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Urban and Regional Planning
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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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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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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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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Directed by John de Graaf
The story of how a mining town recovered from its legacy of pollution and prospered by building community around the battle to save their beautiful river.
Born in the California Gold Rush, Nevada City was once the scene of some of the most destructive environmental practices on earth. By the 1960s, the town was a backwater, its extractive industries dying. Then it was discovered by the "back to the land movement." It was a second gold rush but with a different idea of gold based on nature, community and a sense of place.
The fight to save the Yuba River from proposed power dams brought conflicting factions of the community together while different ideas about the meaning of wealth have led to changes in local food production, education, arts, music and a commitment to building community. Once a place whose essence was individualism, competition and extractive industries, Nevada City is now moving toward a future of solidarity, stewardship, and livelihoods based on renewable resources, husbandry and sustainability.
Featuring two dozen of Nevada City's most active citizens and their stories, REDEFINING PROSPERITY is the remarkable story of a beautiful California town and the outward-looking, creative people who call it home and forged its new identity.
DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes
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Directed by Deborah Kaufman, Alan Snitow
A grassroots movement challenges Citizens United, corporate power, and moguls of the "sharing economy" to stop gentrification and wrest back control of San Francisco's future.
The once free-spirited city of San Francisco is now a "Company Town," a playground for tech moguls of the "sharing economy." Airbnb is the biggest hotel, Uber privatizes transit. And now these companies want political power as well.
Meanwhile, middle class and ethnic communities are driven out by gentrification, skyrocketing rents and evictions, sparking a grassroots backlash. Can an insurgent electoral campaign overcome corporate power and billionaires' megabucks to change a city's course?
COMPANY TOWN shows how a grassroots coalition of unions, tenants, neighborhoods of color, activists and artists can come together to win.
DVD / 2016 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adults) / 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 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 Melanie Wood
From floating neighborhoods to massive harbor floodgates, cities around the world are engineering ways to cope with extreme weather events.
Violent stormy weather is a natural outcome of climate change and a warmer planet. WEATHER GONE WILD is about changing the way we live in order to survive a world of superstorms.
WEATHER GONE WILD explores recent extreme weather events and the scientific projections of what we can expect over the next few decades. What can we do to give ourselves the best chance of protecting our homes and families from the weather's devastating effects?
The documentary travels to Calgary, Toronto, New York, Miami, and Rotterdam to detail the dangers of the destructive new weather patterns, and shows the innovative plans in each city trying to engineer their way to a safer future. Everything from farming to the insurance industry to building codes will have to change. How can -- and must -- the average citizen adapt their life to Weather Gone Wild?
DVD / 2014 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 43 minutes
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Directed by Leah Mahan
When the graves of former slaves are bulldozed in Mississippi, a native son returns to protect the community they settled.
COME HELL OR HIGH WATER follows the painful but inspiring journey of Derrick Evans, a Boston teacher who returns to his native coastal Mississippi when the graves of his ancestors are bulldozed to make way for the sprawling city of Gulfport. Derrick is consumed by the effort to protect the community his great grandfather's grandfather settled as a former slave. He is on the verge of a breakthrough when Hurricane Katrina strikes the Gulf Coast.
After years of restoration work to bring Turkey Creek back from the brink of death, the community gains significant federal support for cultural and ecological preservation. Derrick plans to return to Boston to rebuild the life he abandoned, but another disaster seals his fate as a reluctant activist. On the day Turkey Creek is featured in USA Today for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes.
DVD / 2013 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 56 minutes
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Directed by Amy Browne, Jeremy Kaplan, Tony Hale, Brian Wilson
Clark Wang's passionate wish for a legacy of green burials inspires a profoundly affecting and optimistic portrait of people finding meaning in death.
What if our last act could be a gift to the planet? Capturing the genesis of a revolutionary social and environmental movement, A WILL FOR THE WOODS draws the viewer into a life-affirming and immersive portrait of people embracing their connection to timeless natural cycles.
