EFFY 2012 Winners

The Island President was named Best Feature film at the fourth annual Environmental Film Festival at Yale.

The film, about the world’s lowest-lying island nation threatened by rising sea levels, was selected by a jury of Yale faculty, students, staff and alumni.

Other top honors went to 663114, an animated film about the reemergence of a 66-year-old cicada moments before an earthquake and tsunami, which won Best Short film; Bestiaire, which explored the boundaries between nature and “civilization,” took home a Special Jury Prize; and The Whale, a documentary about an orca that forms a bond with people, was selected by filmgoers to receive the EFFY Audience Award.

In addition, the student-run festival, which ran from April 9th to 15th, included an advanced screening of Disneynature’s Chimpanzee, which will be released nationwide on April 20.

“It is amazing to see this entirely student-run festival reach this level of success,” said Sir Peter Crane, dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. “It has become one of the best ways that our school has been able to reach the broader community.”

The festival was sponsored by the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Whitney Humanities Center, The Study at Yale, Class of 1980 Fund, and Graduate and Professional Student Senate at Yale.

Contact: Paul Thomson, 202-679-5494, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)   

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The Whale

Sunday, April 15th, 6:00pm
Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street

In 2001, a young orca named Luna lost contact with his family in Puget Sound and turned up near Vancouver Island in Nootka Sound. Without other whales to bond with, Luna began reaching out to the people in boats and living along the shore for companionship. Smart, friendly, and determined, Luna demanded human contact, and the residents of the Sound were happy to adopt him as their own. But as Luna’s story gained notoriety, fierce battles began between the Canadian government, NGOs who wished to return Luna to his family, the Mowachaht tribe who deemed Luna’s arrival as a sacred event, and those who were simply touched by Luna's apparent loneliness and charm.

Narrated by Ryan Reynolds and directed by two journalists who came to report a story but fell in love with a whale, The Whale is more than documentary. It is an exploration of the mysteries of friendship across forbidden boundaries, a friendship of haunting questions and few answers.

Followed by a discussion with executive producer and EFFY co-founder Erik Desatnik, Jeff Flocken, Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and Allison D. Tuttle, Staff Veterinarian & Director of Animal Care at the Mystic Aquarium. Moderated by John Grim, Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar at Yale.

Preceded by: Homeless

3 min. A hermit crab looks for a home in this fun animated short.

Watch a Trailer of The Whale:

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2011
Running Time: 85 Min.

Website: www.thewhalemovie.com

Directors: Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit
Producers: Ryan Reynolds, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Desatnik, Suzanne Chisholm
Screenplay: Michael Parfit

Bestiaire

New England Premiere

Sunday, April 15th, 1:00pm
Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street

A popular sensation in medieval Europe, bestiaries were catalogs of beasts featuring exotic animal illustrations, zoological wisdom, and ancient legends. Denis Côté’s startling Bestiaire unfolds like a filmic picture book where both humans and animals are on display. As we observe them, they also observe us and one another, invoking the Hindu idea of darshan: a mutual beholding that initiates a shift in consciousness.

Fascinating, beguiling creatures like buffalo, hyenas, zookeepers, zebras, taxidermists, rhinos, and ostriches silently inhabit uncluttered, beautifully composed frames of a locked-off camera, conducting curious affairs in holding pens and fields. Their unself-consciousness before the camera’s eye renders them equally objectified. Whether we anthropomorphize, poeticize, abstract, or judge them is up to us. Côté invites his audience to reflect on control and power as lions rattle cages, a taxidermist recreates a duck, and artists copy a stuffed deer. Using the film form to challenge the very notion of representation, Bestiaire is an elegant, bewitching meditation on the nature of sentience and the boundaries between nature and “civilization.”

Followed by a discussion with Lori Gruen, Professor at Wesleyan University, and Alan Mikhail, Assistant Professor of History at Yale. Moderated by Ron Gregg, Senior Lecturer and Programming Director, Film Studies at Yale.

About the Filmmaker

Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Denis Côté produced and directed around 15 low-budget short films while working as a radio-show host and film critic for a Montreal cultural weekly. He was also vice president of the Association Québécoise des critiques de cinéma (Québec's Film Critics Association) from 2001 to 2006. His first feature film, Les états Nordiques (Drifting States) (2005), was awarded the Golden Leopard for video at the Locarno International Film Festival, and Elle veut le chaos (All That She Wants) (2008) earned him the best director award at Locarno. Curling won another best director award at Locarno in 2010.

Preceded By: Orbit: Look at the Sun

5 min. For thousands of years, humanity has watched the sun with a mixture of fear and awe, believing without knowing why, that our lives depend on its mysterious undulations.

Watch the Trailer of Bestiaire:

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2011
Running Time: 72 Min.

Director: Denis Côté
Producer: Sylvain Corbeil
Cinematographer: Vincent Biron
Editor: Nicolas Roy
Sound: Frédéric Cloutier

Chimpanzee

Special Advance Screening

Sunday, April 15th, 11:00am
Bow-Tie Criterion Cinema

Disneynature takes moviegoers deep into the forests of Africa with Chimpanzee a new True Life Adventure introducing an adorable young chimp named Oscar and his entertaining approach to life in a remarkable story of family bonds and individual triumph. Oscar's playful curiosity and zest for discovery showcase the intelligence and ingenuity of some of the most extraordinary personalities in the animal kingdom. Working together, Oscar's chimpanzee family—including his mom and the group's savvy leader—navigates the complex territory of the forest.

The world is a playground for little Oscar and his fellow young chimps, who'd rather make mayhem than join their parents for an afternoon nap. But when Oscar's family is confronted by a rival band of chimps, he is left to fend for himself until a surprising ally steps in and changes his life forever. Directed by Alastair Fothergill (African Cats and Earth) and Mark Linfield (Earth), Chimpanzee swings into theaters on April 20, 2012.

Screening is complimentary and open to the public. Seating at this screening will be on a first come, first served basis and is not guaranteed. Question & answer session to follow with David Watts, Professor of Anthropology and primatologist at Yale.

About Disneynature

Disneynature, the first new Disney-branded film label from The Walt Disney Studios in more than 60 years, was launched in April 2008 to bring the world’s top nature filmmakers together to share a wide variety of wildlife subjects and stories with theatrical audiences. Earth (opening Earth Day 2009) was the first film to premiere domestically under the new label, and garnered a record-breaking opening weekend for a nature documentary. In 2010, Oceans was the third highest grossing feature-length nature film in history. Its “See ‘Oceans,’ Save Oceans” initiative helped establish 40,000 acres of marine protected area in The Bahamas, preserving essential coral reefs. African Cats was released in 2011. All three films had special Advance Screenings at the Environmental Film Festivals at Yale. For more information about the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, please visit Disney.com/conservation.

Check out the Friends For Change/Disneynature’s Chimpanzee Action Kit. Click here to download.

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Rated G
Genre: Documentary
Year: 2012
Running Time: 78 min.

Website: Disney.com/Chimpanzee

Directors: Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield
Producers: Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield
Executive Producer: Don Hahn (Disneynature)
Principal Photography: Martyn Colbeck and Bill Wallauer
Principal Scientific Consultant: Christophe Boesch

EFFY After Dark

Saturday, 9:00pm @ GPSCY bar, 204 York St., 2nd floor ballroom

Join us in celebrating the wrap up of EFFY 2012 with live music, drink specials, and free food catered by Red Lentil. No cover. Open to the public (21+).

Featuring live music by MODERN MERCHANT.
DJ Philbo Shaggins will be playing some hot jams following the band.

modernmerchant.bandcamp.com

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Bear 71

Special Interactive Exhibition

Jeremy Mendes and Leanne Allison’s poignant interactive documentary about a bear in the Canadian Rockies illuminates the way humans engage with wildlife in the age of networks, satellites, and digital surveillance. You can use special iPads to become part of an interactive forest environment rich with bears, cougars, sheep, deer, and people as you follow an emotional story of a grizzly bear tagged and monitored by Banff National Park rangers.

This is EFFY's first interactive film exhibition. Come experience it for yourself at the Whitney Humanities Center room 208, 53 Wall Street, New Haven. Saturday and Sunday, April 14th and 15th.

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Genre: Interactive Documentary
Year: 2012
Running Time: 30 min.

Director: Jeremy Mendes, Leanne Allison
Screenwriter: J. B. MacKinnon
Executive Producers: Loc Dao, Rob McLaughlin, David Christensen
Producers: Loc Dao, Rob McLaughlin (National Film Board of Canada); Dana Dansereau, Bonnie Thompson
Web Designer: Aubyn Freybe-Smith
Sound Designer: Josh Stevenson
Web Writer: Jennifer Moss

The Island President

Connecticut Premiere

Saturday, April 14th, 7:00pm
Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street

Jon Shenk’s The Island President tells the story of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, a man confronting a problem greater than any other world leader has ever faced—the literal survival of his country and everyone in it. After bringing democracy to the Maldives after thirty years of despotic rule, Nasheed is now faced with an even greater challenge: as one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives enough to make them uninhabitable.

The Island President captures Nasheed’s first year of office, culminating in his trip to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009, where the film provides a rare glimpse of the political horse-trading that goes on at such a top-level global assembly. Nasheed is unusually candid about revealing his strategies—leveraging the Maldives’ underdog position as a tiny country, harnessing the power of media, and overcoming deadlocks through an appeal to unity with other developing nations. When hope fades for a written accord to be signed, Nasheed makes a stirring speech which salvages an agreement. Despite the modest size of his country, Mohamed Nasheed has become one of the leading international voices for urgent action on climate change.

Followed by a panel discussion with Sir Peter Crane, Dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale Professor Roy Lee, and Ann Powers, Professor at the Pace Law School.

About the Filmmaker

Jon Shenk was the DP for the Academy Award-winning Smile Pinki (2009). He won an Emmy for Blame Somebody Else (2007, PBS/Exposé). Shenk directed and photographed Lost Boys of Sudan, Independent Spirit Award winner in 2004. He co-directed and photographed Democracy Afghan Style (2004). In 2005, he directed and photographed The New Heroes. Early in his career, he directed and photographed The Beginning (1999), a chronicle of George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode I. Shenk has produced and photographed dozens of documentaries for PBS, the BBC, A&E, Bravo, CBS, NBC, and National Geographic Television. He has been nominated twice for Emmys for his cinematography. He earned his Master’s degree in Documentary Filmmaking from Stanford University in 1995 and his Bachelor’s degree from Yale in 1991.

Preceded By: Acqua

8 min. A celebration of traditions, Acqua presents the quest for water partly as a necessity, partly as a solemn pilgrimage.

Watch the Trailer for The Island President:
 

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2011
Running Time: 101 min.

Website: theislandpresident.com

Director: Jon Shenk
Producers: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen
Executive Producer: Jon Else
Director of Photography: Jon Shenk
Editor: Pedro Kos

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

Saturday, April 14th, 1:00pm
Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street

Survivors in the hardest-hit areas of Japan's recent tsunami find the courage to revive and rebuild as cherry blossom season begins in this stunning visual haiku about the ephemeral nature of life and the healing power of Japan's most beloved flower.

Nominated for a 2012 Academy Award: Documentary (Short Subject).

Followed by a discussion with William Kelly, Professor of Japanese Studies at Yale, and environmental historian Barry Muchnick. Moderated by Aaron Gerow, Assoc. Professor of Film Studies and East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.

About the Filmmaker

Prior to The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, Lucy Walker directed four feature documentaries: Devil’s Playground, which premiered at the 2002 Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award; Blindsight, which premiered at Toronto in 2006; and Waste Land, which played at the 2011 Environmental Film Festival at Yale. Waste Land won the EFFY Audience Award and was nominated for an Academy Award, and Walker has also been nominated for five Emmys and a number of other honors. Walker grew up in London and graduated from Oxford University before winning a Fulbright Scholarship to attend NYU.

Preceded By: Chasing Water

20 min. In Chasing Water, photojournalist Peter McBride sets out to document the flow of the Colorado River from source to sea.

Watch the Trailer for The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom:

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2011
Running Time: 39 Min.

Website: thetsunamiandthecherryblossom.com

Director: Lucy Walker
Executive Producers: Tim Case, Charles V. Salice
Producers: Kira Carstensen, Lucy Walker
Associate Producers: Charleen Manca, Nicole Visram
Cinematographer: Aaron Phillips
Editor: Aki Mizutani
Music: Moby

The Atomic States of America

New England Premiere

Friday, April 13th, 7:00pm
Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street

The new documentary from Sheena Joyce and Don Argott, The Atomic States of America, takes the viewer on a journey to reactor communities around the country, and seeks to explore the truths and myths of nuclear power.

From the gates of Three Mile Island, to the cooling ponds of Braidwood, IL, this film introduces the viewer to people who have been on the front lines of this issue for decades.

Begun more than a year before the disaster in Japan, the deeply investigated documentary gains a unique before and after perspective, and includes interviews with: Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors, community advocates, investigative journalists, renowned physicists, nuclear engineers, and former government leaders.

As the nation stands at the crossroads of the Nuclear Renaissance, The Atomic States of America seeks to inspire an honest dialog about whether or not man can responsibly split the atom.

Followed by a panel discussion with Paul Gallay, President of Riverkeeper, author Gwyneth Cravens, and author Kelly McMasters. Moderated by Jim Saiers of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Professor of Hydrology; Associate Dean of Academic Affairs; Professor of Chemical Engineering.

Preceded By: 663114

6 min. I am a 66-year cicada. There was a big earthquake. There was a big tsunami. There also was a big accident.

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2012
Running Time: 92 min.

Directors: Don Argott & Sheena M. Joyce
Producer: Sheena M. Joyce
Executive Producers: Joan Hornig & George Hornig, Noah Musher & Anne Marie,  Macari, Jane Preiser, Linda Gelfond, Rory Riggs, Danny Sherman
Associate Producer: Jane Preiser
Editor: Demian Fenton
Cinematographer: Don Argott

Bananas!*

EFFY Favorite

Friday, April 13th, 4:00pm
Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street

Join us for a special showing of BANANAS!* (from EFFY 2010), the film at the center of this year's BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!*. This is the documentary that made Dole so upset in the first place.

Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez is on his biggest case ever. On behalf of twelve Nicaraguan banana workers he tackles the Dole Food Company in a ground-breaking legal battle for their use of a banned pesticide that was known to cause sterility. Can he beat the giant, or will the corporation get away with it? In BANANAS!*, filmmaker Fredrik Gertten sheds new light on the global politics of food.

One third of the production price of the average banana is used simply to cover the cost of pesticides. All over the world, banana plantation workers are suffering and dying from the effects of these pesticides. Juan Dominguez, a million-dollar personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles, is on his biggest case ever representing over 10,000 Nicaraguan banana workers claiming to be afflicted by a pesticide known as Nemagon. Dole Food and Dow Chemicals are on trial.

Another banana worker is being buried in a small northern town in Nicaragua. For his whole life, Alberto Rosales used his machete to remove weeds from below the banana plants. His son says his last years were filled with pain, a body that was itching all night — and in the end his kidneys stopped working.

About the Filmmaker

Fredrik Gertten will be present for the screening of BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!* to host a discussion after the film on Thursday, April 12th at 7pm at the Whitney Humanities Center.

Fredrik Gertten is an award winning director and journalist based in Malmö, Sweden. In 1994 he founded the production company WG Film. Before he worked as a foreign correspondent and columnist for radio, TV and press in Africa, Latin America, Asia and around Europe. Today he combines film making with a role as a creative producer on WG Film – famous for local stories with a global understanding, with several films catching the identity and transformation of his hometown. Featuring international stars like footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic in True Blue - The Way Back and architect Santiago Calatrava in The Socalist, the Architect and the Twisted Tower, among others. Dole Food company made his film BANANAS!* controversial by suing the company, producer and director. The fight for the film and freedom of speech won international recognition. In Sweden awarded with several prices including the Anna Politkovskaya freedom of speech award.

Watch the Trailer:

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2009
Running Time: 80 Min.

