LAST WEEK WAS JAM-PACKED with all kinds of eco-events. On top of the Cities Alive North American conference on Green Infrastructure, there was the Planet In Focus Film Festival, 10th anniversary. Planet In Focus holds a special place in our hearts: in addition to providing an important platform for environmental video, it is where Peter, Eduardo, and I all met for the first time. Five years ago, I was screening my film The Red Pill, Eduardo was photographing the event, and Peter was cramming his brain with as much eco-information as possible. We all hit it off, and collaborated on our first joint project, the design of the DVD cover for The Red Pill. In the spring, Eduardo and I joined Green Apple, and we spent the 2005 season in the field with Peter, the three musketeers of construction. Today, all three of us are desk jockeys, but we like to relive the glory days of our youth and catch an eco-flick on occasion to keep current with what’s going on in the world, and what’s going on to the world.
YOU GO THROUGH THE extensive schedule, and realize that there are way too many movies that you want to see, but can’t possibly. So you pare it down to whichever ones are most interesting to you, and almost inevitably, your two top picks are running on the same day at the same time, at different locations in different theatres. Oh well, you can’t have it all. The films I chose to see this year were At the Center of the Earth: Of Wells and Men, about West African well-diggers who go down over 100 metres with only the most basic tools; and North-South.com, about the internet’s impact upon inter-racial romance between European men and African women. Both films were very absorbing and moving. I appreciate that the festival chooses movies that do not only speak to the physical ecology, but to the social ecology, as well, and how the two are intimately connected. If you missed your chance in 2009, you can still get your eco-film fix at one of the Planet In Focus Pay-What-You-Can movie screenings on the last Friday of every month. Hope to see you there!
At the Center of the Earth: Of Wells and Men
North-South.com
Tags: Africa, Planet In Focus, video