Musician, folk dancer, and psychiatrist Clark Wang prepares for his own green burial, determined that his final resting place will benefit the earth. He has discovered a movement that uses burial to conserve and restore natural areas, forgoing toxic, wasteful funeral practices engineered to preserve the body at the ecosystem's expense. Clark, a spirited and charismatic advocate, sets out to save a tract of forest with the help of green burial pioneers and a compassionate local cemeterian.
While he continues to battle cancer, he and his partner Jane find great comfort in the thought that his death - whenever it may happen - will be a force for regeneration. As the film follows Clark's dream of leaving a loving, permanent legacy, environmentalism takes on a deeply human intimacy.
DVD / 2013 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 93 minutes
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Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
A vivid portrait of Detroit, America's first major post-industrial city, as it struggles to deal with the consequences of a broken economic system.
Detroit's story has encapsulated the iconic narrative of America over the last century...the Great Migration of African Americans escaping Jim Crow; the rise of manufacturing and the middle class; the love affair with automobiles; the flowering of the American dream; and now the collapse of the economy and the fading American mythos.
With its vivid, painterly palette and haunting score, DETROPIA sculpts a dreamlike collage of a grand city teetering on the brink of dissolution. These soulful pragmatists and stalwart philosophers strive to make ends meet and make sense of it all, refusing to abandon hope or resistance. Their grit and pluck embody the spirit of the Motor City as it struggles to survive postindustrial America and begins to envision a radically different future.
DVD / 2012 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 86 minutes
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Directed by Andreas M. Dalsgaard
Influential Danish architect Jan Gehl argues that we can build cities in a way which takes human needs for inclusion and intimacy into account.
50% of the world's population lives in urban areas, by 2050 it will be 80%. Cities have become the primary human habitat. According to revolutionary Danish architect and urban planner Jan Gehl, if we are to make cities sustainable and livable for people we must re-imagine the very foundations of modern urban planning. Rather than examining buildings and urban structures themselves, Gehl and his team meticulously study the in-between spaces of urban life, the places where people meet, interact, live, and behave.
How do the spaces that surround us enhance or disturb our interactions with others? How can we make our streets more accessible by foot or bike? Through his world acclaimed work, Gehl has been leading a revolution in urban planning that has been transforming cities worldwide. From the expanded pedestrian spaces in New York's Union Square, to Copenhagen's famed bike lanes, to the rebuilding of earthquake devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, Gehl's team bring real solutions that promise a more humanistic dimension to cities where people are not displaced by congested streets, skyscrapers, and the car-centric urbanism of the 1960s and '70s.
Stunningly photographed, THE HUMAN SCALE travels around the world to explore how Gehl and other like minded designers, city planners, and urban activists have begun to transform such cities as as New York, Beijing, Christchurch, and London.
DVD / 2012 / (Grades 8-12, College, Adult) / 77 minutes
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Directed by John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson
A poem about a city, its people, and 20,000 crows.
Tokyo is a digital metropolis and wellspring of spectacular pop culture, its commercial crossroads carpeted with people day and night. Above them, watching from perches on buildings and power lines, are more than 20,000 crows. As their numbers soared in recent years, Tokyo fought back: trapping them, destroying nests, and securing trash. The crows adapted; they are among the smartest of animals. The 13 million people of Tokyo now live alongside them in a stalemate.
TOKYO WAKA tells this story, and a larger one as well. A Buddhist priest comments on garbage as the remnants of desire; a gardener considers the relentless persistence of nature amidst urban grit; a homeless woman talks about forging community in her tent village deep in the corner of a city park. TOKYO WAKA gives these smart, opportunistic crows their due, but the film is ultimately an episodic and discursive poem about the life and culture of Tokyo, one of the great cities of the world.
DVD (Japanese with English Subtitles) / 2012 / (Grades 7-9, College, Adult) / 63 minutes
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By Stephen R. Kellert and Bill Finnegan
A design revolution that connects buildings to the natural world, buildings where people feel and perform better.
Biophilic Design is an innovative way of designing the places where we live, work, and learn. We need nature in a deep and fundamental fashion, but we have often designed our cities and suburbs in ways that both degrade the environment and alienate us from nature.
The recent trend in green architecture has decreased the environmental impact of the built environment, but it has accomplished little in the way of reconnecting us to the natural world, the missing piece in the puzzle of sustainable development.