Website: www.bananasthemovie.com

Director: Fredrik Gertten
Producers: Margarete Jangård, Bart Simpson
Editors: Jesper Osmund
Cinematography: Frank Pineda
Narrative Consultant: Niels Pagh Andersen

Big Boys Gone Bananas!*

East Coast Premiere

Thursday, April 12th, 7:00pm
Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street

What is a big corporation capable of in order to protect its brand? Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten's experienced this recently. This is the riveting follow up film to BANANAS!*, which screened at EFFY 2010 and recounts the lawsuit that 12 Nicaraguan plantation workers brought against the fruit giant Dole Food Company. 

BANANAS!* was mysteriously pulled from competition at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Then a scathing article appeared in the Los Angeles Business Journal about the film, and Gertten subsequently receives a letter from Dole's attorney threatening him with legal action.

What follows is an unparalleled thriller that has Gertten capturing the entire process - from Dole attacking the producers with a defamation lawsuit, bullying scaretactics, to media-control and PR-spin. This personal film reveals precisely how a multinational will stop at nothing to get its way - freedom of speech is at stake. As Dole's PR company puts it, "It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than a bad reputation".

Followed by a discussion with filmmaker Fredrik Gertten, and attorney Dan Klau. Moderated by Roger Cohn, Editor of Yale Environment 360.

About the Filmmaker

Fredrik Gertten is an award winning director and journalist based in Malmö, Sweden. In 1994 he founded the production company WG Film. Before he worked as a foreign correspondent and columnist for radio, TV and press in Africa, Latin America, Asia and around Europe. Today he combines film making with a role as a creative producer on WG Film – famous for local stories with a global understanding, with several films catching the identity and transformation of his hometown. Featuring international stars like footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic in True Blue - The Way Back and architect Santiago Calatrava in The Socalist, the Architect and the Twisted Tower, among others. Dole Food company made his film BANANAS!* controversial by suing the company, producer and director. The fight for the film and freedom of speech won international recognition. In Sweden awarded with several prices including the Anna Politkovskaya freedom of speech award.

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2011
Running Time: 90 Min.

Website: www.bigboysgonebananas.com

Director: Fredrik Gertten
Producer: Margarete Jangård
Editors: Jesper Osmund and Benjamin Binderup
Narrative Consultant: Niels Pagh Andersen

The Last Mountain

Wednesday, April 11th, 7:30pm
Kroon Hall, Burke Auditorium, 195 Prospect St

In the valleys of Appalachia, a battle is being fought over a mountain. It is a battle with severe consequences that affect every American, regardless of their social status, economic background or where they live. It is a battle that has taken many lives and continues to do so the longer it is waged. It is a battle over protecting our health and environment from the destructive power of Big Coal. 

The mining and burning of coal is at the epicenter of America’s struggle to balance its energy needs with environmental concerns. Nowhere is that concern greater than in Coal River Valley, West Virginia, where a small but passionate group of ordinary citizens are trying to stop Big Coal corporations, like Massey Energy, from continuing the devastating practice of Mountain Top Removal.

A passionate and personal tale that honors the extraordinary power of ordinary Americans who fight for what they believe in, The Last Mountain shines a light on America’s energy needs and how those needs are being supplied. It is a fight for our future that affects us all.

Followed by a discussion with filmmaker Bill Haney, Maria Gunnoe of OVEC, and Kristin Tracz of MACED. Moderated by Laura Bozzi, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Update: Unforuntately, Bill Haney can no longer join us.

Take Action: visit http://ilovemountains.org

About the Filmmaker

Bill Haney has written, produced and directed award winning documentary and narrative features for ten years. He is co-founder of Uncommon Productions. His most recent feature documentary, The Price of Sugar, which he wrote, produced and directed, was short-listed for an Academy Award, nominated for the NAACP’s Image Award and was the recipient of numerous other honors, including the Gabriel Award and the Audience Award at South by Southwest. The documentary A Life Among Whales, which he directed and produced, takes a look at one man’s lifelong passion for the wild and won numerous awards including a Silver Hugo and the Earthwatch Film Award.

In addition to filmmaking, Haney is founder of the eco-housing startup Blu Homes, using advanced technology to make housing greener, healthier and more affordable.  He is also chairman of World Connect, a non-profit supporting programs to help women and children in 400 developing world villages.

Preceded By: Chasing Water

20 min. In Chasing Water, photojournalist Peter McBride sets out to document the flow of the Colorado River from source to sea.

Watch the Trailer for The Last Mountain:
 

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2011
Running Time: 85 Min.

Website: thelastmountainmovie.com

Director: Bill Haney
Writers: Bill Haney, Peter Rhodes
Producers: Clara Bingham, Eric Grunebaum, Bill Haney
Co-Producer: Laura Longsworth
Executive Producers: Tim Disney, Sarah Johnson Redlich, Tim Rockwood
Cinematographers: Jerry Risius, Stephen McCarthy, Tim Hotchner
Editor: Peter Rhodes

Colin Beavan, ‘No Impact Man’

Special Event

Wednesday, April 11th, 6:00pm
Kroon Hall, Room 321, 195 Prospect St

Join Colin Beavan, the "No Impact Man," for a live conversation about climate change, consumption, advocacy, and how to take steps that will lead to environmental change. Colin conceived the No Impact Project following the success of his blog, book, and film, which chronicle his family’s year-long experiment living a zero-waste lifestyle in New York City. Central to his thesis is the notion that deep-seated individual behavior change leads to both cultural change and political engagement. Living low-impact provides a clear entry point into the environmental movement.

About Colin

Colin is a former communications consultant for nonprofits turned book writer, blogger, and activist. In 2006, his No Impact Man experiment exploded in the media after being featured in the New York Times, and he has since come to be considered one of the spokespeople for the environmental movement. He writes and administers the provocative environmental blog noimpactman.typepad.com, which has become a meeting point for discussion of environmental issues from a “deep green” perspective. He is an advisor to NYU’s Sustainability Task Force, board member of Transportation Alternatives and advisor to Just Food. He was named one of MSN’s Ten Most Influential Men of 2007, one of Elle Magazine’s 2008 Eco-Illuminators, and his blog was named one of the world’s top 15 environmental websites by Time Magazine.

Visit noimpactproject.org for more on Colin and the No Impact Project.

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Filmmaking Workshop with Andrew Grace

Special Event

Wednesday, April 11th, 12:00pm
Kroon Hall, Room 321, 195 Prospect St

Join award-winning Eating Alabama filmmaker Andrew Beck Grace as he shares film clips, stories from the field, and practical advice on making films. Topics covered include tips for funding, shooting, and finishing an independent documentary, and more broadly, the role of documentary storytelling in environmental advocacy and education. Don't miss: Andrew will also be present at the screening of his film Eating Alabama on Tuesday April 10th.

Free and open to the public. RSVP required at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

About Andrew Grace

Andrew Beck Grace was born and raised in north Alabama. He is an independent documentary filmmaker whose films have aired on Public Television stations and at film festivals across the country. He received an MA in American Studies from the University of Wyoming where he made his first documentary feature about the reenactments of Custer’s Last Stand in southern Montana. After a few years in the West, making films, freelancing for magazines and working as a producer for NPR News, he moved back to his home state to tell stories about the Deep South. At The University of Alabama he teaches and oversees a unique interdisciplinary social justice documentary program called Documenting Justice, and was recently named by The Oxford American one of the “Most Creative Teachers in the South.” In 2009 he was invited to attend the CPB/PBS Producers Academy at WGBH. He's also a writer whose nonfiction has been nominated for a Puschcart Prize.

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Eating Alabama

East Coast Premiere

Tuesday, April 10th, 7:00pm
Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street

In search of a simpler life, a young couple returns home to Alabama where they set out to eat the way their grandparents did – locally and seasonally. But as they navigate the agro-industrial gastronomical complex, they soon realize that nearly everything about the food system has changed since farmers once populated their family histories. A thoughtful and often funny essay on community, the South and sustainability, Eating Alabama is a story about why food matters.

Followed by a discussion with filmmaker Andrew Grace, Monique Stefani of the New Haven Food Policy Council, and Cara Donovan of CitySeed. Moderated by Jeremy Oldfield of the Yale Sustainable Food Project.

Don't miss: Andrew will be hosting a special filmmaking workshop on Wednesday April 11th. For details, click here.

About the Filmmaker

Andrew Beck Grace is a documentary filmmaker and native Alabamian. He's a past fellow at the CPB/PBS Producers Academy and directs the Documenting Justice program at the University of Alabama.

Preceded By: High & Dry

20 min. Around 75% of global cotton production takes place in developing countries. Extensive environmental and human rights abuses occur during production, including the excessive and unsustainable use of pesticides and freshwater.

Watch the Trailer for Eating Alabama:

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2012
Running Time: 61 Minutes

Website: www.eatingalabama.com

Director: Andrew Beck Grace

Surviving Progress

New England Premiere

Monday, April 9th, 7:00pm
Yale Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street - Entrance on High Street

Technological advancement, economic development, population increase - are they signs of a thriving society? Or too much of a good thing?

Based on Ronald Wright's best-seller A Short History of Progress, this intelligent, provocative documentary by Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks explores the concept of progress in our modern world, guiding us through a sweeping but detailed survey of the major "progress traps" facing our civilization in the arenas of technology, economics, consumption, and the environment.

Featuring powerful arguments from such visionaries as Jane Goodall, Margaret Atwood, Stephen Hawking, Craig Venter, Robert Wright, Marina Silva, Michael Hudson, and Ronald Wright himself, this enlightening and visually spectacular film invites us to contemplate the progress traps that destroyed past civilizations and that lie treacherously embedded in our own.

Providing an honest look at the risks and pitfalls of running 21st Century "software" (our accumulated knowledge) on 50,000-year-old "hardware" (our primate brains), Surviving Progress offers a challenge: to prove making apes smarter was not an evolutionary dead end.

Followed by a discussion with filmmaker Harold Crooks and Mary Evelyn Tucker, Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar at Yale.

About the Filmmakers

Mathieu Roy is a Montreal-based filmmaker whose career path has steered him into the worlds of cinema, theatre, opera, TV and classical music. His first feature documentary, François Girard en Trois Actes, was awarded the 2005 prix Gémeau for best cultural documentary. In April 2009, at the opening of the 27th International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA), Mathieu presented Mort à Venise, a musical journey with Louis Lortie. The film won the Prix du public ARTV. Mathieu's current film projects include his first fiction feature, a family drama and a multimedia project about Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation.

Harold Crooks is an author and writer/producer whose award-winning and acclaimed documentary film credits include: The Corporation; Karsh Is History; Pax Americana And The Weaponization of Space; The World Is Watching; Bhopal: The Search for Justice; and the TV series Black Coffee. He is a recipient of a Genie Award of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television; a Gold Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival; a Leo Award for Best Screenwriter (Documentary) of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of B.C.; a National Documentary Film Award (Best Writing Category) at 1996 Hot Docs!; a Writers Guild of Canada Top Ten Awards finalist; a Commonwealth Fellowship, India; and a Fund for Investigative Journalism (Washington, DC) travel grant.

Preceded By: Meet Mr. Toilet

3 min. For those without access to a simple toilet, poop can be poison. Businessman-turned-sanitation-superhero Jack Sim fights this oft-neglected crisis affecting 2.6 billion people.

Watch a Trailer of Surviving Progress:

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2011
Running Time: 86 Min.

Website: survivingprogress.com

Director: Mathieu Roy
Co-Director: Harold Crooks
Producers: Daniel Louis, Denis Robert
Written by: Harold Crooks & Mathieu Roy
Executive Producers: Mark Achbar & Betsy Carson (Big Picture Media Corporation), Silva Basmajian (NFB), Martin Scorsese, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
Producer: Gerry Flahive (NFB)
Editor: Louis-Martin Paradis

2012 Jury

The 2012 EFFY Jury is made of Yale faculty, staff, alumni, Master's students, and Yale College students. They will decide which films take home the Best Feature and Best Short awards.

Caitlin Cromwell

Yale College Student

Caitlin is in her sophomore year as a Yale undergraduate. She was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, alongside two siblings, four dogs, two cats, a whole host of chickens, and a swarm of honeybees. An English major, Caitlin reads a lot of Wordsworth, and agrees with him when he says that "great Nature...exists in works of mighty Poets."

Jared Gilbert

Yale Divinity School, Master's Student

Jared Gilbert is a Master of Divinity candidate (2012) at Yale Divinity School (YDS), where he is the current student body president. He is preparing for urban ministry in Brooklyn as a pastor with the United Church of Christ. Advocacy for environmental causes has been a part of his professional, personal and academic life, as Communications Manager for a green architecture firm, advocacy against environmental racism, and exploration of ecological ethics and environmental theologies through study at YDS.

Ronald Gregg

Film Studies Program, Senior Lecturer and Programming Director

Ron Gregg is Director of Film Programming at the Whitney Humanities Center and Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, American Studies, and LGBT Studies at Yale. Before coming to Yale, he taught at Northwestern, Duke, the University of Chicago, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Gregg is a film curator, who has programmed special events for film festivals in Chicago, San Francisco, Johannesburg, London, and elsewhere, and in a past life, he was a digital video artist, producing work that was screened in the US and Europe.

Vanessa Lamers

School of Forestry & Environmental Studies / School of Public Health, Master's Student

Vanessa Lamers is currently pursuing a Joint Master of Public Health and Master of Forestry & Environmental Studies degree at Yale. Her current research involves studying the environmental and human health impacts of shale gas development, a portion of which is an analysis of if environmental documentaries such as "Gasland" portray scientific arguments properly. She works at the Yale Art Gallery, where she engages people of all ages (3-99) with imagery and the arts. She also serves on the board of the New Haven Land Trust, and is the Community Outreach Chair for the non-profit Slow Food Shoreline. Vanessa grew up in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, where she developed her love for all things environmental.

Will Minter

Graduate and Student Professional School, Master's Student

Will is a master's student from the UK studying East Asian studies, with a focus on Ancient Chinese literature. He loves nature, and enjoys identifying plants and birds. Before coming to Yale he was a teacher for three years, and became interested in how to reduce waste in schools and how to avoid hypocrisy when teaching about the environment.

Barry Muchnick

Quinnipiac University, Professor; School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Alum

Barry Muchnick is an environmental historian whose research and teaching revolve around the idea that history looks very different when considered in its environmental context, and that one can learn a great deal about both history and the environment by studying the two together. Currently teaching at Quinnipiac University, Barry recently completed his dissertation, “Nature’s Republic: Fresh Air Reform and The Moral Ecology of Citizenship in Turn of the Century America” in a joint Ph.D. program of his own design between Yale’s History Department and the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. He has lectured widely on British landscape painting and environmental ethics; environmental citizenship; the interconnections of science, technology, and sentiment; nature and national identity; and natural disaster.

Annie O’Sullivan

School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Master's Student

Annie O'Sullivan is working towards her master's degree in Environmental Management at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). She graduated from Williams College in 2007, where she studied biology with a focus on evolutionary ecology. Annie is most interested in environmental education at the high school level. Prior to attending F&ES, she worked for Lava Lake Lamb, a sheep ranch with a focus on conservation in Central Idaho.

Scott Rumage

School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, IT Support Technician

Scott Rumage became fixated with films when his grandmother took him to see Gigi in 1982. After getting fed up with his parents' small TV & horrible sound, he re-wired their house for a laserdisc player and surround sound in 1989. His large collection of laserdiscs, VHS tapes, DVDs, HD-DVDs, & Blurays (he totally skipped betamax) is arranged by his librarian husband, Allen Townsend, in Library of Congress Format, and is managed by their miniature piebald daschund, Dashelle.

Rachael Styer

Yale College Student

Rachael Styer is a senior Environmental Studies major at Yale College with a concentration in environmental history and policy. She has focused her research on agricultural policy history, specifically in Lancaster County, PA, and hopes to one day have a positive impact on farmland preservation and agricultural laws. In her free time she enjoys LA Times crossword puzzles, watching entire series of TV comedies and spending time with her friends and family.

Tara Varghese

School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Master's Student

Tara Varghese is in her second year at F&ES, studying water quality and resource management. She grew up in Southeast Asia and has gained a broad perspective on natural resource issues ranging from the harsh realities faced by some communities to the hope and promise experienced by others. She received degrees in Biology and English from Case Western Reserve University, and prior to arriving at Yale she worked at an environmental consulting firm in the Boston area and an NGO in Ladakh, India.

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Enjoy Your Meal!

