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Environment and Sustainability
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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This program explores the earth's forests, from the effects of deforestation and palm oil production, to forestry gardening and sustainable business practices. Trees are the lungs of our planet but we keep cutting them down? Find out the effects of deforestation. Did you know that a chocolate bar is responsible for the near extinction of the Orangutan? Find out why. We will also teach you how to garden the forest, introduce you to cosmetic company who are washing their hands of palm oil and an urban tree salvage company that saves trees. 50 years ago about 15% of the planets land surface was covered by a rain forest. Today, more than half of that has gone up in smoke. 12-15 million hectares of forest are lost every year. That is the equivalent of 36 football fields per minute. If that trend continues the Amazon will be gone in 50 years. So what is deforestation and why should we care?
DVD (Closed Captioned) / 2017 / 26 minutes
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Smaller, greener & more flexible homes are popping up everywhere. Find out what the mini home is. We'll make you sea sick with shipping containers, get a tour of the Now House Project, a War time home that is now a mean, green, energy producing machine. When it comes to building our homes bigger is no longer better. New homes after doubling in size in the 1960s are shrinking. Smaller, greener, more flexible homes are the new norm. After transport and agriculture, housing is the most resource intensive industry in the Western World. A smaller home leaves a smaller footprint on the Earth in every measureable way. Fewer trees cut down, less earth bulldozed, less petroleum burned, less steel mined and less use of every natural resource. As sustainability becomes more prevalent in our society, so too are eco-friendly living and working spaces. This program explores the rise of smaller, more flexible and most importantly greener homes and shows you how to get the most out of your household water by reusing it.
DVD (Closed Captioned) / 2017 / 26 minutes
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How can we better conserve and live sustainably? Learn how to find sustainable furniture, find green items on EBay and even how to green your website. Get a behind the scenes look at how we define waste and value. Making environmentally good choices when furnishing your home is easier than you think and can make a big impact on the planet. This program teaches the value of repurposing salvaged materials into original furniture and how it is an essential choice to help solve problems caused by excessive consumption. Learn where the raw materials we sit, eat and sleep on come from and how they impact the natural world. Renew, revive and restore!
DVD (Closed Captioned) / 2017 / 26 minutes
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This program explores the automotive industrys move towards greener cars and the need for cities to balance cycling, public transport and cars within their overall infrastructure. So lets take a look at the transportation industry. Find out how to build a city around public transportation and the importance of the bicycle. Is there such a thing as a Green car? Have you heard cars can run on veggie oil, we'll show you how and take a look at biodiesel fuel. Increased levels of Carbon Dioxide are being expelled into the air from our tail pipes. Designing more sustainable transportation systems and being more thoughtful of how we design our cities is key by integrating walkability, bikeability and public transit. Building a city based on reduced carbon dependency by finding ways of redesigning or retro fitting neighborhoods and designing cities less dependent on fossil fuels is the way of the future.
DVD (Closed Captioned) / 2017 / 26 minutes
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For the first time in history, more than half the population lives in cities. Because of urbanization every year we destroy untold amounts of plants and fertile soil. With this in mind, how can we make cities more sustainable? This program takes a special look at green roof gardening, the expansion of solar panels and thinking inside the box with food container gardening. Big cities leave big trouble for the natural world. The good news is we have the ability to change. There are currently innovative technologies in place that will help combat climate change in big cities.
DVD (Closed Captioned) / 2017 / 26 minutes
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Directed by Joshua Pribanic, Melissa Troutman
Exposes the mishandling and cover-up of drinking water contamination related to unconventional natural gas extraction - aka fracking - in Pennsylvania.
This award-winning "bombshell" documentary covers the impact of fracking in one of the country's most pristine watersheds. With exclusive interviews from oil and gas industry leaders, independent experts and impacted residents, TRIPLE DIVIDE [REDACTED] covers five years (2011 - 2016) of cradle-to-grave investigations that reveal how regulators and industry keep water contamination covered up.
The documentary's title pays homage to one of only four Triple Continental Divides in North America, a place that provides drinking water to millions of Americans, signaling to the audience that everything, and everyone, is downstream from shale gas extraction.
Award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo co-narrates this film.
DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 53 minutes
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Directed by Ian Cheney
Contrasts sci-fi ideas about terraforming Mars with the state of NYC's waterways, and questions the viability of colonizing Mars before making our own planet sustainable.
Could humans live on Mars? Would we want to? Emmy-nominated filmmaker, Ian Cheney, provides insight into our currently unsustainable relationship with our home planet by examining the sci-fi speculation of "terraforming," or making another planet Earth-like, by altering its atmosphere. He calls on a multifaceted brain trust to process this big idea including a desert camp of Mars hopefuls, a bevy of sci-fi writers, Hurricane Sandy survivors, the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club, and a who's who of astrobiologists and earth scientists. BLUESPACE makes a strong case for taking better care of our water-rich planet so that future generations won't have to resort to interplanetary colonization.
