Wild & Scenic Film Festival – Cullowhee, NC, April 18th
Featured Films:
Deep Down’s People Power: Mountain Roots (2010)
*will play at both venues
Carol Judy, who lives deep in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee, has a very special connection to the mountains. Carol digs ginseng, goldenseal, and other medicinal roots from special spots in the mountains that she knows and loves. Now, due to mountaintop removal coal mining, her ancestral mountains are threatened.
The Greatest Migration (2011)
Snake River salmon swim more than 900 miles inland and climb almost 7,000 feet to reach their spawning grounds. These iconic fish travel farther and higher than any other salmon on Earth, but a gauntlet of dams blocks their great migration and is pushing these high-altitude salmon to extinction.
An Ill Wind (2011)
*will play at both venues
The Moapa River Indian Reservation, tribal home of the Moapa Band of Paiutes, sits about 30 miles north of Las Vegas and about 300 yards from the coal ash ponds and landfills of the Reid Gardner Power Station. Coal ash is the toxic ash and sludge left at the end of the coal burning process. It’s laced with arsenic, mercury, lead and other heavy metals. It’s the second largest waste stream in America and it’s currently unregulated.
If the conditions are just wrong, coal ash picks up from Reid Gardner and moves across the desert like a toxic sandstorm sending the local residents running for their homes. The reservation has lung, heart and thyroid disease rates that are abnormally high and the power plant is currently seeking to expand its coal ash storage capability.
The film An Ill Wind tells the Paiute Indians’ story.
Wild & Scenic Film Festival – Asheville, NC, April 19th
Featured Films:
Chasing Water (2011)
Follow the Colorado River, source to sea, with photographer Pete McBride who takes an intimate look at the watershed as he attempts to follow the irrigation water that sustains his family’s Colorado ranch, down river to the sea. Traversing 1500 miles and draining seven states, the Colorado River supports over 30 million people across the southwest. It is not the longest or largest U.S. river, but it is one of the most loved and litigated in the world. Today, this resource is depleted and stressed. Follow its path with an artistic, aerial view on a personal journey to understand this national treasure. McBride teamed up with his bush-pilot father to capture unique footage and also shadowed the adventure of Jon Waterman who became the first to paddle the entire length of the river.
Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000 (2010)
This is the parallel journey of two characters: one a young woman discouraged at her future as a suburban housewife, the other a river — one beautiful and teeming with wildlife — now a hopeless, toxic sludge pit. Chronicling an important episode in U.S. environmental history, this inspirational story examines the human side of acclaimed environmental pioneer Marion Stoddart who proved that with vision and commitment, an “ordinary” person can accomplish extraordinary things.
A Liter of Light (2011)
*will play at both venues
The film documents a foundation’s project to light up a poor neighborhood through the efforts of a local man who works for them. He becomes a beacon of hope to his community when he installs hundreds of solar-powered light bulbs in his neighbor’s houses. The clever device is made from old plastic soda bottles filled with water and bleach. Many of the homeowners can barely afford electricity and because their houses stand so close to each other, they don’t really get much daylight. With a little bleach, water and good will, their days are now much, much brighter.
The Majestic Plastic Bag (2011)
*will play at both venues
Follow a plastic bag from supermarket to its final migratory destination in the Pacific Ocean gyre. Jeremy Irons narrates this mock nature documentary.
Gloop (2011)
“Gloop” is a dark fairytale that follows the meteoric rise of plastic from its inception in Leo’s gloomy laboratory 100 years ago. Told like a Brother’s Grimm fable, “Gloop” offers a poignant and lasting message about the price we pay for the convenience of plastic.