Come on a journey from our evolutionary past and the origins of architecture to the world's most celebrated buildings in a search for the architecture of life. Together, we will encounter buildings that connect people and nature--hospitals where patients heal faster, schools where children's test scores are higher, offices where workers are more productive, and communities where people know more of their neighbors and families thrive.
Featured are communities and buildings from Scandinavia, Germany, France and Britain to the Canadian and American northwest, American southwest, and New England. They include: California Academy of Sciences, Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Fallingwater, Viaduc des Arts, Google/YouTube Headquarters, Sahlgrenska Hospital (Psychiatric Department), High Point (Seattle Housing Authority), Johnson Wax Building, Sidwell Friends Middle School, Oxford Museum of Natural History, Village Homes (Davis, CA), and Kroon Hall (Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies).
Amongst those interviewed are: Edward O. Wilson, Bill McDonough, Judi Heerwagen, Jason McLennan, Tim Beatley, Bill Browning, Bert Gregory, Kent Bloomer, Claire Cooper Marcus, Michael Taylor, David Orr, Gus Speth, and Richard Louv.
Biophilic Design points the way toward creating healthy and productive habitats for modern humans.
DVD / 2011 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 62 minutes
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Directed by Ann Dunsky
The fight to save San Francisco's San Bruno Mountain speaks to the global dilemma of economic growth versus species preservation.
This film deals with the global dilemma of economic growth versus species preservation.
San Bruno Mountain provides a context to explore these complex questions. The mountain is San Francisco's lost landscape, a mostly intact remnant of the ecosystem that once covered the city's hills. It is the site of the nation's first Habitat Conservation Plan, a controversial compromise that trades development for additional habitat preservation and management.
For fifty years, people have fought to protect San Bruno Mountain and its rare butterflies. Told with humor and insight by participants and observers alike, BUTTERFLIES & BULLDOZERS is a story about the rights of nature and the rights of people, about compromise and commitment, and the tough choices we all have to make.
DVD / 2010 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 62 minutes
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Directed by Ian Cheney
Blending seriousness and whimsy, filmmaker Ian Cheney explores the promise and perils of urban farming.
TRUCK FARM tells the story of a new generation of American farmers. Using green roof technology and heirloom seeds, filmmaker Ian Cheney plants a vegetable garden on the only land he's got: his Granddad's old pickup. Once the mobile garden begins to sprout, viewers are trucked across New York to see the city's funkiest urban farms, and to find out if America's largest city can learn to feed itself.
Blending serious exposition with serious silliness, TRUCK FARM entreats viewers to ponder the future of urban farming, and to consider whether sustainability needs a dose of whimsy to be truly sustainable. Featuring nutritionist Marion Nestle, chef Dan Barber, explorer Henry Hudson and a very lonely seagull.
DVD / 2010 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 48 minutes
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Directed by Andrea Torrice
Two short documentaries highlight the efforts of some of America's first suburbs to reverse their long decline.
America's "first" suburbs, those suburban communities built next to America's urban centers, were once the birthplace of the American Dream. Driven by a desire to escape the smokestacks of the central cities, and a housing shortage following World War II, thousands of suburban homes were rapidly constructed and middle class families flocked to fill them.
Sixty years later, many of these original suburbs are facing a crisis: a dwindling tax base, population and business loss, decaying infrastructure, increased racial tensions and white flight. Lacking policies to help reverse these trends, many towns are looking for strategies for revitalization.
Two new half-hour documentaries use compelling, personal stories to highlight these important issues. A Crack In The Pavement, narrated by Peter Coyote, features two first suburban officials struggling to fix their crumbling infrastructure and argues for regional cooperation. The New Neighbors, narrated by Ruby Dee, tells the inspiring story of two ordinary people, one black and one white, who have successfully made racial integration the centerpiece of revitalizing Pennsauken, NJ.
DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2009 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 53 minutes
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A moving and complex essay on a unique landscape of the American West, the area around the Hanford Site in Washington State.