Special Pre-Festival Screening
in partnership with the Peabody

Wednesday, April 4th, 7:00pm
Peabody Museum of Natural History Auditorium, 170 Whitney Ave

Please join us for this special pre-festival screening in partnership with the Peabody Museum of Natural History in the lead up to the Environmental Film Festival at Yale, which runs April 9th - April 15th.

Enjoy Your Meal! follows the origin of a meal prepared by renowned chefs. The film traces not only where the ingredients are coming from, but stresses also the impact on local life. Soy beans, the main food for pigs, grow mostly in Brazil on huge tracts of land, right next to an Indian tribe. As a result, their natural habitat changes drastically. Prawns from the Philippines are cultivated by a former banker, seeing his dreams come true, but at the cost of the local fishermen. Sugar snaps in Kenya are massively exported to Europe. A visit to the land where they are grown shows the reality and how it brings people to desperate actions.

Yet, people work hard and try to make a living, mostly without even realizing the long-term impact of this industry to the people and the environment. The food on our plate tells a bigger story than we initially know. A creative documentary about how food changes the world. Enjoy your meal!

Moderated discussion to follow the screening.

About the Filmmaker

Walther Grotenhuis graduated in 1978 at the Dutch Film Academy and has been active in the documentary world from the beginning. In the 80’s, he continuously directed, produced and wrote documentaries for Dutch television channels and governmental organisations, all with a political, social and environmental background. In 1993 he was producer/director of A Truth With Many Faces (NCRV). The film won a Dutch Award for best scenario, was nominated for the ‘Gouden Kalf’ and was awarded as Best Dutch TV documentary of the year. He was also director/producer of Aids: A Woman’s Story (AVRO) which received a Golden Rose nomination (Montreux, Luzern) in 2005. With Enjoy your Meal!, he has written and directed his first independent documentary.

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2011
Running Time: 89 Min.

Website: www.smakelijketendefilm.com

Director: Walther Grotenhuis

Speakers

Colin Beavan

No Impact Project

Live in person, April 11th, 6:00pm, Kroon Hall, Rm 321.

Colin Beavan is a former communications consultant for nonprofits turned book writer, blogger, and activist. In 2006, his No Impact Man experiment exploded in the media after being featured in the New York Times, and he has since come to be considered one of the spokespeople for the environmental movement. He writes and administers the provocative environmental blog noimpactman.typepad.com, which has become a meeting point for discussion of environmental issues from a “deep green” perspective. He is an advisor to NYU’s Sustainability Task Force, board member of Transportation Alternatives and advisor to Just Food. He was named one of MSN’s Ten Most Influential Men of 2007, one of Elle Magazine’s 2008 Eco-Illuminators, and his blog was named one of the world’s top 15 environmental websites by Time Magazine.

Visit noimpactproject.org for more on Colin and the No Impact Project.

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Laura Bozzi

School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University

Moderating a discussion after the film The Last Mountain, April 11th, 7:30pm, Kroon Hall

Laura Bozzi is a doctoral candidate at Yale University's School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. With grounding in institutional theory and public policy scholarship, her research focuses on the history of policy change and political conflict surrounding mountaintop removal and surface coal mining in central Appalachia. In all her work, she looks to uncover the historical drivers to environmental problems and to identify strategies for achieving durable solutions.

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Roger Cohn

Moderating a discussion after the film Big Boys Gone Bananas!*, April 12th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Editor, Yale Environment 360

Roger Cohn is the editor of Yale Environment 360, an award-winning online magazine focusing on global environmental issues that is published at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Launched in 2008, Yale Environment 360 has emerged as a leading international source of reporting, analysis, opinion, and discussion on the environment, with more than 2 million visitors in the last year in 219 countries and territories. Cohn developed this pioneering Web publication at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and it has received widespread recognition and numerous honors, including the National Magazine Award for Digital Media for Best Video and the Online Journalism Award for Best Specialty Site. Yale Environment 360 also co-produced and exclusively featured The Warriors of Qiugang, a video about a Chinese village’s battle against a polluting chemical plant that was nominated for a 2011 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) and showed at EFFY 2011.

Cohn formerly served as editor-in-chief of Mother Jones and executive editor of Audubon, revitalizing both magazines. Prior to that, he was a staff writer with The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he was among the first U.S. journalists to establish an environmental beat. His writing on the environment and other issues has appeared in various publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, and Outside. A graduate of Yale College, he has been an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow and has served as a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley and lectured at various universities, including Columbia, Stanford, and New York University.

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Sir Peter Crane FRS

Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and Professor of Botany.

Moderating a discussion after the film The Island President on Saturday, April 14th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Dean Crane is the Carl W. Knobloch Jr. Dean at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. He is known internationally for his work on the diversity of plant life: its origin and fossil history, current status, and conservation and use. From 1992 to 1999 he was Director of the Field Museum in Chicago with overall responsibility for the Museum’s scientific programs. During this time he established the Office of Environmental and Conservation Programs and the Center for Cultural Understanding and Change, which today comprise the Division of Environment, Culture, and Conservation (ECCo). From 1999 to 2006 he was Director of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew one of the largest and most influential botanical gardens in the world. His tenure at Kew saw strengthening and expansion of the gardens’ scientific, conservation and public programs. Professor Crane was elected to the Royal Society – the UK academy of sciences in 1998. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and a Member of the German Academy Leopoldina.  He was knighted in the UK for services to horticulture and conservation in 2004. 

Professor Crane currently serves on the Boards of the World Wildlife Fund-U.S., the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas and the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.

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Gwyneth Cravens

Author

Discussing the film The Atomic States of America, April 13th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Gwyneth Cravens is an American novelist and journalist. To date, she has published five novels. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, where she also worked as a fiction editor, and in Harper’s Magazine, where she was an associate editor. She has contributed articles and editorials on science and other topics to Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Her newest book, Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy, was released in October 2007 and argues for nuclear power as a safe energy source and an essential preventive of global warming.

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Harold Crooks

Director of Surviving Progress

Discussing the film Surviving Progress, April 9th, 7:00pm, Yale Art Gallery

Harold Crooks is an author and writer/producer whose award-winning and acclaimed documentary film credits include: The Corporation; Karsh Is History; Pax Americana And The Weaponization of Space; The World Is Watching; Bhopal: The Search for Justice; and the TV series Black Coffee. He is a recipient of a Genie Award of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television; a Gold Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival; a Leo Award for Best Screenwriter (Documentary) of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of B.C.; a National Documentary Film Award (Best Writing Category) at 1996 Hot Docs!; a Writers Guild of Canada Top Ten Awards finalist; a Commonwealth Fellowship, India; and a Fund for Investigative Journalism (Washington, DC) travel grant.

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Eric Desatnik

Exec Producer of The Whale and co-founder of the Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY)

Discussing the film The Whale, April 15th, 6:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Eric Desatnik currently manages communications for the international wildlife conservation organization, WildAid. Prior to joining WildAid, Eric Desatnik managed corporate sustainability initiatives at a Texas-based real estate development firm, worked on a team to "green" Yale's Athletics Department at the University's Office of Sustainability, and founded the Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY). For his work on EFFY, he was named one of Variety's "Standout Students" of 2010. His Communications experience includes a Junior Publicist position at BWR Public Relations, coordinating campaigns for clients including Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler, and Reese Witherspoon. He also worked at Management 360, a top tier talent management company, and in the marketing department of George Magazine. Eric holds a Master of Environmental Management degree from F&ES and is certified as a LEED Accredited Professional by the U.S. Green Building Council.

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Cara Donovan

CitySeed

Discussing his film Eating Alabama, April 10th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Cara Donovan is currently serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA at CitySeed. As the Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator she works with CitySeed and other New Haven community partners to ensure that low-income communities of New Haven receive better access to healthy food information, higher intakes of fresh fruits and vegetables and easier access to those foods. She is focusing on increasing SNAP enrollment for eligible New Haven residents and encouraging those SNAP dollars to be used on healthy, local food. Donovan is also working on creating sustainability for CitySeed through fund development and grant writing. She graduated from Connecticut College in 2008 where she co-chaired Sprout, the student run organic garden for 3 years. She is a native Rhode Islander but has lived in New Haven for most of the past 4 years. Donovan also worked as a Health Education intern for Rainforest Flow in the native community of Tayakome, Peru in 2010, planning and facilitating experimental gardens with women.

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Jeffrey Flocken

Director, the International Fund for Animal Welfare

Discussing the film The Whale, April 15th, 6:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Jeffrey Flocken is the DC Office Director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare where he leads the organization’s team of legislative professionals advocating for U.S. policy initiatives on behalf of wildlife conservation and animal welfare, including efforts on behalf of species such as whales, elephants, and lions. Before this appointment, Flocken worked for five years as an International Affairs Specialist in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Division of International Conservation, where he focused on international species conservation policy, outreach, and global conservation grant programs. Flocken has served as a consultant on numerous movies, books and television shows addressing wildlife conservation topics. Flocken currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Jaguar Conservation Fund, and the Steering Committee for the IUCN Tapir Specialist Group. Flocken is also the founder and Board co-Chair of the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders initiative which mentors and provides campaign training for up-and-coming leaders in the wildlife field. He is also the coauthor of the book Wildlife Heroes, published by Running Press in March 2012.

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Paul Gallay

President of Riverkeeper

Discussing the film The Atomic States of America, April 13th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Paul Gallay is an attorney, educator and non-profit executive working to protect community character and improve environmental sustainability. After a brief stint in private law practice, Gallay served for a dozen years in the New York State Attorney General’s Environmental Protection Bureau and at the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, helping to close Fresh Kills landfill, raise standards at NYC wastewater treatment plants and bring hundreds of corporate and government polluters to justice. After leaving public service, Gallay spent over a decade as an executive in the land conservation movement in New York and Maine, protecting thousands of acres of sensitive land, expanding the constituency for land conservation and promoting sustainable development practices. Now, as President of Riverkeeper, Gallay fights for a cleaner Hudson and safer drinking water for over nine million New Yorkers. Gallay received degrees from Williams College and Columbia Law School. He was a visiting professor of environmental studies at Williams from 2004 to 2007. He lives in Ossining, New York.

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Aaron Gerow

Assoc. Professor of Film Studies and East Asian Languages and Literatures, Yale University

Moderating a discussion after the film The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, April 14th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Aaron Gerow arrived at Yale in January 2004 and teaches undergraduate courses in Japanese cinema, introduction to film, close analysis of film, and film genre, as well as graduate seminars on Japanese film and cultural theory. He received a MFA in film studies from Columbia University in 1987, a MA in Asian Civilizations from the University of Iowa in 1992, and a PhD in Communication Studies from Iowa in 1996. He spent nearly 12 years in Japan working for the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and teaching at Yokohama National University and Meiji Gakuin University. He has published numerous articles in English, Japanese and other languages on such topics as Japanese early cinema, film theory, contemporary directors, film genre, censorship, Japanese manga, and cinematic representations of minorities. His book on Kitano Takeshi was published by the BFI in 2007, A Page of Madness came out from the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan in 2008, and Visions of Japanese Modernity: Articulations of Cinema, Nation, and Spectatorship, 1895-1925, was published in 2010 (the Japanese version will be coming out from the University of Tokyo Press). He also co-authored the Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies with Abe Mark Nornes (Center for Japanese Studies, 2009).

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Fredrik Gertten

Director of Big Boys Gone Bananas!* and Bananas!*

Discussing his film Big Boys Gone Bananas!*, April 12th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Fredrik Gertten is an award winning director and journalist based in Malmö, Sweden. In 1994 he founded the production company WG Film. Before he worked as a foreign correspondent and columnist for radio, TV and press in Africa, Latin America, Asia and around Europe. Today he combines film making with a role as a creative producer on WG Film – famous for local stories with a global understanding, with several films catching the identity and transformation of his hometown. Featuring international stars like footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic in True Blue - The Way Back and architect Santiago Calatrava in The Socalist, the Architect and the Twisted Tower, among others. Dole Food company made his film BANANAS!* controversial by suing the company, producer and director. The fight for the film and freedom of speech won international recognition. In Sweden awarded with several prices including the Anna Politkovskaya freedom of speech award.

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Andrew Grace

Director of Eating Alabama

Discussing his film Eating Alabama, April 10th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Andrew Beck Grace was born and raised in north Alabama. He is an independent documentary filmmaker whose films have aired on Public Television stations and at film festivals across the country. He received an MA in American Studies from the University of Wyoming where he made his first documentary feature about the reenactments of Custer’s Last Stand in southern Montana. After a few years in the West, making films, freelancing for magazines and working as a producer for NPR News, he moved back to his home state to tell stories about the Deep South. At The University of Alabama he teaches and oversees a unique interdisciplinary social justice documentary program called Documenting Justice, and was recently named by The Oxford American one of the “Most Creative Teachers in the South.” In 2009 he was invited to attend the CPB/PBS Producers Academy at WGBH. He's also a writer whose nonfiction has been nominated for a Puschcart Prize.

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Ronald Gregg

Senior Lecturer and Programming Director, Film Studies

Moderating a discussion after the film Bestiaire, April 15th, 1:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Ron Gregg is Senior Lecturer and Programming Director in the Film Studies Program. As a Senior Lecturer, he teaches courses on queer cinema (both Hollywood and avant-garde), classical Hollywood, and the impact of globalization and digital technology on recent Hollywood film. As Programming Director, he organizes an annual series of campus visits and workshops by filmmakers and scholars and also works with other FSP faculty to organize major film conferences and other events. Before joining the Yale faculty, he taught film history at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, St. Cloud State University, and Duke University. He has published articles on topics ranging from MGM’s management of the image of its 1920s gay star William Haines to queer representation in the competing videos produced during Oregon's 1992 anti-gay rights ballot measure campaign. He has also curated film and video programming for the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the South African Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Chicago's Gerber-Hart Gay and Lesbian Library, and the University of Chicago Lesbian and Gay Studies Project. He received his Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from the University of Oregon.

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John Grim

Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar, Yale University

Moderating a discussion after the film The Whale, April 15th, 6:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

John Grim is currently a Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar at Yale University teaching courses that draw students from the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale Divinity School, the Department of Religious Studies, the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, and the Yale Colleges.  He is Coordinator of the Forum on Religion and Ecology with Mary Evelyn Tucker, and series editor of “World Religions and Ecology,” from Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions.  In that series he edited Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: the Interbeing of Cosmology and Community (Harvard, 2001). He has been a Professor of Religion at Bucknell University, and at Sarah Lawrence College where he taught courses in Native American and Indigenous religions, World Religions, and Religion and Ecology. His published works include: The Shaman: Patterns of Religious Healing Among the Ojibway Indians (University of Oklahoma Press, 1983) and edited a volume with Mary Evelyn Tucker entitled Worldviews and Ecology (Orbis, 1994, 5th printing 2000), and a Daedalus volume (2001) entitled, “Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change?” John is also President of the American Teilhard Association.

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Lori Gruen

Chair and Professor of Philosophy, and Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Environmental Studies, Wesleyan University

Discussing the film Bestiaire, April 15th, 1:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Lori Gruen has been involved in animal issues as a writer, teacher, and activist for over 25 years. Her relationships with scholars thinking about animals, activists working to protect animals, and, perhaps most importantly, with many different animals, uniquely inform her perspective on how we need to rethink our engagement with other animals.  

