I just returned from an amazing weekend in Nevada City, CA for the 8th Annual Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival. This was my third year attending. It is such a wonderful festival tucked away in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. There is so much to process after a weekend like this. We got there just in time to see the documentary called “No Impact Man“. I wasn’t really sure what the film was about but had heard some friends talking about this guy who lived in NYC who decided to experiment with living a No Impact life for one year. So I thought that sounds like a good pick. It turned out to be very well done and quite entertaining. I don’t want to give away too much plot but can say that I highly recommend checking this film out. Especially if you live in an urban environment. It reminded me of when I lived in San Francisco a few years back and my last year of living there. I could really relate to him. I had started exploring what it meant to live sustainably. At that time it meant being extreme and doing what he did which was to start cutting everything out in my life that was contributing to my eco-footprint. You could say I became an eco-nazi. Just ask my friends and family. I had one friend who was pregnant with her first child. She told me she was committed to shopping at Whole Foods and feeding her baby organic food but there was no way she was going to use cloth diapers and just wanted me to know that now so I wouldn’t flip out on her when I found out.
Looking back I realize just like No Impact Man how extreme I was being. Over time as I started to assess my footprint I came to realize that in order to be what I considered 100% sustainable meant basically I needed to be dead! Yikes. Not my idea of a good life. So over time I started to reintroduce things back into my life but it was different. I became more conscious of how I could have a low impact but still live a full life and to not make others around me who were not living as low of an impact feel guilty or as if we couldn’t be friends. I think that in order sometimes to make change in our lives we need to be extreme. We need to quit our not so good habits cold turkey. We need to move away and look at things from a new perspective. I thank the makers of the film No Impact Man for documenting this process and for sharing his story because I bet there are a lot of people out there who feel the same way I do and have taken similar steps in their lives but haven’t had the means to share it.
On the second day of the festival we watched a series of films that had to do with the ocean. The first was about women surfers called Women in the Waves. I went into it expecting it was going to be like Blue Crush. But hey, this is the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival. Turns out it was about the history of women surfers. It brought to light the fact that over the last 50 or so years the sport (as with most sports) was dominated by men. The filmmaker interviewed several amazing women who fell in love with surfing and made it their life. But it wasn’t easy. They were all able to overcome many trials and tribulations and eventually be accepted by the males. They pointed out that today there are about as many women surfers as there are men. I wonder how the younger women surfers of today relate to this history or are even aware of what the women before them did to pave the way for them. To me the film paralleled how I sometimes feel working in the business world and how male dominated it has always been. Makes me take a step back and give thanks to all of the women before me who took a chance to pave the way for what I have today. I even found out today that the school where my MBA program is now used to be an all male school. I had no idea. And not not only is it co-ed but the MBA program is Green. Image what it will be like for the next generation!
The next film that we saw was called Hawaii: Message in the Waves. This one was a heart wrencher that left me in tears. The film talked about the Hawaiian culture and their connection to the ecosystem of the Islands. Fast forward to today and you not only have an indigenous culture that has been separated from their culture but an ecosystem that is at the brink of dying. The most memorable scene was on a beach where a young woman had collected 1000’s of pieces of plastic that had washed up on the shore. She showed hundreds of native birds that live on this part of the island that are dying from eating the plastic and getting caught in the plastic rings and bags. It was one of those scenes that reminded my why I had chosen a low impact life a few years ago. What’s the saddest part is that all the tourists who travel to Hawaii each year because of the Islands’ beauty don’t see it. They don’t see that the coral reef that they are stepping on is dying. Or the birds on the other side of the island are suffering. But it’s not completely their fault. It isn’t really out there for people to know. The economy is reliant on tourism and there is no alternative for the Hawaiian islands to be sustainable without this. Having lived in Hawaii and visited it several time I feel as though it is one of my homes. I’m thinking if we can take the No Impact Man film and connect it with the Hawaiian film it will close the loop for people. If the people living in NYC could see where their plastic toothbrush ends up downstream (in their case probably in the Carribean Islands) where they take their cruises and vacations maybe there could be a shift.
There were two other films I saw that gave me an insight into alternative ways to raise children. The first one was called Allison’s Adventures: INCAntations and was made by a young woman whose parents were both outdoor photographers who traveled the world. When she was born they didn’t give up their careers. Instead they took her with them! She started traveling the world at the age of two months. Can you imagine? When she was old enough to go to college she opted to return to the US and go to school and see what it was like to live a “normal” life. After college (she went to film school), her dad called her and said he has an assignment for her. So off she went back into the field with her parents. The film was a very different style from all the rest which at first I found annoying but after a while I warmed up to it and actually liked how she took what could have been a serious topic and turned it into a humorous adventure. Long story short: they traveled into the mountains of Peru to find a hidden village. While they were there they met with a group of Shamans who gave them insights into where we stand in this time and how we are going to get ourselves out of the mess we have created. Believe it or not their message was LOVE! We need more LOVE. That’s it! OK, so come on everyone….we can achieve that! They were so welcoming and told the family they had been waiting for them to come and receive this message. It felt so wonderful to be sitting in a movie theater in Nevada City, CA receiving this information. They were connecting with the rest of the world through film. I hope that the young woman who created this film accomplishes her goals of continuing to work with this village and using film to help connect those of us who may not be able to travel to the mountains of Peru with them.
The last film that I saw was called Finding Farley. This was a similar story of two parents taking their child (and dog) on an adventure. These parents were a little less extreme but quite adventuresome as they decided to do a several month long canoe trip in British Columbia following the trail a naturalist and author named Farley who had done the same trip in his youth and documented his trip in several books. The main character in the film was the two year old boy. If you ever get a chance to see this film you will be amazed at how well behaved and at peace this young boy was riding each day in the canoe and discovering the great outdoors with his parents. I’m sure there were parts that were edited out in the end but I would guess not too many!
It made me realize that in the film No Impact Man, his daughter was also two years old and living in NYC in a small apt with her parents. All three of these films really showed how important it is for parents to teach their kids good habits at a young age and how adaptable they are to the situation at hand. If you teach them about nature, how to have a low impact, how to travel to far away lands and to accept other cultures there will be less to be undone later in life! So the biggest lesson I took away from the weekend is just that. For those of us who are adults, we can change our ways over time but it is the new generation of kids that we are leading and teaching that we need to be a role model for. If we are going to have a sustainable world, we need to focus on better education and passing on sustainable habits.
So there you have it. There were a few more short films I saw. These were the highlghts for me. I highly recommend finding a way to see these films and if you can, go to the festival next year in Nevada City or see if there is one coming to your area. I hear they have a traveling festival year round!
Have you seen any inspiring films lately? Know of any other cool environmental film festivals?
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