Cinema Verde 2016 St. Augustine

For thousands of years, songbirds were regarded as messengers from the gods. Today, these creatures – woven inextricably into the fabric of our environment – are vanishing at an alarming rate. Under threat from climate change, pesticides and more, populations of hundreds of species have dipped dramatically. As scientists, activists, and bird enthusiasts investigate, amazing secrets of the bird world come to light for the first time in this acclaimed and visually thrilling documentary. Find out what’s killing our songbirds and what can be done about it. As in ancient times, songbirds may once again be carrying a message to humans – one that we ignore at our own peril.

Almost entirely self funded, this film is the director’s gift to the world. The award-winning filmmaker and producer also spent 4 years as a one­ woman ­crew exploring why and how we have inadvertently put our planet in peril. The film examines how our economic and production systems connect to climate change, species extinction, depletion of critical natural resources, and industrial control of food production. Solutions that could be implemented immediately are illustrated, from practical everyday fixes to rethinking the overarching myths of our time. While this film is intended to challenge viewers on many levels, it most of all offers hope.

Humans are literally connected to the rest of the natural world through our DNA. But today’s highly processed foods, pesticide based monoculture farming, increasing urbanization, obsession with technology, and destruction of the natural environment distance us further and further from the world we co-evolved with. The explosive growth of technology is driving profound changes in every aspect of human civilization. The benefits of our new found electronic interconnectivity are incalculable. But could the tsunami of chronic and autoimmune diseases that modern societies are experiencing be related to our increasing disconnection from nature?

A sister fights all odds to take care of her younger brother, until things fall apart and she is left with no option but to sell her dignity to save him.

This significant documentary explains the spectacular financialization of environmental conservation. If nature had a price, wouldn’t corporations and governments be less likely to destroy it? Wouldn’t putting a price on nature overturn what economist Pavan Sukhdev calls “the economic invisibility of nature”? Reality, of course, turns out to be rather more complex. What guarantees do we have that our natural inheritance will be protected? Should our ecological heritage be for sale? Is the best way to protect nature to put a price on it? Wouldn’t putting a price on nature overturn what economist Pavan Sukhdev calls “the economic invisibility of nature?”

Every year, one million tourists arrive in Boracay to get away from reality… but what is the reality for those who live there and cannot escape it? Documentary filmmaker Kat Jayme travels to Boracay, the crown jewel of the Philippines and her family’s favorite vacation spot — but this time she is not on holiday. With the help of the local children of the island, who make sandcastles for money, she discovers what life is really like on Paradise Island.

Nestled in India’s northeastern Assam district, Kaziranga National Park contains the world’s highest density of the endangered Asian one horned rhino. Long plagued by civil unrest, this park is also ground zero for poaching and illegal trade of rhhorn. The film focuses on the efforts of journalist Uttam Saikia, who begins to serve as a mediator between the park and local poachers.

When a corporate mining giant moves into a small coastal town looking for gold and talking about trickle down wealth some folks just aren't convinced.

In partnership with Birdlife International's global campaign to protect the last remaining breeding area for East Africa's flamingos and to support community livelihoods at Lake Natron, Tanzania ­ director Turk Pipkin and The Nobelity Project take a ten year look at the East Africa's greater and lesser flamingos, a migration of millions, that Sir David Attenborough called "The greatest ornithological spectacle on earth." This version of the film concludes with ways to take action in American schools and communities.

The Shimuras, mother Fukumi and daughter Yoko, devote their daily lives in a lifelong pursuit to understanding and preserving Japanese textiles that are a national treasure.

A Danish weather man quits his job to travel around the globe and meet some of the people whose lives have been turned upside down due to extreme weather events. His journey begins in the Philippines right after Hayan, the worst typhoon to ever hit the islands. The journey depicts record drought and flooding and occurs during the hottest year in history–2014.

Population growth has been left out of the climate debate because it is considered controversial, yet it is one of the most important factors. The global population has passed the 7 billion mark and India will soon overtake China as the most populous nation in the world, but one state in southern India has found the solution: Kerala educates its women. The unique history of Kerala and ‘the Kerala Model’ is outlined, using it as an example of achieving population control in developing countries without coercion. Links are highlighted within the documentary between issues such as women’s education, women’s rights and status in society, women’s health, population growth, global poverty and global food shortage, economic growth and environmental stability.

The coastal dune lakes are a unique and rare habitat explored by the film in Florida and New South Wales, Australia. In Florida, the dune lakes are home to many diverse species—some of them endangered, such as the loggerhead sea turtle, the snowy plover, and the Choctawhatchee beach mouse. The film explores what local organizations are doing to ensure this part of Florida’s natural beauty and its endangered wildlife will not be lost.

Filmed over 211 days in 9 countries and 5 five continents over 4 years, the film tells of an epic attempt to re­imagine the vast challenge of climate change through seven powerful portraits of communities on the front lines, from Montana’s Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from the coast of South India to Beijing and beyond. Interwoven with these stories of struggle is Klein’s narration, connecting the carbon in the air with the economic system that put it there. The film builds to Klein’s most controversial and exciting idea: that the existential crisis of climate change can lead us to transform our failed economic system into something radically better.

This “important film,” as described by Paul McCartney, addresses how, due to quintupling of meat consumption since 1960 in the West–where cardiovascular disease and cancer are epidemic, 65 billion land animals are slaughtered every year and 30% of all grain is fed to those animals while globally 1.8 billion people suffer starvation. The director spent 3 years traveling throughout Europe, India, and the United States to research dietary lifestyles. Meeting with expert physicians, nutritionists, veterinarians, behavioral scientists, activists, agronomists and farmers led to one solution, a simple one that restored our own health and the health of our planet: Food Matters, You Matter!

We want our food fast, convenient and cheap, but at what cost? As farms have become supersized, our environment suffers and so does the quality of our food. Food for Thought, Food for Life, a new documentary from director Susan Rockefeller (HBO’s Christopher Award­-winning documentary Making The Crooked Straight, Cinema Verde 2016 / Film Descriptions Page 3 Planet Green’s A Sea Change) explains the downsides of current agribusiness practices, and also introduces us to farmers, chefs, researchers, educators, and advocates who are providing solutions. The film is both poetic and practical; its powerful examination of the connections between our planet and our well­being is accompanied by specific strategies that protect both. With an eye towards a sustainable and abundant future, it offers inspiration for communities that are ready to make a difference.

The world is a paradise but more and more natural and manmade disasters happen. A German professor and his students invent a tiny but ingenious bag to clean polluted water after environmental catastrophes without chemicals and electricity to save people's life.

Earth Speaks is a short documentary about the Earth as Mother and the impacts of oil and gas drilling on tribal lands in the United States, particularly the Blackfeet Reservation in North Central Montana. Outside entities promise economic wealth and prosperity to territories whose unemployment rate hovers at 70%. Exploitation of people, land, and resources is not new to the Native American. How does seeing the Earth with a "spiritual eye" affect the oil and gas industry of Native Lands? Is there a connection between those views and others that are more pragmatic, and what alternative is there for a world dependent on fossil fuels?