Gruen is trained as a philosopher and works broadly on topics in practical ethics and political philosophy.  She has taught at the University of Colorado, the University of British Columbia, Lafayette College, the University of North Carolina, Stanford University, New York University, and Wesleyan University. She has published and lectured widely on topics in animal ethics, including the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on the Moral Status of Non-Human Animals and the illustrated book Animal Liberation: A Graphic Guide (with Peter Singer and artist David Hines). She is currently working on a book exploring human relations to captive chimpanzees which draws lessons from the lives of some of the chimpanzees she has come to know, respect, and love.
lorigruen.com

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Maria Gunnoe

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

Discussing the film The Last Mountain, April 11th, 7:30pm, Kroon Hall

Maria Gunnoe is a community outreach and Issue organizer for OVEC and a life-long resident of Southern West Virginia who has experienced the destruction of mountaintop removal first-hand. Her family home place, where she currently resides, has sustained repeated flood damage caused by run-off from a nearby valley fill. She has traveled extensively nationwide to speak about the dire situation in Appalachian coalfields and is encouraging Americans to help protect Appalachian communities and our nation’s oldest mountains. Gunnoe has successfully stopped MTR operation near her home in 2007 and again in 2012 saving 100's of acres of mountain peaks and miles of streams. She’s appeared in several documentaries, including Burning the Future, Coal in America which focuses on her community organizing, Dirty Business, and most recently The Last Mountain, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; Gunnoe attended and spoke at the premier. Gunnoe has also been featured in major newspaper articles including the Washington Post, NY Times, Time, and More Magazine. In July 2006, Gunnoe was featured in Oprah’s magazine—“O.” She is a 2006 recipient of the Joe Calloway Award for Civic Courage created by the Washington DC-based Shafeek Nader Trust for The Community.  She received the Rain Forest Action Network’s David vs. Goliath award for her efforts to create a sustainable world.  In March 2008, Gunnoe was selected as Sierra club's law program hero. In April 2009, Gunnoe was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. On February 28, 2010 she received the David Brower Lifetime Achievement Award from the Land, Air, Water Association, the nation's oldest student environmental law society, for her work to end mountaintop removal mining. Gunnoe also serves on the board of directors of SouthWings, a non-profit organization that provides free over-flights of mountaintop removal sites and other environmental disasters such as the Gulf oil spill. www.ohvec.org

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Bill Haney

Director of The Last Mountain.

Update: Bill Haney can no longer join us for the showing of The Last Mountain, April 11th, 7:30pm, Kroon Hall

Bill Haney has written, produced and directed award winning documentary and narrative features for ten years. He is co-founder of Uncommon Productions. His most recent feature documentary, The Price of Sugar, which he wrote, produced and directed, was short-listed for an Academy Award, nominated for the NAACP’s Image Award and was the recipient of numerous other honors, including the Gabriel Award and the Audience Award at South by Southwest. The documentary A Life Among Whales, which he directed and produced, takes a look at one man’s lifelong passion for the wild and won numerous awards including a Silver Hugo and the Earthwatch Film Award.

In addition to filmmaking, Haney is founder of the eco-housing startup Blu Homes, using advanced technology to make housing greener, healthier and more affordable.  He is also chairman of World Connect, a non-profit supporting programs to help women and children in 400 developing world villages.

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William Kelly

Professor of Anthropology and Sumitomo Professor of Japanese Studies, Yale University

Moderating a discussion after the film The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, April 14th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Professor Kelly is a noted authority on the social and historical anthropology of Japan. Kelly has focused much of his research in the last two decades on regional agrarian societies in Japan. After earning a B.A. in Anthropology from Amherst College and a Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from Brandeis University, Kelly joined the faculty at Yale in 1980. He has served as Chair for the Department of Anthropology, Chair for the Council on East Asian Studies and Director of Undergraduate Studies for East Asian Studies. Kelly is currently a member of the executive committees for the Council on East Asian Studies, Council on Southeast Asia Studies and Program on Agrarian Studies. He is also a member of the steering committee of Yale College and a faculty affiliate of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. His professional affiliations include membership in the American Anthropological Association, American Ethnological Society, Society for Cultural Anthropology, Association for Asian Studies and the editorial board of the Journal of Japanese Studies.

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Dan Klau

Attorney

Discussing the film Big Boys Gone Bananas!*, April 12th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Dan Klau is an attorney in the Hartford office of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter. He graduated from Boston University School of Law, summa cum laude, in 1990, and then began his career as a law clerk to Chief Justice Ellen A. Peters of the Connecticut Supreme Court. His practice focuses on appellate and First Amendment (particularly media law) litigation. He also litigates a broad variety of complex disputes involving commercial and private parties in federal and state trial courts. As an appellate advocate, he has represented clients in the United State Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeal for the First and Second Circuits, and the Connecticut Supreme and Appellate courts. His media practice includes representing newspapers and other publishing entities in defamation matters and cases seeking access to court proceedings and files.

Dan is also an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he teaches privacy law. He is frequently quoted on First Amendment and privacy issues, is the author of numerous articles and columns on appellate practice and First Amendment issues, and is a frequent lecturer on these topics. Dan is currently president of Connecticut Foundation for Open Government. He has received numerous awards for his work on behalf of government access and transparency, including the Society of Professional Journalist's 2009 Helen M. Loy Freedom of Information Award, the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information's 2007 Stephen Collins Award and the Connecticut Bar Association's 2007 "Pro Bono" Award. He has been recognized as a Connecticut and New England "Super Lawyer" in the area of appellate practice. Dan is a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Hartford County Bar Association. Dan was the keynote speaker at the Freedom of Information Commission's 2009 Annual Conference.

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Roy Lee

Discussing the film The Island President on Saturday, April 14th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Roy Lee  joined the United Nations in 1967 in the Division of Human Rights. In 1972, he joined the law of the sea Secretariat and became Secretary of the First Committee of the Third U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea. In 1982, upon completion of his assignment, he moved to the Office of Legal Affairs as Principal Legal Officer in the Office of the Legal Counsel.  He is currently Director of the Codification Division in the Office of Legal Affairs and also acts as Secretary of the International Law Commission and of the Sixth (Legal) Committee of the General Assembly and of three other law-making bodies.

He has taught international law and relations in various law schools in Europe, Asia, Latin America, the United States and Canada. He is co-author of a "Manual on Space Law"  and co-editor of "New Directions in the Law of the Sea" and has published some 30 articles on law of the sea, human rights, nuclear energy, settlement of disputes, ocean management, humanitarian law, terrorism and the question of war crimes and crimes against humanity.  In 1997, he co-edited a book on "Increasing the Effectiveness of the International Court of Justice".

Lee holds a law degree from China, earned a Master of Law in International Law from McGill University in 1962, and received a Ph.D in International Law from the University of London in 1967.

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Kelly McMasters

Author

Discussing the film The Atomic States of America, April 13th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Kelly McMasters is the author of Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town. The book was listed as one of Oprah's top 5 summer memoirs and is the basis for the documentary film The Atomic States of America, playing at EFFY 2012 and a 2012 Sundance selection. Her essays, reviews, and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, River Teeth: A Journal of Narrative Nonfiction, Newsday, Time Out New York, and MrBellersNeighborhood.com, among others. She holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia's School of the Arts and is the recipient of a Pushcart nomination and an Orion Book Award nomination. McMasters teaches at mediabistro.com and in the undergraduate writing program and Journalism Graduate School at Columbia University. She splits her time between Manhattan and northeast Pennsylvania, where she lives with her two sons and husband, the painter Mark Milroy.

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Alan Mikhail

Assistant Professor, History, Yale University

Discussing the film Bestiaire, April 15th, 1:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Alan Mikhail is a historian of the early modern Muslim world, the Ottoman Empire, and Egypt whose research and teaching focus mostly on the nature of early modern imperial rule, peasant histories, environmental resource management, and science and medicine.

His first book, Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt: An Environmental History (Cambridge University Press, 2011), won the 2009-11 Roger Owen Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association and the 2011 Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication from Yale University and was named a book of the year by Ahram Online.

Professor Mikhail is currently writing a book about the changing relationships between humans and animals in Ottoman Egypt and also completing an edited volume on the environmental history of the Middle East, which will be published by Oxford University Press in 2013.

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Barry Muchnick

Discussing the film The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, April 14th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Barry Muchnick is an environmental historian whose research and teaching revolve around the idea that history looks very different when considered in its environmental context, and that one can learn a great deal about both history and the environment by studying the two together. Currently teaching at Quinnipiac University, Barry recently completed his dissertation, “Nature’s Republic: Fresh Air Reform and The Moral Ecology of Citizenship in Turn of the Century America” in a joint Ph.D. program of his own design between Yale’s History Department and the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Prior to arriving in New Haven, Barry worked on a multi-year grizzly bear census in Montana’s Glacier National Park, radio-tracked desert tortoises in Nevada’s Mojave Desert for the U.S.G.S. Biological Survey, and led field excursions for the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota. His interest in the cultural and historical dimensions of natural resources led him from the outdoors to the archives, where he continues to study the intersection of social justice and nature conservation. He has lectured widely on British landscape painting and environmental ethics; environmental citizenship; the interconnections of science, technology, and sentiment; nature and national identity; and natural disaster.

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Jeremy Oldfield

Interim Farm Coordinator, Yale Sustainable Food Project

Discussing the film Eating Alabama, April 10th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Jeremy Oldfield’s food and farming experience includes growing specialty greens at a six acre organic operation in Petaluma, California, and fermenting locally grown vegetables at the Cultured Pickle Shop in Berkeley, California. He spent 2006 working for Eliot Coleman at his Four Season Farm in Maine. Most recently, he founded The Freelance Farmers, a company that helped both schools and homeowners install productive vegetable gardens. Jeremy enjoys teaching urban dwellers about the delights of soil ecology and food production. He graduated from Williams College in 2005 with a degree in American Studies, and completed his MFA in Writing and Literature at the Bennington Writing Seminars.

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Ann Powers

Associate Professor of Law, Pace Law School

Discussing the film The Island President on Saturday, April 14th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Professor Ann Powers is a faculty member of the Center for Environmental Legal Studies, where she teaches a range of environmental courses focusing on the law of oceans & coasts, international environmental law, UN diplomacy and water quality. Her scholarship includes emerging ocean issues and water pollution trading programs, among other subjects. Professor Powers’ recent work has focused particularly on ocean and international issues, and she has worked with United Nations Environment Program projects, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Commission on Environmental Law and its Law Academy.  She chairs the Land-based Pollution Subcommittee of the Commission’s Oceans, Coasts & Coral Reefs Specialist Group.

Until joining the Center in 1995, she was vice president and general counsel of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a major regional non-profit environmental organization, where she supervised the Foundation’s legal work and its pollution control advocacy program. Professor Powers also served as a senior trial attorney in the Environmental Enforcement Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, handling both civil and criminal cases, and as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.

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James Saiers

Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Professor of Hydrology; Associate Dean of Academic Affairs; Professor of Chemical Engineering

Moderating a discussion after the film The Atomic States of America, April 13th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Professor Saiers studies the circulation of water and the movement of waterborne chemicals in surface and subsurface environments. One element of his research centers on quantifying the effects that interactions between hydrological and geochemical processes have on the migration of contaminants in groundwater. Another focus is on the dynamics of surface water and groundwater flow in wetlands and the response of fluid flow characteristics to changes in climate and water management practices. His work couples field observations and laboratory-scale experimentation with mathematical modeling.

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Monique Stefani

Discussing the film Eating Alabama, April 10th, 7:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Monique Stefani is interested in understanding issues around food security and the global food system. She completed her doctoral dissertation in sociology in December 2009 at The State University of New York, Stony Brook, studying how nations became interested in investing in the biotechnology industry in the 1970s and 1980s. She’s currently working on food security data from the Kamuli District in Uganda. She is on the New Haven Food Policy Council, working on a number of locally based food system projects, including a map of the New Haven food system. Her research concentration is in cultural theory and sociology of technology. Her goal is to situate her work in between academic research and local involvement.

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Kristin Tracz

Research and policy associate with Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED)

Discussing the film The Last Mountain, April 11th, 7:30pm, Kroon Hall

Kristin Tracz joined MACED in June 2010 after finishing her Master of Environmental Management degree at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Tracz works closely on energy efficiency and renewable energy policy in Kentucky and Central Appalachia and supports the Appalachian Transition Initiative. Prior to graduate school, Tracz was a Senior Program Associate for the Blue Moon Fund in Charlottesville, Virginia, working with rural economic development projects throughout Asia. A Virginia native, with a B.A. from the University of Virginia, she is happy to be away from the cold winters of the Northeast. Visit MACED.org and http://www.appalachiantransition.org.

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Mary Evelyn Tucker

Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar, Yale University

Moderating a discussion after the film Surviving Progress, April 9th, 7:00pm, Yale Art Gallery

Mary Evelyn Tucker is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Scholar at Yale University where she has appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies. She is a co-founder and co-director with John Grim of the Forum on Religion and Ecology. Together they organized a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. They are series editors for the ten volumes from the conferences distributed by Harvard University Press. She is also Research Associate at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard. She is the author of Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase (Open Court Press, 2003), Moral and Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism (SUNY, 1989) and The Philosophy of Qi (Columbia University Press, 2007). She co-edited Worldviews and Ecology (Orbis, 1994), Buddhism and Ecology (Harvard, 1997), Confucianism and Ecology (Harvard, 1998), and Hinduism and Ecology (Harvard, 2000) and When Worlds Converge (Open Court, 2002). With Tu Weiming she edited two volumes on Confucian Spirituality (Crossroad, 2004). She also co-edited a Daedalus volume titled Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change? (2001). She edited several of Thomas Berry’s books: Evening Thoughts (Sierra Club Books and University of California Press, 2006), The Sacred Universe (Columbia University Press, 2009), Christian Future and the Fate of Earth (Orbis Book, 2009). She is a member of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). She served on the International Earth Charter Drafting Committee from 1997-2000 and is a member of the Earth Charter International Council. B.A. Trinity College, M.A. SUNY Fredonia, M.A. Fordham University, PhD Columbia University.

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Allison D. Tuttle

Staff Veterinarian & Director of Animal Care, Mystic Aquarium

Discussing the film The Whale, April 15th, 6:00pm, Whitney Humanities Center

Dr. Allison Tuttle graduated with a DVM from North Carolina State University in 2002. Following graduation, Allison completed a 2-year Internship in Aquatic Animal Medicine at Mystic Aquarium. Allison also completed a Residency in Zoological Medicine with an Aquatic Health Management focus at North Carolina State University in 2007. During the residency, Allison was part of a team providing medical care to the 3 North Carolina Aquariums, the North Carolina Zoological Park, the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Hospital and for stranded marine mammals along the North Carolina coast. Allison returned to Mystic Aquarium in fall 2007 to assume the role of Staff Veterinarian and Director of Animal Care and enjoys providing medical care to the wide variety of species housed at the Aquarium. She is also involved with clinical research pertaining to the health of our animal collection. Allison’s main medical interests relate to infectious disease and preventative medicine.

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David Watts

Professor, Department of Anthropology, Yale University

Hosting a question and answer session after the film Chimpanzee, April 15th, 11:00am, Bow-Tie Criterion Cinema

Professor David Watts’ research speciality is the behavior and ecology of nonhuman primates. He has done fieldwork in Panama (behavior of white-faced capuchin monkeys), Rwanda (behavioral ecology of mountain gorillas), and Uganda (behavioral ecology of chimpanzees). He was the Director of the Karisoke Research Centre in Rwanda for two years. In collaboration with Dr. Jeremiah Lwanga and Dr. John Mitani, he has maintained a research project on chimpanzee behavior at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda since 1995. He teaches courses on primate behavior and ecology, evolutionary approaches to human behavior, cognitive ethology, nonhuman primate models for human evolution, hunter-gatherer societies, and primate conservation. His graduate students have done research on a wide range of topics, including chimpanzee behavior; behavioral ecology of red colobus monkeys, black-and-white colobus monkeys, and spider monkeys; positional behavior of old world monkeys; chimpanzee behavioral endocrinology; the evolutionary genetics of gorillas; and the population genetics and mating system of sifakas.

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Click here to see the speakers from EFFY 2011

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2012 Speakers

• Colin Beavan
• Laura Bozzi
• Roger Cohn
• Sir Peter Crane
• Gwyneth Cravens
• Harold Crooks
• Eric Desatnik
• Cara Donovan
• Jeffrey Flocken
• Paul Gallay
• Aaron Gerow
• Fredrik Gertten
• Andrew Grace
• Ronald Gregg
• John Grim
• Lori Gruen
• Maria Gunnoe
• Bill Haney
• William Kelly
• Dan Klau
• Roy Lee
• Kelly McMasters
• Alan Mikhail
• Barry Muchnick
• Jeremy Oldfield
• Ann Powers
• James Saiers
• Monique Stefani
• Kristin Tracz
• Mary Evelyn Tucker
• Allison D. Tuttle
• David Watts

Click here to see the speakers from EFFY 2011

Speakers 2011

Ian Cheney

Discussing the film The City Dark on Wednesday, March 30, 7:00pm

Ian Cheney grew up in New England and received Bachelor's and Master's degrees from The Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He co-created and starred in the feature documentary KING CORN, and directed the feature documentary THE GREENING OF SOUTHIE. Most recently, Ian directed and produced a feature documentary about light pollution entitled THE CITY DARK, and a short film on urban agriculture entitled TRUCK FARM. With longtime collaborator Curt Ellis, Ian runs Wicked Delicate, a documentary and advocacy project in Brooklyn, NY. Wicked Delicate maintains a 1/1000th acre farm in the back of a 1986 Dodge pickup truck, and is part of a planning process to develop FoodCorps, a national school garden and Farm to School program.

