From global warming to sustainable agriculture, green issues are in the news and in the classroom like never before. Artists and journalists are also using the medium of film in record numbers to help inform and educate about the environmental issues that affect the planet and every one of us who live on it. This inspiring series of green, eco-engaged and edifying films from around the world will provide teachers with important media resources and tools for the study of environmental issues at all grade levels. Interactive discussions will take place at each screening with special filmmaker guests, and study guides will be provided to teachers to help prepare students in advance and provide follow-up questions, activities and resources to help integrate each film’s content into the classroom.

All our programs are designed to be interactive experiences rather than passive viewings, so students are expected to come prepared to ask questions of filmmakers and special guests and to participate in post-film discussions and Q&A.

Upcoming Events

Children of the Amazon
Directed by Denise Zmekhol (USA/Brazil 2008)
Director Denise Zmekhol in person
Date/venue TBD
Fifteen years ago, Brazilian filmmaker Densie Zmekhol traveled to the Amazon rainforest, where she photographed the youngest members of the indigenous Surui and Negarote tribes. Returning to see what became of those children, Zmekhol is shocked at the dramatic changes in their way of life and at the devastation wreaked on the Amazon and its people. For decades the impact of outsiders has been overwhelming and irreparable: from first contact that brought fatal disease to the highway now plowing through the forest, bringing land-grabbing loggers, ranchers and massive deforestation. Today’s tribal leaders walk a treacherous line between cultural preservation and economic survival, building on the legacy of rubber tapper and activist Chico Mendes, who risked his life to preserve the forest, forging a critical alliance between its indigenous tribes and the rubber tappers who rely on its resources for their livelihood. It is a life-and-death story of development, resistance and renewal that, ultimately, affects us all.

The Garden
Directed by Scott Hamiton Kennedy (USA 2008)
Date/venue TBD
The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods, by growing their own food to feed their families and creating a community. But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis. The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin America, from countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out, we watch them organize, fight back and demand answers. The Garden has the pulse of cinema verité with the narrative pull of fiction, telling the story of the country’s largest urban farm, backroom deals, land developers, green politics, money, poverty, power and racial discord. The film explores and exposes the fault lines in American society and raises crucial and challenging questions about liberty, equality and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.

Past Events

Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai
Directed by Lisa Merton and Alan Dater (USA 2008, 80 min)
Wednesday, November 12, Landmark's Embarcadero Center Cinema
Taking Root tells the story of the Green Belt Movement of Kenya and its founder Wangari Maathai, the first environmentalist and first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The film captures Maathai’s infectious determination and unwavering courage and presents an awe-inspiring profile of her 30-year journey of courage to protect the integrally connected issues of the environment, human rights and democracy. After a screening of the documentary, director Lisa Merton participated in a Q&A with the audience of middle and high school students. After offering up greetings from Wangari herself, who she had just spoken with on the phone moments before, Merton fielded various questions about Wangari’s ongoing activist work, her relationship with the Obamas, the current political situation in Kenya and the impetus for the film.