March
16-26, 2006
Social Action Media Showcase
Co-presented with the School of Communication's Center for Environmental Filmmaking, American University is proud to support the 14th Annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital. Below is a detailed program of events at AU. Seating is first come/first served and not guaranteed, so arrive early.
March
16
Buyer, Be Fair: The Promise Of Product Certification
Two Screenings: 6:00 PM & 8:00 PM
Wechsler Theater, Mary Graydon Center, Main Campus (Click here for directions and campus maps.)
 Directed by John de Graaf and produced by John de Graaf and Hana Jindrova, in association with Fox-Wilmar Productions, American University and KCTS Television, Seattle. Executive Producer Chris Palmer.
The Seattle World Trade Organization meetings and other trade gatherings have stirred powerful sentiment against globalization, but world trade is a juggernaut that will not be stopped. Is there a way to make free trade FAIR? How can retailers and consumers use their purchasing power and market choice to make the world better for people and the environment? What is the promise of product certification and labeling? And how do consumers decide whether the labels can be believed?
Director John de Draaf (Affluenza, For Earth’s Sake: The Life And Times Of David Brower) takes viewers to Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the United States and Canada, this exquisitely photographed film explores how consumers and businesses can use the market to promote social justice and environmental sustainability through product labeling, with a focus on Fair Trade coffee and Forest Stewardship Council certified wood. This powerful documentary seeks to open a dialogue about new ways to make globalization work for all of us. Narrated by Scott Simon, National Public Radio.
Q&A with filmmaker to follow screening.
March
20
Banking on Disaster
Screening & Panel Discussion, 6:30 PM, Wechsler Theater,
Mary Graydon Center
Directed by Adrian Cowell; produced by Nomad Films.
 Illuminating the role of the World Bank in the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest, this film documents the disastrous consequences of paving a road through the heart of the world’s largest rainforest in Brazil. The road through the state of Rondonia, partly financed by the World Bank, was paved to help hundreds of thousands of colonists from other areas of Brazil move into the region to farm. However, the effects on the environment have been severe, measures to protect the Indians have proven inadequate and, ironically, many of the settlers have gained very little due to poor soil and poor planning.
One of British documentarian Adrian Cowell’s most watched films, Banking on Disaster was critically important in mobilizing an international group of rainforest activists who, working with Brazilian leaders such as Chico Mendes, have succeeded in bringing about fundamental change. More>>
Can a Movie Save the Rainforest?
Discussion to follow film with filmmaker Adrian Cowell and Steve Schwartzman, Environmental Defense Fund, moderated by Pat Aufderheide, Professor and Director, Center for Social Media, School of Communication, American University.
March 21
An Evening with Chris Palmer
How to Film Sharks and Bears and Live to Tell About It: Producing Environmental and Wildlife Films
7:00 PM in the Butler Board Room, 6th Floor, Butler Pavilion
 Emmy-award-winning wildlife film producer Chris Palmer shares over 20 years of adventures filming animals in the wild for the National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation and MacGillivray Freeman Films.
Showing fascinating film footage of dolphins, bears, wolves and whales, Chris discloses the secrets of success in filming these animals in their native habitats. He also discusses the goal of his filmmaking: not merely to entertain, but to encourage action on behalf of these threatened species.
With fantastic clips and quick wit, Chris' programs always "sell-out"! Arrive early.
Read Palmer's comments from the 2004 Festival Panel Discussion on Successful Environmental Filmmaking
March 22
Finding the Story: From the Amazon to Burma and Back
Clip presentation & Discussion with Adrian Cowell*
6:00 PM, Wechlser Theater, Mary Graydon Center
 Born in Tongshan, China in 1934 and educated at Cambridge University, Adrian Cowell has been making documentary films for five decades. In 1955-56, he joined the Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition, an experience which launched his film career and his interest in Burma. The following year, he made his first foray into the rain forest of Brazil, part of a joint Oxford-Cambridge expedition of young filmmakers.
 These early trips became the seeds of Cowell's award-winning epic projects. His series Opium was filmed over an eight-year period (including nine months when he was trapped behind the lines in Burma). His ten-year chronicle of the destruction of the Brazilian rain forests during the 1980's - broadcast as the television series The Decade of Destruction - stirred the world and contributed to the international debate on how the Amazon should be developed. In 1990, The Decade of Destruction (pictured at right) was broadcast on Channel Four in Britain and on PBS FRONTLINE in the U.S.  Adrian Cowell's more recent British TV series include The Heroin Wars (pictured left). It is a follow-up to The Opium Trail (1966), The Opium Warlords (1974) and Opium (1978).
Cowell is an environmental activist, cofounder of the Television Trust for the Environment and the author of two books on Brazilian Indians, The Heart of the Forest (Knopf) and The Tribe that Hides from Man (Stein and Day). He also wrote a companion book to the TV series The Decade of Destruction (Henry Holt and Company).
*Note that this presentation is not part of the official Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital program - it is being offered in addition and is free and open to the public.
The DC Environmental Film Festival runs from
March 16-26, 2006 showcasing documentary, feature, animated, archival
and children's films at museums, libraries theaters all around DC.
Find
out more>>
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