Sir Peter Crane

Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Professor of Botany.
Discussing the film Queen of the Sun on Sunday, April 3, 6:00pm

Dean Crane’s work focuses on the diversity of plant life: its origin and fossil history, current status, and conservation and use. From 1992 to 1999 he was director of the Field Museum in Chicago with overall responsibility for the museum’s scientific programs. During this time he established the Office of Environmental and Conservation Programs and the Center for Cultural Understanding and Change, which today make up the Division of Environment, Culture, and Conservation (ECCo). From 1999 to 2006 he was director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, one of the largest and most influential botanical gardens in the world. His tenure at Kew saw strengthening and expansion of the gardens’ scientific, conservation, and public programs. Dean Crane was elected to the Royal Society (the U.K. academy of sciences) in 1998. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and a member of the German Academy Leopoldina. He was knighted in the U.K. for services to horticulture and conservation in 2004. Dean Crane currently serves on the Board of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas, and the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.

Bob Crelin

Discussing the film The City Dark on Wednesday, March 30, 7:00pm

Author and inventor Bob Crelin has shapedlight pollution legislation in Connecticut at the state and local level. Bob is the co-founder of Lighting by Branford, which manufactures the GlareBuster—an an award-winning "dark sky" floodlight. He has also written two children's books, "There Once Was a Sky Full of Stars," and “Faces of the Moon,” in an effort to educate the next generation about the beauty of the night sky.In 2004, Bob was honored with the Astronomical League’s Walter Scott Houston Award for his years of devotion to working to preserve the night sky for our children.

Sam Cullman

Discussing the film If A Tree Falls on Thursday, March 31, 7:00pm

Sam Cullman is currently producing and shooting a documentary about the War on Drugs in America, directed by Eugene Jarecki, and is starting post-production on BLACK CHEROKEE, a short he co-directed with Benjamin Rosen about a self-taught New York City street artist. Cullman's camera credits have included Eugene Jarecki's WHY WE FIGHT (2005), which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in documentary; director Rob Van Alkemade and producer Morgan Spurlock's WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY? (2007); directors David Redmon and Ashley Sabin's KAMP KATRINA (2007); Jonathan Stack's LOCKUP: INSIDE ANGOLA (2008) and THE FARM: 10 DOWN (2009), both follow-ups to Stacks' THE FARM: ANGOLA, USA (1998). His cinematography on KING CORN (2006), a Peabody award-winning documentary for ITVS, was noted for its "handsome lensing" by Dennis Harvey (Variety) and was dubbed "visually arresting" by Ann Hornaday (The Washington Post). Cullman has also produced and directed a number of short films in collaboration with non-profits and governmental agencies like the New York City Housing Authority and the Ford Foundation. His 2008 doc for the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence and the Yale Child Study Center explored partnerships between police departments and mental health clinicians in cities across the US. Cullman graduated from Brown University with honors (1999), where he majored in Urban Studies and the Visual Arts, and founded Yellow Cake Films in 2006. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Marshall Curry

Discussing the film If A Tree Falls on Thursday, March 31, 7:00pm

Marshall Curry got his start shooting, directing, and editing the documentary STREET FIGHT, which followed Cory Booker's first run for mayor of Newark, NJ. The film went on to be nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy. STREET FIGHT won the Audience Awards at the Tribeca Film Festival, AFI/Discovery SilverDocs Festival, and Hot Docs Festival. It also received the Jury Prize for Best International Documentary at Hot Docs and was nominated for a Writer's Guild of America (WGA) Award. After STREET FIGHT, Curry was the Director and Producer, as well as one of the Cinematographers and Editors of the feature documentary, RACING DREAMS, called "The best movie of the year," by Scott Feinberg of the L.A. Times. Dreamworks is currently adapting it for a fictional remake. Prior to filmmaking, Marshall taught English in Guanajuato, Mexico, worked in public radio, and taught government in Washington DC. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College where he studied Comparative Religion and was a Eugene Lang Scholar. He was also a Jane Addams Fellow at Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy, where he wrote about the history, philosophy, and economics of non-profits.

Mark Dixon

Discussing the film YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip on Saturday, April 2, 7:00pm

Mark is a Producer/Director of YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip. Mark attended Stanford University and graduated in 1997 with a BS in Industrial Engineering. While familiarizing himself with web and media technologies during a 10 year career in Silicon Valley, Mark discovered that our planet Earth was having a tough time accommodating her most dominant species. He also realized that a sound retirement plan would optimally include a stable planet. In an attempt to address these concerns (not to mention an itch to see the country), he went on to launch YERT in 2006 with his college buddy, Ben Evans. Now, approximately 54 months later, he is thrilled to see the world premiere of the YERT feature film at EFFY. This is his first feature film.

Matthew Eckelman

Discussing the film YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip on Saturday, April 2, 7:00pm

Matthew Eckelman is a lecturer and postdoc at Yale University in the Schools of Engineering and Forestry & Environmental Studies and collaborates there with the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering and the Center for Industrial Ecology.  His research covers life cycle assessment, industrial environmental management, and environmental and sustainability strategy.  He is also part of a green engineering firm that consults with a range of businesses, organizations, and governments.  Prior to this, Matthew worked with the Massachusetts State Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and Design that Matters, a non-profit product design company, and was a Peace Corps science instructor in southern Nepal for several years. He holds a PhD in environmental engineering from Yale.

Ben Evans

Discussing the film YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip on Saturday, April 2, 7:00pm

Ben is a Director/Producer of YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip. Ben graduated from Stanford University in 1994 with a BS in Science, Technology, and Society...at least that's what he tells his family. After working as an actor for a decade in LA and NYC, Ben found himself looking for a way to marry his creative urges with his abiding passion for the environment and a growing concern about the future. Looking for adventure and a sense of greater purpose, Ben launched YERT in 2006 with his college buddy, Mark Dixon, and convinced his exceedingly understanding wife, Julie, to join him. After far too much time in an editing cave and well aware that one good four letter word deserves another, he is elated to be premiering YERT at EFFY. This is his first feature film.

Michael Faison

Director of Yale University’s Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium.
Discussing the film The City Dark on Wednesday, March 30, 7:00pm

Michael teaches several astronomy courses at Yale and holds series of public lectures on topics such as astrophysics, the history of astronomy, cultural astronomy, and observational astronomy (stargazing).  His research interests include Archaeoastronomy, Interstellar Medium structure and dynamics, Very Long Baseline Interferometry, and using small telescopes and digital planetarium systems for undergraduate education.

Dan Imhoff

Discussing the film Bag It on Friday, April 1, 7:00pm

Dan Imhoff is a researcher, author, and independent publisher who has concentrated for nearly 20 years on issues related to farming, the environment, and design. He is the president and co-founder of Watershed Media, a non-profit publishing house based in Northern California. Dan has appeared on hundreds of national and regional radio and television programs, including CBS Sunday Morning, Science Friday, and West Coast Live. His books have gained national attention with coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle, Newsweek, the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune. He has testified before Congress and spoken at numerous conferences, corporate and government offices, and college campuses, including Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Vermont Law School.

Martin Medina

Discussing the film Waste Land on Monday, March 28, 7:00pm

Martin Medina is originally from Mexico. He received his Ph.D. form Yale in 1997. He has collaborated with international organizations and academic institutions on waste management issues in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Has received numerous awards and grants, including four consecutive awards from the Global Development Network, the world's largest competition in development research. Author of over 45 publications, including a book, "The World's Scavengers: Salvaging for Sustainable Consumption and Production." Currently Sr. International Relations Specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative project on the informal recycling sector in developing countries.

Liz Milwe

Discussing the film Bag It on Friday, April 1, 7:00pm

Liz Milwe is currently a member of the Westport Connecticut Representative Town Meeting (RTM). In 2008, she and three of her colleagues were able to enact an ordinance that banned plastic bags from Westport's shopping sector,  the first such ban in Connecticut. This work led to two intense years of research on the health and environmental risks of the plastic bag industry, the culmination of which is her internationally recognized artistic collaboration called "In The Bag." The "In The Bag" installation was just on display at the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Conference in Nairobi, and is now on display at the Darien Nature Center in Darien Connecticut. Liz is also one of the founders of the Green Village Initiative,  a volunteer-based grass roots organization established in Fall 2008 to support citizens passionate about making environmental and community change through local action.

Nancy Moran

Discussing the film Queen of the Sun on Sunday, April 3, 6:00pm

Nancy A. Moran is the William H. Fleming Professor in Biology at the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department. Dr. Moran’s research involves the evolution of bacterial genomes and of symbiotic associations. She also works on general principles involving the evolution of genomes in bacteria. From 1986 to 2010, she served on the faculty of the University of Arizona, where she was a Regents’ Professor. In 2010, she won the International Prize for Biology. Dr. Moran was also awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 1997, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004, the American Academy of Microbiology in 2004, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007. Dr. Moran holds a B.A. from the University of Texas and a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Michigan.

Paulo Moreira

Discussing the film Waste Land on Monday, March 28, 7:00pm

Paulo Moreira is Assistant Professor of Spanish & Portuguese at Yale. He has published scholarly articles and reviews on Octavio Paz and Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Mario de Andrade and Jean Toomer. He has also published a poetry volume called Quatro Partes and his poems and short stories appeared in Brazilian literary magazines and journals. Currently he is working on the translation of a collection of Faulkner’s short stories to Portuguese and working on a book about the short stories of William Faulkner, João Guimarães Rosa, and Juan Rulfo.

Tiffany Shlain

Discussing the film Connected on Tuesday, March 29, 7:00pm

Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker, founder of The Webby Awards, co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute. Her films have been selected by over 100 film festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, and Rotterdam, won 20 awards including Audience and Grand Jury Prizes, been translated into 8 languages and been shown at museums including LACMA, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and the Guggenheim. A celebrated thinker and speaker, she has advised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is on the advisory board of M.I.T.'s Geospatial Lab and presented the 2010 Commencement Address at UC Berkeley.

Taggart Siegel

Discussing the film Queen of the Sun on Sunday, April 3, 6:00pm

Taggart Siegel has been directing award-winning documentaries and dramas for 25 years that reflect cultural diversity with absorbing style. From spiritual elders struggling to preserve traditions in alien environments to marginalized youth surviving hostile streets, the subjects of his films present vital perspectives rarely seen in mainstream media. THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN won 31 International Film Festivals awards and is currently being released theatrically around the world. Siegel’s films bring compelling voices and visions to a global audience. Siegel is the co-founder of Collective Eye, Inc., a non-profit media organization based in San Francisco and Portland, Oregon.

Richard Stevens

Discussing the film The City Dark on Wednesday, March 30, 7:00pm

Richard Stevens received a B.S. in Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Washington in Seattle.  He has been working for a long time trying to help figure out why people get cancer.  A perplexing challenge which Stevens began to engage in the late 1970s is the confounding mystery of why breast cancer risk rises so dramatically as societies industrialize.  He proposed in 1987 a radical new theory that use of electric lighting, resulting in lighted nights, might produce ‘circadian disruption’ causing changes in the hormones relevant to breast cancer risk, and thereby play an important role in breast cancer causation worldwide.  Accumulating evidence has generally supported the theory.  Stevens teaches medical/dental students, graduate students in the PhD program, and MPH students at UConn Health Center.

Tiaõ (Sebastiao Carlos dos Santos)

Discussing the film Waste Land on Monday, March 328, 7:00pm

Tiaõ is the young, charismatic President of ACAMJG (the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho), a co-operative to improve the lives of his fellow catadores, featured in the film Waste Land. Inspired by the political texts he found in the waste, Tiaõ had to convince his co-workers that organizing could make a difference. Tiaõ has been picking since he was 11 years old.

Mary Evelyn Tucker

Discussing the film Connected on Tuesday, March 29, 7:00pm
Discussing the film Journey of the Universe on Friday, March 25, 7:00pm & Saturday March 26, 5:30pm

Mary Evelyn Tucker is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Scholar at Yale University where she has appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies. She is a co-founder and co-director with John Grim of the Forum on Religion and Ecology. Together they organized a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. They are series editors for the ten volumes from the conferences distributed by Harvard University Press. She is also Research Associate at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard. She is the author of Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase (Open Court Press, 2003), Moral and Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism (SUNY, 1989) and The Philosophy of Qi (Columbia University Press, 2007). She co-edited Worldviews and Ecology (Orbis, 1994), Buddhism and Ecology (Harvard, 1997), Confucianism and Ecology (Harvard, 1998), and Hinduism and Ecology (Harvard, 2000) and When Worlds Converge (Open Court, 2002). With Tu Weiming she edited two volumes on Confucian Spirituality (Crossroad, 2004). She also co-edited a Daedalus volume titled Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change? (2001). She edited several of Thomas Berry’s books: Evening Thoughts (Sierra Club Books and University of California Press, 2006), The Sacred Universe (Columbia University Press, 2009), Christian Future and the Fate of Earth (Orbis Book, 2009). She is a member of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). She served on the International Earth Charter Drafting Committee from 1997-2000 and is a member of the Earth Charter International Council. B.A. Trinity College, M.A. SUNY Fredonia, M.A. Fordham University, PhD Columbia University.

John Wargo

Discussing the film Bag It on Friday, April 1, 7:00pm

John Wargo is a Professor of Risk Analysis, Environmental Policy, and Political Science, and Chair of the Yale College Environmental Studies Major and Program. He has just written Green Intelligence Creating Environments that Protect Human Health published by Yale Press. The book won the Independent Publishers Award of Gold Medal in the field of “environment, ecology, and nature” for 2010. It also won the 2010 Connecticut Book Award in non-fiction. It was chosen as one of Scientific American’s favorite books for 2009. Professor Wargo also wrote Our Children’s Toxic Legacy: How Science and Law Fail to Protect Us from Pesticides, published by Yale University Press in 1998, presenting a history of law and science governing pesticides with special attention to the vulnerability of infants and children. The book won the American Association of Publishers award as the Best Scholarly & Professional Book in Government and Political Science in 1998. He is also co-author of Ecosystems: Science and Management published by Springer-Verlag in 1998. Wargo participated in several National Academy of Sciences committees, analyzing children’s exposure to toxic substances. He also has testified before both Senate and House Committees, and been an advisor to the White House, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture organization, the EPA, USDA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on environmental threats to children’s health. He has participated in the design of federal and state laws and regulations intended to reduce human exposures to air pollution, pesticides, plastics, mercury, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

Robert Zinn

Discussing the film The City Dark on Wednesday, March 30, 7:00pm

Robert Zinn is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Yale's Department of Astronomy. He has researched the structure and evolution of the Milky Way for more than 30 years. His fascination with astronomy began as a teenager in West Hartford, CT when he built his own telescope to view the night sky from the backyard of his parents' house. Although the sky is much brighter now is suburbia, he still explores the Universe with his own telescope.

Click here to see the speakers at this year's festival.

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2011 Speakers

• Ian Cheney
• Sir Peter Crane
• Bob Crelin
• Sam Cullman
• Marshall Curry
• Mark Dixon
• Matthew Eckelman
• Ben Evans
• Michael Faison
• Dan Imhoff
• Martin Medina
• Liz Milwe
• Nancy Moran
• Paulo Moreira
• Tiffany Shlain
• Taggart Siegel
• Richard Stevens
• Tiaõ (Sebastiao Carlos dos Santos)
• Mary Evelyn Tucker
• John Wargo
• Robert Zinn

2011 Jury

Click here to view the 2012 Jury.

The 2011 EFFY Jury is made of Yale faculty, staff, Master's students, and undergraduates. They will decide which films take home the Best Feature and Best Short awards.

