Greetings from the Sundance Film Festival. Hordes of film fans, A list celebrities,
rising stars, premier parties, killer documentaries, old and new friends, virtually
no sleep, and tons of green tea define Sundance. And I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
I am here seeking the next green movie
blockbuster and there are definitely some candidates. Last year at Sundance, I saw the premieres of
An Inconvenient Truth and Who Killed The Electric Car. This began a transformational
year for the modern green movement. In
2005, I was privileged to view the unveiling of March of the Penguins (The
Emperor’s Journey), the original narrative version in French. Penguins in Antarctica speaking French. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Here is the Eco Movie Report from Sundance 2007, for your
consideration:
Everything’s Cool
The hottest eco film at Sundance was Everything's Cool,
the lively documentary about global warming that is an excellent successor to
Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. The
film takes us on a thrilling ride with famous people who are trying to spread
the message about global warming and its solutions. It is like professional open mic night for
global warming specialists where every act is a hit. We see each
in their element, often in the snow or lack thereof. The results are inspiring, engaging, and
funny. We learn, we laugh, we cry, we
marvel, we mobilize.
Hats off to the
filmmakers Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold (of Blue Vinyl fame, the anti-PVC
manifesto) for such an outstanding eco documentary. A must-see. This film was near and dear to Robert Redford’s heart, the founder of
the Sundance Preserve organization in Utah.
Judith Helfand, of Toxic Comedy Pictures, is a master of
using humor and irony to capture people’s imagination about important
topics. Among the memorable moments we
see in Everything’s Cool are:
From the Artic to Sundance, over 1,000 school children
gathered on Monday in Park City and spelled out the words "Step It Up - Go
Carbon Neutral" in the snow. The symbol
meant "I heard you, and I'm going to respond” in Inuit. It was cool of course, and quite large I might add. Check out this aerial photo.
Manufactured Landscapes
No words can do this film justice. Only pictures. Manufactured Landscapes portrays mind-blowing footage of China’s massive
industrial revolution underway. To
obtain this rare inside view, the filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal followed
environmental photographer Edward Burtynsky on his photo-snapping-quest through China.
The scale is monumental. The results are terrifying and stunning.
While watching this film, it occurred to me that England and the United States also experienced
unbridled stage-one industrial revolutions in the past. No environmental laws. Pollution running rampant into rivers and the
air, poisoning citizens and eventually reaching code-red proportions. In 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) was born to meet growing public demand for cleaner water, air and
land. Prior to 1970, the federal
government had no real authority to protect people from polluters. This was less than 40 years ago...
The Chinese government is facing similar issues. China is manically driven to achieve annual economic growth targets at any cost, but China’s Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) has no authority to shut down polluters; they can only make suggestions. The alarming number of cancer villages, dust storms, and stage 5 contaminated water sources point to an eco-breaking point approaching. The Chinese government could give the SEPA true power before their landscapes implode. The whole world is watching.
Man has become a force of nature. But will nature fight back? A fundamental
question raised by Manufactured Landscapes is: does development have to equal destruction or is there a better
way. The new green is about producing
and consuming in ways that are good for the planet’s inhabitants and good for business both.
It is possible. This is not your mamma’s industrial revolution. This is the green revolution.
In The Shadow of the Moon
An awe-inspiring film was In the Shadow of the
Moon about the Apollo space program. Man
landing on the moon, told in the words of the surviving astronauts. Visually stunning, never-before-seen NASA film
footage. You are right there as they take their first step on the moon and experience
revelations about the Earth and their place in the universe.
This lunar documentary masterpiece was directed by David
Sington at DOX. Sold to ThinkFilm, the
film will hopefully be coming to a theater near you soon. In the meantime, we’ll have to make do with admiring
the full moon from afar or playing with Google Moon.
Speaking of the moon, I learned recently that there were outspoken people against Apollo; they said putting a man on the moon was impossible and a
waste of money. Now it is revered as one
of mankind’s greatest achievements. The
debate is forgotten. There seems to be a
lesson here. Naysayers will always negate,
tell us why we can't or shouldn't shoot for the moon, literally
or figuratively. Take global climate
change and energy independence. Many pundits
pontificate on why we can't or don't need to transition to clean renewable energy. But
we must persevere. Some day these anti-green
skeptics will become like the moon pessimists, rendered to mere cosmic
dust. Ending oil addiction will
be heralded as another of humanity's great triumphs. See the Apollo Alliance.
Sundance Glitz
And now onto some glitzy Sundance-only moments:
Justin Timberlake out and about
P. Diddy chowing down on pizza at 1:00 am
The clandestine green Ice Lounge that melted away, leaving
no eco-footprint trace…
Bono, without his sunglasses on
Meeting the actors from Padre Nuestro, that's all I'm
saying, go see it
Sienna Miller looking oh so winter-blond-chic at the midnight
premiere of Interview
No Paris Hilton this year, thank goodness
This year the theme was "Focus on Film" - the ultimate stars were the films
, about how society used to be
based on current sunlight (supporting a maximum of 500 million people) and then
moved to harvesting ancient sunlight in the form of fossil fuels during the
Industrial Revolution. This has driven our planet’s population to over 3
billion, on its way to 9 billion. And for all of you Leo fans, there is lots of
dashing Leo face time in the film. 
by Michael
Brook and the now Oscar-winning Melissa Etheridge song "I Need To Wake Up"
frequently on my iPod. Does this make me a green geek? 
team! 
