Zero Tolerance
Eric takes a response to the recent hate crimes at the University of Illinois Springfield.
Source: the217.com
DOMA Ignored
After 10 months of waiting, the LGBT community has yet to see Obama implement the social changes he promised.
Source: the217.com
Wild & Scenic Film Festival movie list grows to 135
An episode of "First Ascent" at the Wild & Scenic festival features climber Alex Honnold.
NEVADA CITY – Films can delight, frighten, even provoke a tear or two. But they rarely cause lasting changes in viewers' behavior.
At the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival, however, "inspirational film" takes on a new meaning. Last year, for example, "Burning the Future," a film exploring mountaintop coal mining in Appalachia, inspired some young film enthusiasts to recognize the true cost of cheap energy and subsequently start turning off unnecessary lights at home.
"They had heard their parents talk about conserving energy … but now they 'got it' and started conserving energy on their own," said Debra Weistar, who leads a youth filmmaking program through which students make films that play at Wild & Scenic and also watch other festival films and interview directors.
Since it was started by the South Yuba River Citizens League as a fundraiser in 2003, Wild & Scenic has grown exponentially. Offering cinematic cautionary tales as well as beautifully photographed celebrations of the great outdoors, Wild & Scenic has ridden the waves of a green movement that has gone mainstream and films such as "An Inconvenient Truth" that have acclimated audiences to the idea of conservation lessons learned via the big screen.
Whereas the first Wild & Scenic event offered about 50 films at two venues and sold around 500 tickets, this year's festival, running Friday through Sunday, will encompass 135 films, eight venues, more than 100 guest speakers and around 5,000 tickets sold. The eighth Wild & Scenic festival also will feature a bona fide Hollywood celebrity in "Star Trek" actor Patrick Stewart, who will appear Saturday night at the historic Nevada Theatre with "Nature Propelled," an eco-adventure film he narrated.
Increased awareness of conservation issues over the past several years has "changed the way filmmakers see environmental filmmaking," festival director and co-founder Kathy Dotson said this week at the Main Street Victorian that houses the South Yuba River Citizens League. "We get way, way more submissions (than when the event started), and not just by professional filmmakers, but by amateur filmmakers who want their films to be inspirational."
Enhancing the idea of film as a call to action are the festival's host of free workshops, several of which this year will focus, like the film lineup itself, on food and water themes.
"People come from far and wide because of the sheer amount of information that gets gathered in one spot," said Weistar, who attended the festival before she and her husband, Tom, began making films with students – including one this year on a proposed Berryessa/Snow Mountain national recreation area – through their Synergia Learning Ventures nonprofit.
With lines between observer and participant happily blurred, Wild & Scenic has created a sense of community ownership that helped the festival survive into 2010 despite a troubled economy.
When area residents reacted with dismay to word that the event might not happen this year, the citizens league board decided the show would go on regardless, Dotson says. Marketing funds from Nevada County, along with a $10,000 grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences connected to festival coverage of American Indian-related issues, helped defray costs.
"We tried to cut back and make some major changes" but ended up with more films than ever, Dotson said with a smile. A festival that seems to blossom organically despite outside impediments, Wild & Scenic has been established as an indoor extension of the environmentally conscious, outdoors-oriented ethic suffusing this idyllic Sierra Nevada foothills town.
"Film is so visceral, and it just is a powerful medium" said Dotson, who screens every submission herself. "I almost have a hard time now watching films that don't have a message: 'They just spent $5 million making this film. Why? What does it tell me?' "
Source: www.sacbee.com
Stay LGBT Connected
A quick peek at first week campus events and things you don’t want to overlook.
Source: the217.com
International LGBT Rights
In this week's column, Eric takes a look at other countries' stances on LGBT issues and how they compare to the United States.
Source: the217.com