Dr. Nadine Unger, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Assistant Professor

Nadine Unger is Assistant Professor of Climate Science in the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. She is a former member of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. In 2004, she directed a production of Waxing West by Romanian playwright Saviana Stanescu performed at International House in New York City. She was a member of The Shakespeare Workshop in New York City between 2004-2008. Performances include Feste in Twelfth Night and Cecile de Volanges in Dangerous Liasons. She is currently developing an outreach theater project about climate change.

Johannes DeYoung, Yale School of Art, Lecturer

Johannes DeYoung is a video artist and Lecturer at the Yale School of Art. His work has been exhibited internationally, with shows in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Melbourne, Australia. Mr. DeYoung received his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI.

Rachel Kramer, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Master’s Student

Rachel Kramer is a Masters of Environmental Science candidate at Yale with interests in the social ecology of conservation and development. Rachel recently created a short film for National Wildlife Federation on emerging solutions to deforestation for cattle expansion in the Brazilian Amazon that was selected for screening at the 2010 Cancun Climate & Development Days film festival. Rachel has been featured in the Madagascar episode of the French nature series, "Ushuaia" for her lemur conservation and community development work, and her photography has been published in print and online media including National Geographic NewsWatch and National Wildlife Magazine.

Mike Carroll, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Master’s Student

When he couldn't pull off R-rated cable films at friends' houses as a youth in the 1980s, Mike Carroll watched random movies on local Boston UHF channels 38 and 56, often times on a 12-inch black and white television. As a teenager, it slowly dawned on him that films were seriously worthy things, leading to Peckinpah to Nichols, Kopple to Herzog, and both Andersons to Louis C.K. He is currently enrolled at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies focusing on organizational sustainability management and performs related work at the educational level.

Ritika Tewari, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Doctoral/Post-Doctoral Student

Rikita Tewari is a postgraduate fellow from TERI, India, and brings along the perspectives of the developing world to pressing environmental concerns. Rikita is pursuing Masters in Natural Resources Management back home. Analyzing movies is one of her hobbies, and at EFFY she would be looking at the message each film conveys and how effectively it does so.

Emily Levada, Yale School of Management, MBA Student

Emily Levada is a first year MBA student at the Yale School of Management (SOM). Prior to coming to Yale, Emily worked for five years as a production manager at The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC. After first attending the DC Environmental Film Festival a number of years ago, Emily joined an environmental political action committee in DC and spearheaded an environmental awareness initiative at her company. Emily is excited to be promoting both the arts and the environment at Yale through EFFY.

Josh Glick, Film Studies and American Studies, PhD Student

Josh Glick is a PhD candidate at Yale in the departments of Film Studies and American Studies. His research interests are focused on documentary media, race and representation in popular culture, and 20th century social movements. Josh is currently co-teaching a seminar on digital documentary and the internet that gives special attention to contemporary politics, activism, and the environment.

Kiku Langford, Yale Divinity School, Masters Student

J. Kiku Langford is a first year M.A.R. candidate at Yale Divinity School where she co-leads the student group FERNS (Faith, Ecology, Nature, Religion and Spirituality). She grew up in Tucson, AZ and attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH where she majored in Studio Art. In 2008 she worked for the International Animation Festival in Hiroshima, Japan, and in 2010 she helped to distribute the documentary film "Orgasm Inc," for director Liz Canner. Kiku's future goals include being a mother, having a cow and a farm, and helping to develop farm-to-school programs in New England.

Jennifer Newman, Yale School of Drama, Masters Student

Jennifer Newman is a third-year MFA candidate at the Yale School of Drama. Prior to coming to Yale Jennifer performed on Broadway in Disney’s The Lion King and was a Radio City Rockette. She also had the immense pleasure of performing with Michael Jackson at Madison Square Garden. Her love of film dates back to watching West Side Story and Grease, Car Wash and of course Star Wars. The documentary film Baraka changed her life.

Liz Godar, Yale College Student

Liz Godar is a first-year Yale College undergraduate from St. Louis, Missouri. She conducted research on carbon sequestration in Environmental/Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and worked on an award winning environmental documentary entitled Unleaded. As a high school student, she represented the youth of St. Louis in environmental rallies and press conferences, headed political action for St. Louis Interschool Ecological Council, wrote published articles to raise awareness about environmental issues, and led the environmental club at her school in various campaigns. She served as a representative for the U.S. in a State Department sponsored program called Ocean for Life in which she studied ocean science and worked with National Geographic photographers to document themes of ocean diversity, conversation, and education.

Patrick Cage, Yale College Student

Patrick Cage is a freshman Ecology & Evolutionary Biology major and hopes to pursue a career in conservation biology. He is a Pierson College STEP coordinator, working to improve sustainability throughout Yale's undergraduate population, and a member of the Yale Animal Welfare Alliance, as well as a volunteer at the New Haven Police Animal Shelter. Patrick enjoys bicycling as a means of transportation, vegan cooking, and botanizing.

Click here to view the 2012 Jury.

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EFFY 2012 Line Up

Yale Environmental Film Festival Examines Humanity’s Impact

New Haven, Conn.—An Academy Award-nominated film on Japan’s tsunami, an advance screening of Disneynature’s Chimpanzee, and appearances by film directors are some of the highlights of the fourth annual Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY) from April 9 to 15.

“We can’t wait to share these films,” said Paul Thomson, the festival’s managing director. “EFFY 2012 is about our relationship with the environment. The films examine humanity’s impact on the planet, but really they are deeply personal stories of our connection with the world."

There will be two East Coast premieres, and more than half of the films will make their New England premieres. All screenings are free and open to the public and will take place at the Whitney Humanities Center on 53 Wall Street, at the Yale University Art Gallery on 1111 Chapel Street, and at Criterion Cinemas on 85 Temple Street. Panel discussions with filmmakers, special guests and Yale faculty will be held after each film.

For the full line up, film and filmmaker details, and to watch trailers, visit http://environment.yale.edu/film/films.

The films are:

The Island President (Connecticut Premiere). President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, the lowest-lying country in the world, takes up the fight to keep his homeland from disappearing under the sea.

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom was recently nominated for an Academy Award. Survivors in the areas hardest hit by Japan’s tsunami find the courage to revive and rebuild as cherry blossom season begins. The film is a stunning visual haiku about the ephemeral nature of life and the healing power of Japan’s most beloved flower.

Surviving Progress (New England Premiere). Executive Producer Martin Scorsese ponders the meaning of progress when its price is the prolific consumption of the world’s natural resources.

The Atomic States of America (New England Premiere) takes viewers on a journey to reactor communities around the country, exposing the truths and myths of nuclear power, and posing the question of whether or not man can responsibly produce nuclear power.

Chimpanzee (Pre-Release Screening) Disneynature’s newest True Life Adventure introduces Oscar, a young chimpanzee whose playful curiosity and zest for discovery light up the African forest until a twist of fate leaves Oscar to fend for himself with a little help from an unexpected ally. 

Bestiaire (New England Premiere). Denis Côté’s wordless film puts humans and animals on display. It is an elegant, bewitching meditation on the nature of sentience and the boundaries between nature and “civilization.”

Eating Alabama (East Coast Premiere). A young couple returns home to Alabama where they set out to eat only food grown in the state for a year. But as they navigate the agro-industrial gastronomical complex, they soon realize that nearly everything about the food system has changed since farmers once populated their family histories.

Big Boys Gone Bananas!* (East Coast Premiere). A follow up to Bananas!*, which screened at EFFY 2010, this is the true story about a Swedish filmmaker and a banana corporation. Dirty tricks, lawsuits, manipulation, and the price of free speech. Both Bananas!* and Big Boys Gone Bananas!* will be screened.

The Last Mountain. In West Virginia a small but passionate group of citizens are trying to stop Big Coal corporations from continuing the devastating practice of Mountain Top Removal.

The Whale is the true story of a killer whale (orca) named Luna who lost his family in British Columbia and forms a unique bond with people. Narrated by Ryan Reynolds and produced by EFFY co-founder Eric Desatnik.

“We selected our films from hundreds of submissions. We have developed a powerful program that covers a variety of important environmental issues,” says Richard Miron, director of programming. “These films will make you laugh, cry and rethink what it means to be human. People are going to be talking about these films. This year’s lineup is the strongest yet.”

EFFY is organized and run by students at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and is the largest student-run environmental film festival in the world. Major sponsors of the 2012 festival include Films at the Whitney, The Study at Yale Hotel, the Class of 1980 Fund at F&ES, Graduate and Professional Student Senate at Yale and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

CONTACT:     Paul Thomson 202-679-5494 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
 

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Click here to see the 2012 film line up.

Poster and Video Contest

Design the EFFY Poster and Promo Video

Promotional Video: Direct and edit an effective, eye-catching, and informational promotional video for the 2011 Environmental Film Festival at Yale. This video will be distributed online via e-mail to thousands of people and will also be featured on the EFFY website in the months prior to the film festival.
 
Poster: Your goal is to design the official poster for the 2012 Environmental Film Festival at Yale. The winning poster will be displayed both physically and electronically across the Yale campus and to the entire New Haven community.
 
RULES
 
Promotional Video:  
•    The video must have a running time of two minutes or less.
•    The video must include the EFFY logo, the dates of the festival (April 9-15, 2012), and the website (environment.yale.edu/film).
•    Submit the video (along with the entry form) as a high-quality Quicktime .mov file on a data DVD to the following address by 5pm on January 6, 2012: Environmental Film Festival at Yale, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511
•    On the DVD/CD, write your name, the title of the promo, and your contact information.

Poster:
•    The poster must have a resolution that is printable for up to 18x24 in.
•    There are no color restrictions.
•    You must include the EFFY logo (download here), the dates of the festival (April 9-15, 2012), and the website (environment.yale.edu/film).
•    Submit the design along with the entry form as a full-resolution file on a data CD to the following address by 5pm on January 6, 2012: Environmental Film Festival at Yale, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511

RESOURCES

Contest Submission Form

EFFY logos

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Posters from Past Years

EFFY 2011 Winners

The 3rd Annual Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY) has announced the 2011 award winners. THE CITY DARK, directed by Ian Cheney, takes home the top juried prize for a feature film. The jury, comprised of Yale students and faculty, awarded TRANSITION TOWN TOTNES the top honor for a short film. The EFFY Audience Award, as determined by ballots distributed to filmgoers, was tied between WASTE LAND and YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip.

The student-run film festival, housed within the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, showcased 8 feature films and 9 shorts from March 28 to April 3 and hosted a record number of attendees from across the state and nation.
 
The documentary THE CITY DARK (East Coast Premiere), explores the psychological, societal, and environmental implications of light pollution.
 
TRANSITION TOWN TOTNES, directed by Deborah Koons Garcia, highlights the growing movement of one transition town in Totnes, England, where citizens are engaging in community-based organizing to live more sustainably.
 
WASTE LAND, a moving documentary about the population who lives off of the largest landfill in the world, was accompanied by a talk with one of the film’s stars Tiaõ Santos, President of ACAMJG (the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho) of Brazil. “It is a great festival,” said Tiaõ. “I was honored to be part of it and hope it is only the beginning of a long time relationship of the Brazilian pickers of Recyclable Material and Yale.”
 
YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip, a documentary about 3 twenty-somethings barreling across all 50 states in 52 weeks in search of local solutions to climate change, world premiered at EFFY.
 
Other highlights of the festival included EFFY After Dark, a party to celebrate the world premiere of YERT, a special screening of the 2011 Academy Award-nominated short documentary THE WARRIORS OF QUIGANG: A Chinese Village Strikes Back, and a special advanced screening of Disneynature’s AFRICAN CATS (which releases nation-wide April 22, 2011).
 
“The films in our line up this year highlight the variety of emotions we experience when we think about our planet and its future: hope as well as devastation, awe as well as caution,” says Catherine Fontana, Director of Public Affairs.  “Even though the 2011 festival is over, the fight for our planet’s future endures.”
 
Major sponsors of the 2011 festival include The Study at Yale Hotel, alumnus Adam Wolfensohn, Films at the Whitney, School of Forestry 1980 Fund, Graduate and Professional Student Senate at Yale, Yale Environment 360, ecosystem Notebooks, 360 State Street, and Blue State Coffee.

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Queen of the Sun

QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us? is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis from Taggart Siegel, director of THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN. Taking us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, this engaging and ultimately uplifting film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva. Together they reveal both the problems and the solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature.

Discussion to follow moderated by Sir Peter Crane, Dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, with filmmaker Taggart Siegel and Dr. Nancy Moran, Yale Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

About the Filmmaker

An independent filmmaker since the mid-1980’s, Taggart Siegel is best known as the director of the 2006 grass-roots hit THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN. This critically acclaimed feature documentary about a maverick visionary farmer, won 31 international film festivals awards and was released theatrically around the world. Siegel is also known for his award-winning films THE SPLIT HORN: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America, BETWEEN TWO WORLDS and BLUE COLLAR A BUDDHA which capture the struggle of refugees in America. He is the co-founder of Collective Eye, Inc., a non-profit media production and distribution organization based in Portland, Oregon and San Francisco.

Preceded by: Transition Town Totnes

Introduced by filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia.

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2010
Running Time: 83 Minutes

Website: www.queenofthesun.com

Director: Taggart Siegel
Producers: Taggart Siegel, Jon Betz
Editors: Jon Betz / Taggart Siegel
Director of Photography: Taggart Siegel
Associate Producers: Donald Siegel, Eric Stolberg, George Mitchell, Mike Quinn

African Cats

Special Advance Screening

An epic true story set against the backdrop of one of the wildest places on Earth, “African Cats” captures the real-life love, humor and determination of the majestic kings of the savanna. The story features Mara, an endearing lion cub who strives to grow up with her mother’s strength, spirit and wisdom; Sita, a fearless cheetah and single mother of five mischievous newborns; and Fang, a proud leader of the pride who must defend his family from a once banished lion. Disneynature brings “The Lion King” to life on the big screen in this True Life Adventure directed by Keith Scholey and Alastair Fothergill (“Earth”). An awe-inspiring adventure blending family bonds with the power and cunning of the wild, “African Cats” leaps into theatres worldwide beginning on Earth Day 2011. For more information about the movie and the “See ‘African Cats,’ Save the Savanna” initiative, check out Disney.com/AfricanCats.

Question and Answer session to follow with Mary Wykstra of Action for Cheetahs Kenya and Paul Thomson of Ewaso Lions Project.

About DisneyNature

Disneynature, the first new Disney-branded film label from The Walt Disney Studios in more than 60 years, was launched in April 2008 to bring the world’s top nature filmmakers together to share a wide variety of wildlife subjects and stories with theatrical audiences. “Earth” (opening Earth Day 2009) was the first film to premiere domestically under the new label, and garnered a record-breaking opening weekend for a nature documentary. Its “Buy a Ticket, Plant a Tree” initiative led to the planting of 2.7 million trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.  Hitting theaters on April 22, 2010, “Oceans” was the third highest grossing feature-length nature film in history. Its “See ‘Oceans,’ Save Oceans” initiative helped establish 40,000 acres of marine protected area in The Bahamas, preserving essential coral reefs. Walt Disney was a pioneer in wildlife documentary filmmaking, producing 13 True-Life Adventure motion pictures between 1949 and 1960, which earned eight Academy Awards®. For more information about Disneynature, check out disneynature.com like us on Facebook: facebook.com/Disneynature, and follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/Disneynature. For more information about the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, please visit Disney.com/conservation.

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Rated G
Genre: Documentary
Year: 2011
Running Time: 90 minutes

Website: Disney.com/AfricanCats

Narrator: Samuel L. Jackson
Directors: Keith Scholey, Alastair Fothergill
Producers: Keith Scholey, Alix Tidmarsh

EFFY After Dark 2011

Join us in celebrating the world premiere of YERT with live music, short films and drinks specials. No cover/open to the public/21+.

Venue: GPSCY bar, 204 York St., 2nd floor ballroom

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YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip

World Premiere

YERT is a groundbreaking adventure and a celebration of the American spirit in the face of adversity - a thought-provoking, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious, documentary about the courageous and creative individuals, groups, businesses and leaders of this country who are tackling the greatest environmental threats in history. Called into action by the ever increasing threats of planetary catastrophe (from climate change to toxic pollution, from water scarcity to habitat destruction), Mark Dixon, Ben Evans, and Julie Dingman Evans upended their lives, pooled collective life-savings, and set off on a first-of-its-kind, 50-state, year-long journey of discovery to personalize sustainability and to answer a critical question: Are we doomed?

