If you are an eco-conscious New Yorker looking for something to do this weekend (and into early next week), here’s a great idea for you: check out Green Screens), the eco-film festival running at Film Society of Lincoln Center from May 31 through June 5.
It’s your chance to catch a wide range of provocative–and thought-provoking–new films that focus on environmental issues, animal welfare, and sustainability, made by directors from around the world.
The Green Screens Festival kicked off in 2007, with a screening of The 11th Hour. According to the Green Screens programmer, Isa Cucinotta, “We wanted to bring people together to learn about climate change and environmental sustainability, and to have a forum to discuss the issues.”
This year’s Festival includes Blackfish, by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, which uses the story of Tilikum, a killer whale, to explore the cruel treatments of these animals in captivity. Eternal Amazon is Brazilian director Belisario Franca’s investigation of the search for ways to use natural resources in the Amazon without harming the forest and the people who live there.
Directors will be on hand for Q&As forThe Last Ocean, by Peter Young, which focuses on Antarctica’s Ross Sea, the most pristine ecosystem on Earth, and how the arrival of the fishing industry threatens to destroy it, Unacceptable Levels, about toxicities in our daily lives, by Edward Brown, and more. Producer Katarina Soukup will be there for the screening of Lost Rivers, Caroline Bacle’s film that retraces the history of lost urban rivers.
“I’ve been looking at films with the purpose of selecting a range of subjects – misuse of resources; toxins in our environment; the need for energy and the politics that surround it–and of course, films that highlight positive change,” says Cucinotta. “It was important to bring in films from other countries for perspective and to show the communality of our problems and I’m always looking for films that include ideas for progress, no matter how daunting the issues are. Green Screens presents issues from within our cities (Xmas Without China, Lost Rivers) to the most remote parts of earth (The Last Ocean, Silent Snow). Taken together, the series makes apparent that the place for change is in our relationship to large corporations that provide us with energy, goods, food and entertainment. When we change our demands on them, they may change their demands on the environment.”
It’s going to be a hot, humid weekend. See you at the movies!
Tags: animal welfare, environment, film, Film Society of Lincoln Center, socially conscious,sustainability
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