At times whimsical and funny, serious and poignant and always stimulating, this is a unique exploration of current thinking about the origins and evolution of life and its relationship to water.
DVD includes both the original 73- minute version of the film and a 54- minute classroom version.
DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10 -12, College, Adults) / 73 minutes
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Directed by Josh Fox, Steve Liptay
Chronicles 350.org's 'Do the Math' bus tour as it launched the fossil fuel divestment campaign onto the national and ultimately international stage.
As world governments struggle to meet the aspirational limit of 1.5 Degrees of global warming agreed to at COP21 in Paris, a new campaign is targeting the fossil fuel industry in an effort to withdraw its social license to operate. DIVEST! Chronicles 350.org's 'Do the Math' bus tour across the United States in 2012 as it launched the fossil fuel divestment campaign onto the national and ultimately international stage.
Each night Bill McKibben and special guests laid out the findings in his landmark Rolling Stone article 'Global Warming's Terrifying New Math' and made both the moral and historical case for divestment. Three years later over 500 institutions representing over 3 trillion dollars in assets have committed to divest. The campaign is winning, but with the clock ticking down the question remains: will the victories add up enough to matter?
Featuring Naomi Klein, Reverend Lennox Yearwood, Dr. Sandra Steingraber, Josh Fox, Terry Tempest Williams, Winona LaDuke, Desmond Tutu and Ira Glass.
DVD / 2016 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 77 minutes
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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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Directed by Steve Liss, Andy Laub, David Abel
Captures the collapse of the historic cod population in New England, delving into the effects of overfishing, climate change and government policies on fishermen and the fish.
For centuries, cod was like gold, driving men to extremes. Cod were so abundant in the waters off New England that fishermen used to say they could walk across the Atlantic on the backs of them, and generations of men from places like Gloucester and Cape Cod spent their entire lives chasing the coveted fish.
In recent decades, something began to change in the Gulf of Maine. As the region's cod catch plummeted, government surveys of the iconic species reported increasingly dire results. Scientists and environmental activists raised alarms about overfishing and the warming ocean. They urged officials to act.
On Nov. 10, 2014, after years of ignoring warnings, NOAA officials banned virtually all cod fishing throughout the region. Fishermen were infuriated. They challenged the findings and accused the government of trying to destroy their livelihood. Environmental activists feared the government's action had come too late to save the cod.
In 2016, officials estimated there were fewer than 200 cod fishermen left in the fleet, and they're now in the fight of their lives, struggling to hold fast to a tradition that has endured for centuries in New England.
SACRED COD gives us an up close look at the challenges many will have to face in the age of climate change.
DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 65 minutes
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Directed by Jon Bowermaster
The oil and gas industry has historically dominated Louisiana politics and is largely responsible for the state's rapidly disappearing coastline.
Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina devastated the coast of Louisiana. Five years later the Deepwater Horizon exploded and spilled more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the worst ecologic disaster in North American history. Amazingly those aren't the worst things facing Louisiana's coastline today. It is that the state is fast disappearing through coastal erosion caused largely by oil and gas industry activity.
A follow-up to our 2010 film SoLa: Louisiana Water Stories, this film introduces us to some of the spill's most aggrieved victims as well as those who are desperately trying to save its coastline. Writer and historian John Barry who launched a suit against 97 oil and gas companies attempting to get them to pay their fair share for reparations caused by their explorations. Consultant and native son James Carville who manages to find some hope in new technologies that may save the coast. And Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, the man who saved New Orleans post-Katrina, whose new passion is for a Green Army he has recruited.
Fishermen, scientists, politicians, environmentalists, and oil-rig workers document how the coast of Louisiana has changed. What really happened to all that oil? What about the dispersant used to push it beneath the surface? How has the spill impacted local economies as well as human health and the health of both marine life and the Gulf itself? How much resilience is left in the people and coastline?
DVD / 2015 / (Grade Level: 7 -12, Colleges, Adults) / 62 minutes
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Director: Martin L. Birnbaum
Central Park: The People's Place is a loving portrait of New York's collective backyard. It is a biography of a living place that continues to evolve as the city changes. The documentary explores its historic creation as the first truly public park, its psychological and sociological significance, artistic design, and role as an urban oasis as the world becomes increasingly aware of the importance of green spaces. The film celebrates nature's seasonal changes with beautiful photography and original music that capture the 'good vibes' of a park filled with New Yorkers at play. Home to birdwatchers, sunbathers, kids playing, musicians giving impromptu concerts and big events like Shakespeare in the Park and the New York City Marathon, Central Park is central to the life of the city.