Discussion to follow with filmmakers Mark Dixon, Ben Evans, and Julie Dingman Evans. Moderated by Matthew Eckelman, Lecturer and Associate Research Scientist at Yale.

About the Filmmakers

Ben Evans, Director/Producer of YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip
Ben graduated from Stanford University in 1994 with a BS in Science, Technology, and Society...at least that's what he tells his family. After working as an actor for a decade in LA and NYC, Ben found himself looking for a way to marry his creative urges with his abiding passion for the environment and a growing concern about the future. Looking for adventure and a sense of greater purpose, Ben launched YERT in 2006 with his college buddy, Mark Dixon, and convinced his exceedingly understanding wife, Julie, to join him. After far too much time in an editing cave and well aware that one good four letter word deserves another, he is elated to  be premiering YERT at EFFY. This is his first feature film.

Mark Dixon, Producer/Director of YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip
Mark attended Stanford University and graduated in 1997 with a BS in Industrial Engineering. While familiarizing himself with web and media technologies during a 10 year career in Silicon Valley, Mark discovered that our planet Earth was having a tough time accommodating her most dominant species. He also realized that a sound retirement plan would optimally include a stable planet. In an attempt to address these concerns (not to mention an itch to see the country), he went on to launch YERT in 2006 with his college buddy, Ben Evans. Now, approximately 54 months later, he is thrilled to see the world premiere of the YERT feature film at EFFY. This is his first feature film.

Preceded by: Wee Wise Words

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2011
Running Time: 90 Minutes

Website: www.yert.com

Director: Ben Evans and Mark Dixon
Producers: Mark Dixon, Ben Evans
Co-Producer: Gill Holland, Scott Irick
Editors: Ben Evans, Scott Irick
Cinematography: Ben Evans, Mark Dixon, Julie Evans, Erika Bowman
Associate Producers: Scott Irick, Richard Citrin, Sheila Collins

Short Films

Warriors of Qiugang

USA/China, 39 min. This 2011 Oscar-nominated film, shot in China over three years, chronicles how one Chinese village stood up against a polluting chemical plant. 2011 Academy Award-nominated documentary co-produced by Yale Environment 360 and filmmakers Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon. 

When the Water Ends

USA, 16 min.The film tells the story of conflict between tribal groups in Kenya and Ethiopa over water and land, and the increasingly dire drought conditions facing parts of East Africa. Produced by Yale Environment 360 in collaboration with MediaStorm, Directed by Evan Abramson.

preceded by:

11 Degrees

Scotland, 8 min. A film about the struggle of a Scottish ski resort to adapt to the consequences of the climate change and the decrease in skiers. Directed by Anna Ewert.

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Bag It

BAG IT follows Jeb Berrier, an average American guy who is admittedly not a “tree hugger,” who makes a pledge to stop using plastic bags. This simple action gets Jeb thinking about all kinds of plastic as he embarks on a global tour to unravel the complexities of our plastic world. When Jeb’s journey takes a personal twist, we see how our crazy-for-plastic world has finally caught up to us and what we can do about it. Today. Right now.

The film examines our society’s use and abuse of plastic. The film focuses on plastic as it relates to our society’s throwaway mentality, our culture of convenience, our over consumption of unnecessary, disposable products and packaging—things that we use one time and then, without another thought, throw them away. Where is AWAY?? Away is over flowing landfills, clogged rivers, islands of trash in our oceans, and even our very own toxic bodies. Jeb travels the globe on a fact-finding mission—not realizing that after his simple resolution, plastic will never look the same again!

Discussion to follow with author, researcher & publisher Dan Imhoff, and artist & activist Liz Milwe. Moderated by John Wargo, Professor of Risk Analysis, Environmental Policy, and Political Science.

About the Filmmaker

Born in Jamaica and raised in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, Suzan Beraza’s thought-provoking films challenge viewers to examine their lives and consider the impact of their choices. Social and environmental issues pervade her work. Her films have appeared on PBS, and at many festivals, winning top awards at Worldfest, Montreal Film Festival, San Luis Obispo Film Festival, EarthVision, and Mountainfilm in Telluride Film Festival. Documentaries she has worked on have also won three Telly Awards, including Best Documentary.

Preceded by: The Majestic Plastic Bag

4 minutes. A humorous mockumentary about a plastic bag’s migration to its “home” in the Pacific Garbage Patch. Narrated by Jeremy Irons. It was produced by Heal The Bay to help put an end plastic pollution.

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2010
Running Time: 78 minutes

Website: www.bagitmovie.com

Director: Susan Beraza
Producers: Michelle Hill, Susan Beraza
Editor: Casey Nay
Director of Photography: Leigh Reagan
Executive Producers: Judith Kohin

If A Tree Falls

East Coast Premiere

In December 2005, Daniel McGowan was arrested by Federal agents in a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front-- a group the FBI has called America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” For years, the ELF—operating in separate anonymous cells without any central leadership—had launched spectacular arsons against dozens of businesses they accused of destroying the environment: timber companies, SUV dealerships, wild horse slaughterhouses, and a $12 million ski lodge at Vail, Colorado. With the arrest of Daniel and thirteen others, the government had cracked what was probably the largest ELF cell in America and brought down the group responsible for the very first ELF arsons in this country.

IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of this ELF cell, by focusing on the transformation and radicalization of one of its members. Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a verite chronicle of Daniel on house arrest as he faces life in prison, with a dramatic recounting of the events that led to his involvement with the group. And along the way it asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.

Drawing from striking archival footage -- much of it never before seen -- and intimate interviews with ELF members, and with the prosecutor and detective who were chasing them, IF A TREE FALLS explores the tumultuous period from 1995 until early 2001 when environmentalists were clashing with timber companies and law enforcement, and the word “terrorism” had not yet been altered by 9/11.

Discussion to follow with filmmakers Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman. Moderated by Aliya Haq, Yale Masters student and former Greenpeace Organizing Manager.

About the Filmmaker

Marshall Curry got his start shooting, directing, and editing the documentary, STREET FIGHT, which followed Cory Booker’s first run for mayor of Newark, NJ and was nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy. After STREET FIGHT, Curry was the Director and Producer, as well as one of the Directors of Photography and Editors of the feature documentary, RACING DREAMS.

In 2005 Marshall was selected by Filmmaker Magazine as one of "25 New Faces of Independent Film", and he was awarded the International Documentary Association (IDA) Jacqueline Donnet Filmmaker Award.  In 2007 he received the International Trailblazer Award at MIPDOC in Cannes.

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2010
Running Time: 85 Minutes

Website: www.ifatreefallsfilm.com

Director: Marshall Curry
Co-director: Sam Cullman
Producers: Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman
Editor: Matthew Hamachek, Marshall Curry
Director of Photography: Sam Cullman
Executive Producer: Stephen Bannatyne

The City Dark

East Coast Premiere

THE CITY DARK chronicles the disappearance of darkness. When filmmaker Ian Cheney (director of KING CORN) moves to New York City and discovers skies almost completely devoid of stars, a simple question – what do we lose, when we lost the night? – spawns a journey to America’s brightest and darkest corners. Astronomers, cancer researchers, ecologists and philosophers provide glimpses of what is lost in the glare of city lights; blending a humorous, searching tone with poetic footage of the night sky, what unravels is an introduction to the science of the dark, and an exploration of the human relationship to the stars.

Discussion to follow with director Ian Cheney, author & inventor Bob Crelin, epidemiologist Richard Stevens, and Robert Zinn, Yale Professor of Astronomy. Moderated by Michael Faison, Director of Yale University’s Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium.

About the Filmmaker

Ian Cheney is a Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker. He grew up in New England, co-created and starred in the feature documentary KING CORN, directed THE GREENING OF SOUTHIE and the upcoming feature documentary THE CITY DARK. He currently leads Wicked Delicate, a documentary and advocacy project in Brooklyn, runs the TRUCK FARM project, and is one of the founders of FOOD CORPS. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Preceded by: The Herd

Ireland, 4 min. Directed by Ken Wardrop. A farmer finds a deer befriending his herd of cattle.

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2010
Running Time: 84 minutes

Website: www.thecitydark.com

Director: Ian Cheney
Producer: Ian Cheney
Editors: Ian Cheney, Frederick Shanahan
Director of Photography: Taylor Gentry

Filmmaking Workshop with Ian Cheney

Special Event

Join award-winning filmmaker Ian Cheney, as he shares film cips, stories from the field, and practical advice on making films. Topics covered include tips for funding, shooting, and finishing an independent documentary and the role of documentary storytelling in environmental advocacy and education.

Free and open to the public. RSVP required at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

About Ian Cheney

Ian Cheney is a Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker. He grew up in New England, co-created and starred in the feature documentary KING CORN, directed THE GREENING OF SOUTHIE and the upcoming feature documentary THE CITY DARK. He currently leads Wicked Delicate, a documentary and advocacy project in Brooklyn, runs the TRUCK FARM project, and is one of the founders of FOOD CORPS. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

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Website: www.wickedelicate.com

Connected

East Coast Premiere

Between texts and tweets, memes and microchips, we’ve become conditioned to break the world down into byte-sized bits. In the process we’ve stopped seeing the forest for the trees, never mind the root system that connects them all. In Connected, Tiffany Shlain—award-winning filmmaker and founder of The Webby Awards—sets out to explore these bonds with the help of her father, acclaimed author and thinker Dr. Leonard Shlain. When the unexpected happens during the making of the film, Tiffany is forced to reexamine everything she thought she knew about life, relationships, and connectedness. Tracing interdependence through history, she discovers the surprising links between right brain and left; alphabets and power; honey bees and stress; hormones and happiness; technology and nature; progress and consequences; and parents and children. The result is a personal film with universal resonance that encourages viewers to make connections of their own. Offering an exhilarating stream-of-consciousness ride, Connected is a journey through the interconnectedness of humankind, nature, progress and morality at the dawn of the 21st century. For centuries we’ve been declaring independence. With insight, curiosity, and humor, this film explores whether it’s time to declare our interdependence.

Discussion to follow with director Tiffany Shlain. Moderated by Mary Evelyn Tucker, Senior Lecturer and Senior Scholar at Yale.

About the Filmmaker

Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker, founder of The Webby Awards, co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute. Her films have been selected by over 100 film festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, and Rotterdam, won 20 awards including Audience and Grand Jury Prizes, been translated into 8 languages and been shown at museums including LACMA, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and the Guggenheim. A celebrated thinker and speaker, she has advised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is on the advisory board of M.I.T.'s Geospatial Lab and presented the 2010 Commencement Address at UC Berkeley.

Preceded by: U: Uranium

11 min. Directed by Sarah Del Seronde. A look at the contamination of the waters and health of Native and non-Native communities near the Grand Canyon and across the Southwest as a result of decades of uranium mining and milling.

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2010

Website: www.connectedthefilm.com

Narrator: Peter Coyote
Director: Tiffany Shlain
Producers: Sasha Lewis & Carlton Evans
Animation: Stefan Nadelman
Composer: Gunnard Doboze
Editors: Tiffany Shlain and Dalan McNabola
Presented by The Moxie Institute and Impact Partners

Waste Land

Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage  dump,  Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of "catadores"  --  self-designated pickers of recyclable materials.  Muniz's initial objective was to "paint" the  catadores  with  garbage.  However, his  collaboration  with  these  inspiring  characters  as  they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores  as  they  begin  to  re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT and COUNTDOWN  TO  ZERO)  and co-directors  João Jardim  and Karen Harley have great access to the entire  process  and,  in  the  end,  offer  stirring  evidence  of  the  transformative  power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit. 2011 Academy Award Nominee, winner of the Audience Award World Cinema Documentary, Sundance Film Festival 2010.

Discussion to follow with Tiaõ (Sebastiao Carlos dos Santos), President of ACAMJG (the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho, Brazil, who is featured in the film. Also with Martin Medina, Advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative project on recycling sector in developing countries. Moderated by Paulo Moreira, Assistant Professor of Spanish & Portuguese at Yale.

About Lucy Walker

Lucy Walker uses dramatic filmmaking techniques to make documentary films, following memorable characters on transformative journeys that grant unique access inside closed worlds. Walker's films include DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT and COUNTDOWN TO ZERO. Walker's credits also include Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues," for which she was twice nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Direction in a Children's Series, and several award-winning narrative short films. Walker grew up in London, England, won a Fulbright Scholarship to attend New York University's Graduate Film Program, where she earned her MFA.

Preceded by: Life in a Land Fill

1 minute. DIrected by Jack Quinn. An artistic take on the odds and ends found in a landfill.

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2010
Running Time: 98 Minutes

Website: www.wastelandmovie.com

Director: Lucy Walker
Co-directors: Co-directed by João Jardim and Karen Harley
Producers: Angus Aynsley, Hank Levine
Co-Producer: Peter Martin
Editor: Pedro Kos
Director of Photography: Dudu Miranda
Executive Producers: Fernando Meirelles, Miel de Botton Aynsley, Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Jackie de Botton

Journey of the Universe

Special Pre-Festival Screening and World Premiere

Ask acclaimed author and evolutionary philosopher Brian Thomas Swimme about our role as humans in this awe-inspiring universe, and his insights will light up the night skies.

As our host, co-writer, and fellow traveler, he shares his infectious curiosity about life’s biggest questions in the epic JOURNEY OF THE UNIVERSE.  This documentary film project and companion book is a collaboration of Swimme and historian of religions Mary Evelyn Tucker.  They weave a tapestry that draws together scientific discoveries in astronomy, geology, biology, ecology, and biodiversity with humanistic insights concerning the nature of the universe.   

Using his skills as a masterful storyteller, Swimme connects such big picture issues as the birth of the cosmos 14 billion years ago – to the invisible frontiers of the human genome – as well as to our current impact on Earth’s evolutionary dynamics. Through his engaging and thoughtful observations audiences everywhere will discover the profound role we play in this intricate web of life. From the Big Bang–to the epic impact humans have on the planet today–this film is designed to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis.

Beautifully filmed in high-definition, our grand tour begins on the historically rich Greek island of Samos, birthplace of mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras. Disembarking on the island at dawn, Swimme expertly guides us on an exhilarating trek through time and space, sharing a wondrous view of cosmic evolution as a process based on immense creativity, connection, and interdependence.  After the toll of midnight, he sets sail into the star-lit waters of the North Aegean Sea, leaving audiences with a sense of wonder at the mystery, complexity and connectivity that permeates the Earth and universe from the very beginning.

Big science, big history, big story, this one-of-a-kind JOURNEY OF THE UNIVERSE film project has been created by an acclaimed team of internationally-recognized scientists, scholars, and award-winning filmmakers.

SCREENING INFORMATION:

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 7pm, followed by a panel discussion
Burke Auditorium, Kroon Hall, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 7pm
Bowers Auditorium, Sage Hall, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 1pm
Peabody Museum, 170 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 5:30pm
Burke Auditorium, Kroon Hall, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT

About the Filmmakers

Mary Evelyn Tucker is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Scholar at Yale University where she has appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as the Divinity School, the Department of Religious Studies, and the Center for Bioethics. She is a co-founder and co-director with John Grim of the Forum on Religion and Ecology.

Brian Thomas Swimme is a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Oregon in 1978 for work in gravitational dynamics. He brings the context of story to our understanding of the 13.7 billion year trajectory of cosmogenesis. Such a story, he feels, will assist in the emergence of a flourishing Earth community.

