change and resist unsustainable, extractive development.

In a fertile floodplain in El Salvador, where the great river meets the sea, a peasant movement puts down roots - growing resilience in the scorched earth of exile and civil war. But soon these farmers and fishing folk discover new challenges, and this time they are global: climate crisis, exacerbated by an economy of ruinous extraction. The solutions they come up with will be a revelation for audiences in the prosperous north. On the surface, the life of these campesinos may resemble the past: but in their model may lie the key to the future.

Canadian journalist, media personality and documentarian Avi Lewis, along with his wife, author Naomi Klein, has advocated for radically new social and political structures as the only viable and effective response to climate change. In KEEPERS OF THE FUTURE he profiles the Baja Lempa coordinadora, a farmers' cooperative that demonstrates how "deep local democracy" can help even a poor population build environmental, economic and political resilience.

DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 24 minutes

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MY COUNTRY NO MORE

Directed by Rita Baghdadi, Jeremiah Hammerling

The oil boom in N Dakota sets off a crisis in a rural community, forced to confront the meaning of progress as they fight for a disappearing way of life.

Between 2011 and 2016, drilling for oil in America reached an unprecedented peak, setting off a modern day gold rush in one of the most rural communities in the country: Trenton, North Dakota. Kalie Rider and her older brother Jed are both striving to rebuild farming in their family, having suffered the foreclosure of their parents' farm during the traumatic 1980s farm crisis.

When their uncle Roger makes a decision to sell a piece of his land, it sets off a domino effect of industrialization in Trenton. Now, with the church being eyed for a diesel refinery, the community becomes riven by competing interests. While Jed faces the possibility of having to uproot his young family and move away, Kalie learns to organize and resist.

Through its lyrical core, the film challenges the notion of "progress" as it questions the long term human consequences of short term approaches to land use, decisions that ultimately affect all Americans, rural and urban alike.

DVD / 2017 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 70 minutes

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OYSTER

Directed by Kim Beamish

Observes the daily life of a family running an oyster farm in a lake on the SE coast of Australia, as they deal with climate change, pollution, and the fickleness of consumers.

OYSTER captures the daily routines, chaos and drama in the lives of Dom and Pip Boyton, a lively and hard-working second generation oyster farming family on Merimbula Lake on the southeast coast of New South Wales, Australia.

The film watches as Dom and Pip juggle the demands of parenting two precocious young boys with the long hours, logistical decision-making and labor required to keep their crop of Sydney rock oysters healthy and thriving. The Boytons and the other members of their oyster farmer collective face a host of challenges, from climate change and the threat of environmental disaster to the fickleness of the buyers and luxury markets that the collective depends on.

Oysters have been called "the canaries of the estuaries" due to their importance as bioindicators, and as we watch Dom and Pip combat threats to their vulnerable operation-such as the proliferation of the invasive Pacific oyster and bacterial contamination triggered by severe "east coast low" storms and an influx of vacationers-OYSTER presents a unique and intimate look at a business whose fortunes are entwined with the health and stewardship of the environment.

DVD / 2017 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adults) / 80 minutes

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BLUEFIN: THE LAST OF THE GIANTS

Directed by John Hopkins

In North Lake, Canada, the spectacular Atlantic bluefin tuna are so plentiful they eat out of people's hands but scientific evidence shows the species is on the brink of collapse.

BLUEFIN is a tale of epic stakes set in "the tuna capital of the world," North Lake, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The film explores the baffling mystery of why the normally wary bluefin tuna no longer fear humans. Local fishermen swear tuna are so starving and abundant now that they will literally eat out of people's hands like pets. But something is not right. Have these "endangered" tuna stocks suddenly recovered as the fishermen claim? Or are we actually hunting down the last of them--like the buffalo--as scientists claim? One thing is certain: this sudden and incredible abundance of tuna off their shores flies in the face of scientific assessments claiming endangered stocks are down by 90 percent.

With stunning cinematography, director John Hopkins documents this mystery and brings the issues into sharp focus. At the heart of this documentary lies a passionate concern by all about the fate of the giant bluefin tuna. Isn't it time we learned to appreciate the giant, and relentlessly hunted, bluefin as extraordinary "wildlife," in the same way we love whales, dolphins and panda bears?

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 53 minutes

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COMPLICIT

Directed by Heather White, Lynn Zhang

Benzene-poisoned, Foxconn factory worker takes his fight against the global smartphone industry from his hospital bed in China to the international stage.

Yi YeTing is struggling with occupational leukemia and trying to obtain compensation from his employer. Wanting to help others, he begins working for a non-profit that assists workers with occupational illness and injuries.

He discovers there are dozens of workers in his local area who were poisoned while making smartphones. Through research in the community, he discovers a leukemia cluster in the neighborhood surrounding Apple's main supplier Foxconn. Yi's research leads him to several workers and their families trying to survive while burdened with their health care costs. Powerful forces are unleashed as he confronts local factories, putting his own safety at risk.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 89 minutes

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DENIAL

Directed by Derek Hallquist

A unique film about the filmmaker's father, a utility executive and smart grid pioneer in a nation in denial about climate change, who battles his own denial about his true identity.

Every day our changing climate pushes us closer to an environmental catastrophe, but for most the problem is easy to ignore. As people we often find it difficult to face change. We'd rather be in denial.

David Hallquist, CEO of a Vermont utility, has made it his mission to take on one of the US's largest contributors to this global crisis, our outdated and vulnerable electric grid. Under David's leadership his utility was one of the first to implement a smart grid. In order to make the widespread use of renewable energy sources practical, David argues, we first have to build a smart grid which uses digital communications technology to detect and react to local changes in usage, thereby decreasing outages and increasing efficiency.

But when his filmmaker son, Derek, tries to tell his father's story, the film is soon derailed by a staggering family secret, one that forces Derek and David to turn their attention toward a much more personal struggle, one that can no longer be denied. With stunning access to intimate family moments and behind-the-scenes energy deals, and with unique humor in the face of overwhelming events, DENIAL manages to present insights into two important topics - one global and one personal - through a funny, informational, and enormously compelling personal narrative, and at the same time to throw light on the messy business of change.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 92 minutes

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HOW TO LET GO OF THE WORLD AND LOVE ALL THE THINGS CLIMATE CAN'T CHANGE

Directed by Josh Fox

Oscar-nominated director Josh Fox contemplates our climate-change future by exploring the human qualities that global warming can't destroy.

In his new film, Oscar-nominated director Josh Fox (GASLAND) continues in his deeply personal style, investigating climate change - the greatest threat our world has ever known. Traveling to 12 countries on 6 continents, the film acknowledges that it may be too late to stop some of the worst consequences and asks, what is it that climate change can't destroy? What is so deep within us that no calamity can take it away?

Featuring, among others, Lester Brown, Elle Chou, Van Jones, Elizabeth Kolbert, Michael Mann, Bill McKibben, Tim DeChristopher, Petra Tschakert.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 127 minutes

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ONE BIG HOME

Directed by Thomas Bena

Trophy homes threaten Martha's Vineyard. When he feels he is complicit in wrecking the place he calls home, one carpenter takes off his tool belt and picks up a camera.

Gentrification comes in many forms. On the tiny island of Martha's Vineyard, where presidents and celebrities vacation, trophy homes threaten to destroy the island's unique character.

Twelve years in the making, ONE BIG HOME follows one carpenter's journey to understand the trend toward giant houses. When he feels complicit in wrecking the place he calls home, Thomas Bena takes off his tool belt and picks up a camera. Bumping up against angry homeowners and builders who look the other way, he works with his community and attempts to pass a new bylaw to limit house size.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 88 minutes

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