Arid Lands is a documentary feature about the land and people of the Columbia Basin in southeastern Washington state. Sixty years ago, the Hanford nuclear site produced plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and today the area is the focus of the largest environmental cleanup in history. It is a landscape of incredible contradictions: coyotes roam among decommissioned nuclear reactors, salmon spawn in the middle of golf courses, wine grapes grow in the sagebrush, and federal cleanup dollars spur rapid urban expansion.
Arid Lands takes us into a world of sports fishermen, tattoo artists, housing developers, ecologists, and radiation scientists living and working in the area. It tells the story of how people changed the landscape over time, and how the landscape affected their lives. Marked by conflicting perceptions of wilderness and nature, Arid Lands is a moving and complex essay on a unique landscape of the American West.
DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2007 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 98 minutes
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David Suzuki reports on a wide range of green buildings, from large community developments to mini-homes.
In refreshing hour, Build Green shows how by taking advantage of the sun, the wind, and the rain, as well as dirt, straw and waste, homeowners and developers can reduce their personal contribution to climate change by building structures that are healthier for the occupants, economical to run, and even fun to live in.
David Suzuki sets out across Canada to discover the latest in green construction. On British Columbia's Salt Spring Island, Suzuki visits the rammed earth house of rock star Randy Bachman. Rammed earth is a traditional building technique that, with modern advances, has become viable and popular in many different climate regions. The technique minimizes site disturbance, the importation of construction materials and and the use of toxic substances.
In Build Green, Canada's best architects show us round their latest green projects. From retrofitting an aging Montreal housing complex with state-of-the-art sustainable energy systems, to laying up hay for strawbale houses, to building transportable "mini-homes" with their own small power plant, Build Green takes a close look at the materials and technologies we'd be foolish not to adopt as standard practice in construction.
DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2007 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 44 minutes
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Directed by Harry Wiland
Is it possible that the City of the Angels can tell a story to the world about environmental rebirth?
LA made smog and pollution into household words. No longer. Its citizens have said enough. TreePeople, founded by Andy Lipkis, is leading the campaign to plant one million trees in the next decade. Friends of the LA River and the Rivers & Mountains Conservancy are reclaiming the Los Angeles River. They are determined to see the return of steelhead salmon in their lifetimes.
To everyone's surprise, Los Angeles is discovering mass transit. Darrell Clarke, Executive Director of Friends of the Expo Line has spent 17 years finally convincing the city to begin building the first east-west light rail-line in Los Angeles in 50 years.
Girls Today Women Tomorrow mentors the girls of Boyle Heights, teaching them about nutrition, exercise, and their Latina culture. The community-based program also provides college scholarships in a neighborhood where the drop-out rate is close to 50%.
Los Angeles is even planning a 26-acre downtown park thanks to the philanthropic generosity and vision of Eli Broad. Other green projects are being promoted by its 24/7 Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, who understands that environmental justice, public health and quality-of-life go together in order to dream a different city.
DVD (Color, Closed Captioned, With 45 Pages Teachers' Guide) / 2007 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes
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Directed by Harry Wiland
Recognizing that the human community is growing faster than the aging infrastructure, the city of Seattle created an Office of Sustainability and Environment.
Seattle is synonymous with environmental awareness. Some have called it the city of the future. It leads the nation in the search for alternate fuels (Seattle Biodiesel) and was one of the first locations to create community-based biodiesel distribution co-ops.
The High- Point mixed-use housing development is the first planned sustainable neighborhood in a major American city. It garners visitors from around the world. High- Point has even restored streams that are critical to the region's salmon migration.
Salmon is an indicator species for the North West and it is an integral part of our story. We follow the plight of this remarkable species from the releasing of eggs into Lake Washington by schoolchildren, to a trip into Elliot Bay with an enlightened fisherman and, finally, with a visit to native American commercial fisheries that adhere to sustainable practices.
Also related to water, there is a heated debate on how to provide access to Seattle's remarkable shoreline. Will its aging Viaduct Highway be torn down and replaced with a tunnel? The issue is still being discussed.
Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, a citizen movement fails. Such a cautionary tale describes our final story, the 10-year battle to fund and build the citizen-inspired Monorail.