Central Park: The People's Place examines both the collective and individual experiences of Central Park, rejoicing in the diversity and splendor of an American experiment in social democracy
DVD / 2015 / 97 minutes
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Directed by Andrea Torrice
The first film to document how a city responds to the imminent tree crisis caused by invasive insects such as the emerald ash borer.
It seemed to happen almost overnight. Thousands of trees started dying unexpectedly in SW Ohio. Cincinnati almost went broke cutting down trees and trying to keep the invasion from damaging property - or worse. The killer was a tiny insect known as the emerald ash borer, a new invasive insect from Asia that will wipe out every ash tree in America...unless we do something about it. First found near Detroit in 2002, emerald ash borers have now infested trees in 35 states, from New Hampshire to South Carolina and as far west as Colorado.
TREES IN TROUBLE: Saving America's Urban Forests tells the compelling story of how one community in SW Ohio confronted their tree crisis and fought the invasive pest by taking action and joining together. Through partnerships with scientists, city officials and everyday citizens, this community was able to fight the pest and protect their urban forests for future generations. The film also explores the rich history of urban forestry in the United States and the exciting new research linking human health and trees.
Designed for audiences of all ages, TREES IN TROUBLE inspires viewers to take action, and points towards first steps.
DVD / 2015 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 27 minutes
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Directed by Mark Kitchell
The documentary of record on the environmental movement.
A FIERCE GREEN FIRE: The Battle For a Living Planet is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement - grassroots and global activism spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change. From halting dams in the Grand Canyon to battling 20,000 tons of toxic waste at Love Canal; from Greenpeace saving the whales to Chico Mendes and the rubbertappers saving the Amazon; from climate change to the promise of transforming our civilization... the film tells vivid stories about people fighting - and succeeding - against enormous odds.
The film is divided into five "acts".
Act 1 focuses on the conservation movement of the `60s, David Brower and the Sierra Club's battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon. Narrated by Robert Redford.
Act 2 looks at the new environmental movement of the `70s with its emphasis on pollution, focusing on the battle led by Lois Gibbs over Love Canal. Narrated by Ashley Judd.
Act 3 is about alternative ecology strands and the main story is Greenpeace's campaign to save the whales. Narrated by Van Jones.
Act 4 explores global resource issues and crises of the `80s, focusing on the struggle to save the Amazon led by Chico Mendes and the rubber tappers. Narrated by Isabel Allende.
Act 5 concerns climate change. Narrated by Meryl Streep.
DVD / 2014 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 53 minutes
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Directed by Renard Cohen
Documents the opposition from both sides of the political spectrum to the ubiquitous practice of fracking for natural gas, and the health and environmental reasons behind it.
GROUNDSWELL RISING gives voice to ordinary folks engaged in a David and Goliath struggle against Big Oil and Gas. We meet parents, scientists, doctors, farmers and individuals across the political spectrum decrying the energy extraction process known as fracking that puts profits over people. This provocative documentary tracks a grassroots movement exposing dangers to clean air, water, and civil rights.
GROUNDSWELL RISING shows how fracking has contaminated drinking water and jeopardized health and quality of life. Homeowners near wells suffer from respiratory ailments and property devaluation. Reina Ripple, of Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, chronicles mounting ailments related to fracking. A former industry employee shows skin lesions and edema obtained while working with fracking waste.
Grassroots efforts have achieved bans, moratoriums, and referendums on fracking. Stanford University Professor Mark Jacobson paves the way forward globally with his Solutions Project for 100% renewable energy. Transcending the genre of environmental film, GROUNDSWELL's passionate stories inspire and empower.
DVD / 2014 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 70 minutes
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Directed by Angela Sun
Angela Sun reveals the effects of our rabid plastic consumption as she investigates The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Thousands of miles away from civilization, Midway Atoll is in one of the most remote places on earth. And yet it's become ground zero for The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, syphoning plastics from three distant continents. In this independent documentary film, journalist/filmmaker Angela Sun travels on a personal journey of discovery to uncover this mysterious phenomenon. Along the way she meets scientists, researchers, influencers, and volunteers who shed light on the effects of our rabid plastic consumption and learns the problem is more insidious than we could have ever imagined.
DVD / 2014 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes
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Directed by Christopher Beaver
Follows San Francisco's innovative efforts towards achieving zero waste, thereby dramatically reducing the city's carbon footprint.
Only one third of the waste in the United States is recycled or composted. Why? Industry, through its practice of planned obsolescence, plays a major role; our lives are almost totally dependent on unrecyclable petroleum products. In order to reach zero waste, we need to change our relationship to garbage and view the things we discard as resources, rather than waste.
