Film Night: Getting to the Point; 6 issues, 6 short films

WHAT:  Film Night:  Getting to the Point; 6 issues, 6 short films

WHERE:  Frostburg State University, Compton Science Center, Room 226, Frostburg, Maryland

WHEN:  Monday, March 11th, 2013 (7pm)

Food, Water, Energy, the Economy, the Environment:  6 short yet very eye-opening films on 6 issues that are deeply impacting our times.

Getting to the Point gets past the fluff and cuts to the chase:  what are the biggest concerns that we face today and what can we do about it. Come out, engage the issues, share your ideas!  After the films there will be an open space for discussion the films.

The Films:  

1.  Who Killed Economic Growth                        6.31 minutes

Richard Heinberg propose a startling diagnosis: humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in its economic history. The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits.  Excerpted from: http://www.endofgrowth.com

2.  Inspired Ideas for a Sustainable Future      24 minutes

Janine Benyus provides fascinating examples of biomimicry – the way humans mimic nature in the products we build and the systems we implement. And because the champion adapters in the natural world are, by definition, those that can survive without destroying the environment that sustains them, biomimicry can contribute to the long-term health of our planet. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/janine_benyus_shares_nature_s_designs.html

3.  Fracking Hell: The Untold Story                17.53 minutes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEB_Wwe-uBM   An original investigative report by Earth Focus and UK’s Ecologist Film Unit looks at the risks of natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale. From toxic chemicals in drinking water to unregulated interstate dumping of potentially radioactive waste that experts fear can contaminate water supplies in major population centers including New York City, are the health consequences worth the economic gains?

4.  The Woodlands                                              5.28 minutes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcUyuFjx0IU — Residents in Butler County, Pennsylvania share their fracking experience. Film shared courtesy of Nature Abounds’ friend Rich Waters, a local photographer and videographer who is documenting how fracking is changing the lives of his neighbors in Southwest Pennsylvania.

5.  Dying Green                                                26 minutes

Set in the foothills of the Appalachians, this film explores one man’s vision of using green burials to conserve land. Dr. Billy Campbell, the town’s only physician, and his efforts have radically changed our understanding of burials in the United States. Dr. Campbell’s dream is to conserve one million acres of land. Dying Green focuses on the revolutionary idea of using our own death to fund land conservation and create wildlife preserves. Directed and produced by Ellen Tripler. Best Student Documentary and Best Educational Content (a Merit Award), 2011 Montana CINE International Film Festival.

6.   (A.) Be Smart, Live Simple (B.) Using Ingenuity and Internet to Stay on the Farm (Appalshop Films):     10 minutes 

Using Ingenuity and Internet to Stay on the Farm  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMEib6GYvA8   A portrait of Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton, farmers in Scott County, Virginia, who have used the Internet to create a thriving market for their invention, the Avian Aqua Miser. This innovative device provides a steady source of water to chickens without creating an unsanitary mess. Their story underlines the importance of access to high speed Internet to economic development in Appalachia and other rural regions. This Appalshop CMI/WMMT feature is a part of Making Connections — multimedia stories exploring opportunities for a sustainable future in Appalachia. Find out more at http:www.makingconnectionsnews.org

Be Smart Live Simple http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju8wOvIYdhQ  (Very short).  At the top of a winding Leslie County road, right on the edge of the Daniel Boone National forest, one innovative couple is proving that solar power does work here in the narrow hollows of East Kentucky. Over the past decade Elijah and Guylaine Collett have been slowly accumulating solar panels on the south facing hill above their mobile home. They now have 52 solar panels and supply well over half their energy needs from the sun, drastically reducing their monthly electricity bill. An Appalshop/WMMT Making Connections report www.makingconnectionsnews.org