ST. MARY LAUNCHES FIRST OTF/PIF ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL IN PICKERING
Join us May 3rd to 5th for the Ontario Teachers' Federation (OTF) and Planet in Focus (pif) Environmental Film Festival Series presented by St. Mary Catholic Secondary School and titled "Make Survival the Only Option". This is the International Year of Biodiversity and we're celebrating. A feature film will be shown on Tues., May 4 and a series of short films will be shown Wednesday May 5, along with student art and science displays and presentations from active community groups. These special presentations are aimed to inspire everyone with an open heart and mind to live their life with a smaller ecological footprint while sustaining the many gifts that we already have to enjoy.
The 7 ways that students and the environment can benefit from visiting the First Environmental Film Festival at St. Mary CSS.
- The theme is "biodiversity". all species will benefit if students become more knowledgeable about HOW to improve their lifestyle so that species can be better protected.
- Students can see how big companies like Ontario Power Generation and their own City of Pickering are making a difference to the environment, in part by preserving natural habitats and making survival of species that much easier.
- Non-profit conservation groups (Altona Forest Organization, Friends of the Rouge Watershed) will be present to teach us all about the good work that they are doing on behalf of species and spaces in order to promote biodiversity.
- Student art work will be displayed to relay a clear message about how we should but don't always meet our responsibility in caring for "the gift". The creative message is often stronger than the literal one.
- Student films will send a message about the need for better protection and less destruction and how an attitude of caring may actually win out. 6) Student design ideas will open the door to ways to improve our environment by improving our use of resources in our homes and communities.
- Dr. Nick Eyles of U of T Scarborough will teach us how Frenchman's Bay is an ecosystem under assault and how we could help it in future.
Perhaps we will all learn how to make protecting individual species and biodiversity as a whole with greater importance in our everyday activities than we are at present.
Film #1 ~ Monday, May 3 (Period 2)
Ideal for students of Global Warming and Genetics and Biodiversity
Seed Hunter (52 minutes)
Dr. Ken Street is the real-life Indiana Jones of agriculture, prospecting for ancient chick pea seeds in the once Fertile Crescent of Syria. Farmers in these isolated areas grow hearty crops with trusted local seed passed down over generations. Modern varieties created to feed the developing world in the 1960s have lead to 80% of the world's diversity being lost. Unable to withstand the impact of global warming, crops are failing - especially in drought-stricken areas. The Seed Hunter is also a collector of seeds: beginning his remarkable journey at the world's oldest gene bank in St. Petersburg , Russia and ending at the Svalbad Seed Bank in the Arctic designed to protect this green gold from future disasters.
Film #2 ~ Tuesday, May 4 (7:00 - 8:00 p.m. with displays and presentations to follow)
Ideal for students of Global Warming
The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning (52 minutes)
The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning dives straight into the epicentre of the climate change crisis - Antarctica! This documentary explores first-hand the environmental challenges facing this complex frozen continent and, by extension, the world through a series of interviews from polar experts and research scientists around the world as well as rare wildlife footage. The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning addresses the new phenomenon of suicide among penguins, the imminent rise of the world's sea level due to ice melting and illustrates the stunning new vegetation growing in the world's largest desert. This film is a hands-on exploration of the continent, its wildlife and the courageous individuals who have given up the comforts of civilization in order to save it. This is The Antarctica Challenge.
Film Set #3 ~ Wednesday, May 5th - Four "Shorts" (two showings, 7:00 to 9:00; plus presentations and displays)
Ideal for students interested in using Art to convey a powerful message, sometimes without words.
The Green Film (6 minutes)
"This will be the greenest film ever" declares the director of a film inside The Green Film. But it`s not easy being green despite all his best efforts to reduce waste. His leading lady has just flown in from Bali (with offset credits) and has green ideas of her own. This eco-comedy directed by, Andrew Williamson and written by Mark Leiren-Young hits all the politically correct points with some side swipes at your green funny bone.
'imush q'uyatl'un (Canadian Short) (4 minutes)
'Q'uyatl'un' is the Pen'lexeth' word for the hooded nudibranch - a bulbous, translucent mollusk that swims in a swaying, rhythmic manner among the kelp and eelgrass growing in the oceans along the west coast of North America. Filmmaker Karolle Wall captured this rare scene and paired it with a hypnotic chant by Pen'lexeth' elder, Florence James, exhorting the slug to overcome its troubles and go on its way. Contained in the strange, beautiful movements of this creature, we see the great contradictions in life and nature: joy and sorrow, grace and fragility, and the significance of all things, no matter how small, elusive or squishy.
So Far, So Close (25 minutes)
Spiders were the first invertebrates to walk on land according to Olivier Barbier. His documentary captures in magnificent detail this predator as the good guy, committing the most gruesome crimes. The patience required to film such different spiders in a diversity of ecosystems is rewarded with delicate shots filled with danger and disguise. If you've ever wanted to look a spider in the eye, this is your chance. This is a love letter to the spider as this fragile species disappears in a web of diminishing biodiversity spun by mankind.
Two and Two Wapikoni (3 minutes)
Two and Two measures our modern lifestyle in trees and garbage. Filmmaker Abraham Cote intercuts our world in black and white with its effect on nature, in colour. There's no dialogue, just a guitar track and a great twist at the end. In this elegant film, the images say it all.