DVD (Color, Closed Captioned, With 45 Pages Teachers' Guide) / 2007 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes
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City Hall and grass roots groups in Chicago are working on open space, green buildings and an educated citizenry to create a sustainable city.
Chicago is a dynamic and fascinating city with spectacular architecture and a dramatic setting on the shores of Lake Michigan. The largest metropolis between the coasts, it has the biggest population, the most problems...and the greatest potential.
Edens Lost & Found tells Chicago's story by threading together the stories of a diverse group of its active and committed citizens including volunteers, professionals, students and community leaders -- among them, the city's mayor, Richard M. Daley. During his tenure, Chicago made a powerful commitment to open space with the creation of the 24-acre Millennium Park built atop a parking garage in the heart of downtown. The city has also become a laboratory for green architecture with the award-winning City Hall Roof Garden and Green Roof Initiative.
Whole neighborhoods are getting involved in the effort to create more livable communities. Eden Place is a prime example of grassroots determination to reclaim for themselves pieces of Eden that had been lost to generations of apathy.
And out in the suburbs? An Elgin High School environmental instructor convinced the school board to set aside adjacent land as an outdoor classroom and nature preserve. Here, her students are learning to become leaders in the movement to create sustainable ecosystems.
DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2006 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes
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Faced with severe budget limitations, Philadelphia's rebirth is being brought about by a network of community-based volunteer organizations.
Philadelphia is a historic city responding to many challenges, including suburban development, that threaten to decimate the core city. Faced with severe budget limitations (a universal reality), it created a vast network of community-based volunteer organizations who have brought about rebirth through volunteerism and community outreach. Some of those organizations include The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, The New Kensington Community Development Corporation and The Philadelphia Water Department.
City government hasn't been sitting still, either. Mayor John F. Street created the Neighborhood Transition Initiative (NTI) program as part of a coordinated plan to save the city from the impact of "moving up and moving out." NTI was assigned to come up with practicable and affordable solutions to remove blight, promote quality restoration, stimulate investment in new housing, and improve how the city delivers services to its businesses and residents. The challenge is to make neighborhoods more attractive so families will stay and become stakeholders.
Philadelphia has many tales to tell about how it is dealing with challenges being felt around the planet: creation of a sustainable society, economy, and ecosystem in a thriving urban environment.
DVD (Color, Closed Captioned, With 45 pages teachers' guide) / 2006 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes
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Looks at the impact on a small town when Wal- Mart plans to build a mega-store there.
In the US, Wal- Mart opens a new mega-store every two business days. This is the story of the impact of discount chain stores on American towns and cities, and on our society as a whole.
STORE WARS follows events in Ashland, VA, over a one-year period, from the first stormy public hearing that galvanizes residents' opposition till the Town Council takes a final vote on the proposed Wal- Mart store. Arguments for the store (tax revenues, low prices, jobs) and against it (destroys small town character, traffic, low-end jobs) are articulated and hotly debated. The cast of characters includes the mayor and Town Council members who will eventually make the decision, Wal- Mart representatives and the "Pink Flamingos," the grassroots citizen group opposed to the store.
STORE WARS does not single out Wal- Mart, but rather highlights its position as the icon of the Big Box industry. While offering a critical view of this industry, the film presents fairly all viewpoints on this controversial issue.
DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2001 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 59 minutes
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Examines the causes and effects of -- and then remedies for -- suburban sprawl.
Vibrant towns or sprawl? Small town newsman (and Pulitzer Prize winner) Tom Hylton explores how America can save its cities, towns, and countryside in this one-hour program.
Save Our Land, Save Our Towns taps into a growing concern about sprawl among ordinary Americans. A poll by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism recently found that sprawl ranks with crime, taxes, and education as the top concern of citizens across the country.
Americans are frustrated with traffic congestion, angry about the loss of open space, and perplexed by the decline of America's cities. Many think sprawl is inevitable. But it's not.
Save Our Land, Save Our Towns is a story of hope -- logical reasons why America's towns can be rebuilt and its countryside preserved from strip malls and subdivisions. The program is designed to be engaging and personal -- a voyage of discovery, rather than a mere recitation of facts, with moments of revelation, humor and emotion.
DVD (Color) / 2000 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes
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