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Genre: Documentary
Year: 2011
Running Time: 60 Minutes

Website: www.journeyoftheuniverse.org

Director: David Kennard
Producer: Patsy Northcutt
Co-Producer: Catherine Lynn Butler
Editor: Patsy Northcutt
Director of Photography: Ian Salvage
Executive Producer: Mary Evelyn Tucker

Contact

For questions or to join our mailing list, please email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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Press

Yale Daily News (4/11/2012)

Environmental film festival reopens, with a broad view

New Haven Register (4/8/2012)

Chimps, whales, Mother Earth star in Yale’s environmental film fest

Huffington Post (4/8/2011)

YERT Blockbuster: Your Environmental Road Trip Film Wins EFFY 2011 Audience Award: Interview With Filmmakers

Yale Daily News (4/5/2011)

Walsh: A Wider Lens

SustainableFocus.org (4/3/2011)

A Weekend at the Environmental Film Festival at Yale

Yale Daily News (4/1/2011)

The environment and the arts meet, collide & promote social action

The Yale Herald (4/1/2011)

Yale’s Environmental Film Festival

Interview on FoxCT morning news (3/28/2011)

The New Haven Register (3/27/2011)

Reel eco-friendly: EFFY’s slate of award-winning films opens Monday

Segment on Fox 61 Morning News

Feature story in the New Haven Register

Item in the San Francisco Chronicle

Profile in Variety

Feature story in Yale Daily News

Feature story in New Haven Advocate

Feature story in the Hartford Courant

Feature story in the Yale Bulletin

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"There’s Cannes, Tribeca and Sundance. But only New Haven has EFFY." - New Haven Register

“What’s unique about this film festival is that it’s run through a university so it’s not just a film festival that’s for commerce. It’s more about an academic issue, too, so I can see why there’s a focus on issues like sustainability.” - Andrew Grace, director of Eating Alabama

"It’s not that I’m anti-environment, just anti-environmental film.... [EFFY] found at least one convert — mission accomplished." - Yale Daily News

"You are Waste Land's official favorite festival!!" - Academy Award nominated director, Lucy Walker (Waste Land, The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom)

“This has been one of the best festivals I have attended, for its organization, for its execution of its theme, for its welcoming atmosphere for filmmakers, and for the way it expanded on its films with worthwhile panels and Q&A.” - Michael Parfit, Co-Director of Saving Luna

“A roster of movies that would put many longtime festivals to shame.” - New Haven Register

Venues

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Click here for the New Haven bus schedule or click here for the Yale shuttle schedule.

Donate

EFFY was created by students and is run by students, all of whom volunteer their time to make it happen. We rely on financial and in-kind donations to cover expenses and we need your support.

Help us ensure that EFFY continues next year and beyond, and that screenings continue to be free to the community. We appreciate any support you can offer!

To donate to EFFY, please use this Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies form.

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Awards

The 2012 Grand Jury Prizes were selected by a panel of jurors whose information is to the right.

2012 EFFY Award Winners

Grand Jury Prize, Feature:
The Island President, a film about the world’s lowest-lying island nation threatened by rising sea levels.

Grand Jury Prize, Short:
663114, an animated film about the reemergence of a 66-year-old cicada moments before an earthquake and tsunami.

Special Jury Prize:
Bestiaire, a feature films that explores the boundaries between nature and humanity.

EFFY Audience Award:
The Whale, a documentary about an orca that forms a bond with people.

Click here to see past years' winners.

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The 2012 EFFY Jury

Caitlin Cromwell

Yale College Student

Caitlin is in her sophomore year as a Yale undergraduate. She was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, alongside two siblings, four dogs, two cats, a whole host of chickens, and a swarm of honeybees. An English major, Caitlin reads a lot of Wordsworth, and agrees with him when he says that "great Nature...exists in works of mighty Poets."

Jared Gilbert

Yale Divinity School, Master's Student

Jared Gilbert is a Master of Divinity candidate (2012) at Yale Divinity School (YDS), where he is the current student body president. He is preparing for urban ministry in Brooklyn as a pastor with the United Church of Christ. Advocacy for environmental causes has been a part of his professional, personal and academic life, as Communications Manager for a green architecture firm, advocacy against environmental racism, and exploration of ecological ethics and environmental theologies through study at YDS.

Ronald Gregg

Film Studies Program, Senior Lecturer and Programming Director

Ron Gregg is Director of Film Programming at the Whitney Humanities Center and Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, American Studies, and LGBT Studies at Yale. Before coming to Yale, he taught at Northwestern, Duke, the University of Chicago, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Gregg is a film curator, who has programmed special events for film festivals in Chicago, San Francisco, Johannesburg, London, and elsewhere, and in a past life, he was a digital video artist, producing work that was screened in the US and Europe.

Vanessa Lamers

School of Forestry & Environmental Studies / School of Public Health, Master's Student

Vanessa Lamers is currently pursuing a Joint Master of Public Health and Master of Forestry & Environmental Studies degree at Yale. Her current research involves studying the environmental and human health impacts of shale gas development, a portion of which is an analysis of if environmental documentaries such as "Gasland" portray scientific arguments properly. She works at the Yale Art Gallery, where she engages people of all ages (3-99) with imagery and the arts. She also serves on the board of the New Haven Land Trust, and is the Community Outreach Chair for the non-profit Slow Food Shoreline. Vanessa grew up in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, where she developed her love for all things environmental.

Will Minter

Graduate and Student Professional School, Master's Student

Will is a master's student from the UK studying East Asian studies, with a focus on Ancient Chinese literature. He loves nature, and enjoys identifying plants and birds. Before coming to Yale he was a teacher for three years, and became interested in how to reduce waste in schools and how to avoid hypocrisy when teaching about the environment.

Barry Muchnick

Quinnipiac University, Professor; School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Alum

Barry Muchnick is an environmental historian whose research and teaching revolve around the idea that history looks very different when considered in its environmental context, and that one can learn a great deal about both history and the environment by studying the two together. Currently teaching at Quinnipiac University, Barry recently completed his dissertation, “Nature’s Republic: Fresh Air Reform and The Moral Ecology of Citizenship in Turn of the Century America” in a joint Ph.D. program of his own design between Yale’s History Department and the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. He has lectured widely on British landscape painting and environmental ethics; environmental citizenship; the interconnections of science, technology, and sentiment; nature and national identity; and natural disaster.

Annie O’Sullivan

School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Master's Student

Annie O'Sullivan is working towards her master's degree in Environmental Management at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). She graduated from Williams College in 2007, where she studied biology with a focus on evolutionary ecology. Annie is most interested in environmental education at the high school level. Prior to attending F&ES, she worked for Lava Lake Lamb, a sheep ranch with a focus on conservation in Central Idaho.

Scott Rumage

School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, IT Support Technician

Scott Rumage became fixated with films when his grandmother took him to see Gigi in 1982. After getting fed up with his parents' small TV & horrible sound, he re-wired their house for a laserdisc player and surround sound in 1989. His large collection of laserdiscs, VHS tapes, DVDs, HD-DVDs, & Blurays (he totally skipped betamax) is arranged by his librarian husband, Allen Townsend, in Library of Congress Format, and is managed by their miniature piebald daschund, Dashelle.

Rachael Styer

Yale College Student

Rachael Styer is a senior Environmental Studies major at Yale College with a concentration in environmental history and policy. She has focused her research on agricultural policy history, specifically in Lancaster County, PA, and hopes to one day have a positive impact on farmland preservation and agricultural laws. In her free time she enjoys LA Times crossword puzzles, watching entire series of TV comedies and spending time with her friends and family.

Tara Varghese

School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Master's Student

Tara Varghese is in her second year at F&ES, studying water quality and resource management. She grew up in Southeast Asia and has gained a broad perspective on natural resource issues ranging from the harsh realities faced by some communities to the hope and promise experienced by others. She received degrees in Biology and English from Case Western Reserve University, and prior to arriving at Yale she worked at an environmental consulting firm in the Boston area and an NGO in Ladakh, India.

Click here to see the jury panel from last year's festival.

Sustainability

The films shown at EFFY are meant to inspire and encourage action. Use the following resources to take action that address environmental issues seen in this year's films.

Surviving Progress

Surviving Progress addresses population growth, development and sustainability

Responsible Endowments Coalition www.endowmentethics.org
Research and Degrowth degrowth.org
Publications and Reports On Overpopulation and Sustainability www.ecofuture.org

Eating Alabama

Eating Alabama addresses sustainable/local food issues and agricultural systems

Visit buyctgrown.com
Visit www.ctvegfest.org

The Last Mountain

The Last Mountain addresses mountain top removal and coal mining

Visit ilovemountains.org
Visit the film's Take Action page: thelastmountainmovie.com/take-action

Big Boys Gone Bananas!

Big Boys Gone Bananas! addresses freedom of speech, corporate litigation, and environmental filmmaking

How you can help: www.bigboysgonebananas.com/support

The Island President

The Island President addresses climate change

Support organizations that combat climate change: www.350.org, www.globalgreen.org

Chimpanzee

Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund Disney.com/conservation
Check out the Friends For Change/Disneynature’s Chimpanzee Action Kit. Click here to download.

The Whale

The Whale addresses wildlife management and the human-animal relationship

Orca Network: www.orcanetwork.org
The Center for Whale Research: www.whaleresearch.com
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society: www.wdcs.org

Not only are we interested in conveying important environmental issues to audiences via the medium of film, but we are dedicated to ensuring that our festival operations are environmentally sustainable and low-impact.  We adhere to the Yale Office of Sustainability’s event guidelines, as well as keep track of sustainability efforts to set ever increasing goals for the following year’s festival. 

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Sponsors

These generous sponsors make EFFY possible and keep the festival free for the public:

Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Films at the Whitney

The Study At Yale

Center for Business and the Environment at Yale

Environment 360

Class of 1980 Fund

Yale Film Study Center

Graduate and Professional Student Senate at Yale (GPSS)

Red Lentil Vegetarian & Vegan Restaurant

Yale Student Environmental Coalition

Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy

The Yale Office of Sustainability

Graduate Student Life @ the McDougal Center

Connecticut Vegetarian and Healthy Living Festival

Earth Day Network

Wind to Print / Phoenix Press

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Films & Events

All films are free and open to the public.

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About Us

The Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY) has become the premiere student-run festival for environmental films. The 4th annual EFFY showcases the arts through incisive, cutting edge films that raise awareness of environmental and related social issues. We aim to facilitate meaningful discourse and spark action and innovation throughout the Yale community and beyond.

All films and events are free and open to the public.

The EFFY Team

Paul Thomson

Managing Director. Paul’s interests lie in wildlife conservation and working to popularize conservation through media. He is a Master of Environmental Science student at Yale and a director of the Ewaso Lion Project, a lion research and conservation project in northern Kenya. Paul holds a BSc in Wildlife Ecology and Management from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Paul currently serves as an advisor to the Kinship Conservation Fellows program. In 2007, Paul was selected for the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders program by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Defenders of Wildlife.

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Emily Schosid

Managing Director. Emily hails from Boulder, Colorado, where she got her B.A. in Environmental Policy. She is now a second-year Master's student at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and has focused her research on the ways the arts can be used as a tool for environmental education and communication. She likes to spend the time in between classwork and watching environmental movies with writing poetry, reading excellent fiction, riding her bike, and practicing yoga.

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Richard Miron

Director of Programming. Richard is in his senior year as a Yale undergraduate, studying film, art, and environment. Growing up in Marietta, Georgia, he founded a film club at his high school, and created and organized an annual tri-county student film festival in the Greater Atlanta area (which is still thriving today). He strongly believes in using the arts as an educational and revelatory tool to help our planet, and is committed to making EFFY 2012 the best EFFY yet.

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Yan He

Director of Finance. Yan is a second-year Master of Environmental Management student at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. She was born in northwest China and grew up in Shanghai. Yan received a B.S. in Environmental Science from Fudan University in 2010. She has always enjoyed good stories. "Movies have been my best friends and shaped my personality as I grew up”. She is particularly interested in the complex interaction between human activities and the environment.

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Kendall Barbery

Kendall Barbery is a first year Master's of Environmental Science graduate student at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

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Agustín Carbó

Agustín is a Mid-Career Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. He is from Puerto Rico. Over the last 10 years, he was worked for numerous sectors as an environmental attorney in Puerto Rico and the United States, including serving as Executive Director of the San Juan Bay Estuary Program, and Chief Legal Counsel and Under Secretary of Permits at Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. He was a volunteer at the 2010 & 2011 Dallas International Film Festival.

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Lauren Graham

Lauren is a first year Master of Environmental Management student at Yale F&ES. She is interested in the intersection of water, energy and agriculture, and is focusing on water policy and environmental conflict resolution. Before arriving at Yale, Lauren worked as a green building consultant, mediator, and researcher on the impacts of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale in her native New York. She is a graduate of Stanford University, receiving a BA in International Relations and a MA in Sociology.

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Molly Greene

Molly Greene is a first year Masters of Environmental Science graduate student at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, where she focuses on critical geography and the politics of space. Before coming to Yale she received a B.S. in Community Development and Applied Economics, with a concentration on Ecological Design from the University of Vermont. She has worked as designer, builder, permaculturalist, artist, educator, and member of a circus troupe. In the future, Molly is interested in using art and writing to explore social and environmental issues.

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Angel Hertslet

After completing her B.A. in environmental studies, Angel worked as an urban forester in New Haven, a teacher in Montana, a toxic tort paralegal in NYC, and consultant to an agricultural NGO in Rwanda. Her interests are many, but of chief importance is developing environmental literacy, both on an individual and societal level. She is excited to learn more about how film serves as a medium for communicating the ways in which the environment underwrites our economy, our health, our culture, our happiness.

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Omar Malik

Omar is a first-year Master student at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. While studying at the University of California, Berkeley, he helped build the school's official filmmaking organization. His current interests lie in evolutionary processes and global climate change, and he believes that the humanities are essential to getting the public involved with the issues of our time.

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Dania Nasser

Dania Nasser is completing her master’s degree in Environmental Management at Yale University. She received her BS in Environmental Engineering. Dania has worked in patents and environmental policy. Prior to graduate school Dania worked as a consultant focusing on green buildings, water, soil and air quality.

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Phil Santiago

Phil is a first-year Master's student from New Jersey. He spent the past decade in Boston studying biology at Harvard, researching cancer in a lab at MIT and making a brief foray into the music industry. At F&ES, Phil is interested in responses to climate change. He has a total man-crush on David Attenborough.

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Gina Schrader

Gina has more than 10 years of professional experience managing domestic and international conservation campaigns. In 2011, she earned the Master of Environmental Management degree from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Prior to arriving at Yale, she managed regional wolf recovery programs at Defenders of Wildlife in Washington, DC. She also serves on the board of directors for the Red Wolf Coalition and is an alumna of the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders program.

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Kathryn Wright

Kathryn is a first year Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. She proudly hails from sunny Atlanta, Georgia. Kathryn completed her undergraduate work at the University of Pittsburgh where she earned a BSBA in Marketing and a BA in Environmental Studies. Outside of school, she is an active dancer and violinist, and is thrilled at the opportunity to combine her background in marketing with her love for the arts and the environment.

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The EFFY Team

• Paul Thomson (Managing Director)
• Emily Schosid (Managing Director)
• Richard Miron (Director of Programming)
• Yan He (Director of Finance)
• Kendall Barbery
• Agustín Carbó
• Lauren Graham
• Molly Greene
• Angel Hertslet
• Omar Malik
• Dania Nasser
• Phil Santiago
• Gina Schrader
• Kathryn Wright

Advisory Board

Eric Desatnik,

Founder

Tamar Cooper,

Co-Founder

Chandra Simon,

Senior Advisor, Former Executive Director

Mary Fischer,

Advisor

Gordon Geballe,

Associate Dean of Alumni and External Affairs, Lecturer in Urban Ecology, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

Home

Announcing the Winners of EFFY 2012

Best Feature: The Island President
Best Short: 663114
Special Jury Prize: Bestiaire
Audience Award: The Whale
Click here to read more.

New Speakers Added

More than 25 filmmakers, experts across environmental fields, Yale professors, and other special guests are attending the festival for panel discussions after the films. View them here.

Announcing the Line Up for EFFY 2012!

The wait is over. The full film line up for EFFY 2012 is here. Visit the film page or read the press release.

Download This Year's Program

Click here for PDF

Updates from Festival Films

THE TSNUAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM (EFFY 2012) and IF A TREE FALLS (EFFY 2011) were nominated for Academy Awards. Bravo, Lucy, Marshall and Sam!

Ian Cheney, Director of EFFY Grand Jury Prize winner THE CITY DARK, has been selected to receive the 17th annual Heinz Awards. Congratulations, Ian!

EFFY 2011 Winners

Read the press relesase to find out which films took home the top awards in last year's festival. Click here.

Watch

A conversation with Dan Rather: Journalism, Justice and the Environment -- from EFFY 2010.

A conversation with Van Jones at EFFY 2010:

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Click here for 2012 Film Lineup

All films free and open to the public

Presented by:

Hospitality Sponsor:

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