RACING TO ZERO examines our society's garbage practices in terms of consumption, preparation, use and production, and discovers some amazing solutions in San Francisco, which is successfully taking the necessary steps to reach zero waste. Cities all over the United States have instituted zero-waste policies of their own, and it is through these mandates that we are challenged to think differently about not only how we handle our garbage, but what it can become.
DVD / 2014 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 56 minutes
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Directed by John Ankele & Anne Macksoud
Examines the challenges that climate change poses and discusses meaningful action that can be taken by individuals and communities.
THE WISDOM TO SURVIVE accepts the consensus of scientists that climate change has already arrived, and asks, what is keeping us from action? In discussions with thought leaders and activists, we explore how unlimited growth and greed are destroying the life support system of the planet, the social fabric of the society, and the lives of billions of people.
Will we have the wisdom to survive? The film features thought leaders and activists in the realms of science, economics and spirituality discussing how we can evolve and take action in the face of climate disruption. They urge us to open ourselves to the beauty that surrounds us and get to work on ensuring it thrives.
Amongst those featured are Bill McKibben, Joanna Macy, Roger Payne, Richard Heinberg, Gus Speth, Stephanie Kaza, Nikki Cooley and Ben Falk.
DVD / 2014 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 56 minutes
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Directed by Ralph King Jr. and Michael Schwarz
In a Stanford multidisciplinary, project-based course, student design teams are building a better world...one product at a time.
EXTREME BY DESIGN follows Stanford business, engineering and medical students as they work in teams, using design thinking methods, to develop products and services that serve the needs of the world's poor. One student team works on a breathing device to keep babies alive in Bangladesh. Another seeks a way to store drinking water in Indonesia. The third team project is to design an IV medicine infusion pump.
It's all part of the Design for Extreme Affordability course inspired and launched by the Stanford d.school. The film begins on the first day of the course and ends eight months later as one group of students returns to Asia to test their device amid plans to launch a startup.
At a time of unprecedented global challenges EXTREME BY DESIGN shows the power of human-centered design in creating innovative, effective and sustainable solutions to the complex problems facing us.
DVD / 2013 / (Grades 6-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes
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By Winnie Hoskyns-Abrahall, Bill Hennessy
In plain language, master electrician and solar installer Bruce Hankins explains AC coupling, the combining of a grid-tied solar electric installation with an off-grid battery backup system.
As the world turns to sustainability, solar enriches our lives. SAVING SUNSHINE takes a look at today's developments in solar electricity and its increasing role as power provider.
Combining the best features of off-grid, stand-alone solar installations with grid-tied systems that provide distributed generation, photovoltaic systems have evolved into AC-coupled systems. They provide back-up, stand-alone electricity while also using renewable solar energy for our everyday electrical needs.
This combination of renewable energy and energy storage connects multiple inverters with maintenance-free batteries and opens the door to energy independence in a sustainable, low-carbon future.
Teachers, electricians, system installers, architects, owners of grid-tied systems and solar advocates will find the clear explanations in SAVING SUNSHINE helpful in learning the specifics of an AC-coupled system and how it forms a local distribution system to deliver electricity in a more reliable and environmentally friendly manner.
DVD / 2013 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 34 minutes
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Director: Merete Mueller & Christopher Smith
What is home? And how do we find it? Through one couple's attempt to build a Tiny House with no building experience, this charming documentary raises questions about sustainability, good design, and the American Dream.
From 1970 to 2010, the average size of a new house in America has almost doubled. Yet in recent years, many are redefining their American Dream to focus on flexibility, financial freedom, and quality of life over quantity of space. These self-proclaimed "Tiny Housers" live in homes smaller than the average parking space, often built on wheels to bypass building codes and zoning laws. TINY takes us inside six of these homes stripped to their essentials, exploring the owners' stories and the design innovations that make them work.
TINY is a coming-of-age story for a generation that is more connected, yet less tied-down than ever, and for a society redefining its priorities in the face of a changing financial and environmental climate. More than anything, TINY invites its viewers to dream big and imagine living small.
DVD / 2013 / 62 minutes
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Director: Laura Israel
Wind power... it's sustainable ... it burns no fossil fuels...it produces no air pollution. What's more, it cuts down dependency on foreign oil.
That's what the people of Meredith, NY first thought when a wind developer looked to supplement the rural farm town's failing economy with a farm of their own - that of 40 industrial wind turbines. But when a group of townspeople discover the impacts that a 400-foot high windmill could bring to their community, Meredith's residents become deeply divided as they fight over the future of their community. With wind development in the United States growing annually at 39 percent, Windfall is an eye-opener for anyone concerned about the environment and the future of renewable energy.
DVD / 2011 / 83 minutes
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