United Nations Association Film Festival: “Blue Planet, Green Planet”
Sunday, 6:30 to 10:30 p.m., $10 general admission, $7 with a student ID
The Varsity Theater on 616 Second St.
The United Nations Association Film Festival is celebrating its 11th anniversary by screening its “Blue Planet, Green Planet” films at venues across the nation throughout the next month. On Sunday, the UNAFF will be presenting four documentaries at the Varsity Theatre on 616 Second St.
The UNAFF amasses films and videos that deal with human rights, the dwindling conditions of the environment, women’s issues, protection of refugees, diseases, racism, universal education, and war and peace. The “Blue Planet, Green Planet” theme reflects the developing issues we encounter living on our “Blue Planet” and the process of finding solutions to better our lives and become a “Green Planet.“
Kilowatt Ours
In Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy policy speech in 2001, he claimed that Americans must create 1,900 new power plants by the year 2020 – roughly one new power plant per week for the next 20 years – to meet the estimated electricity demands. Kilowatt Ours, produced and directed by Jeff Barrie, challenges this statement by introducing a variety of alternatives based on conservation and renewable energy.
The film depicts many underreported side effects resulting from America’s usage of coal-generated electricity. Kilowatt Ours follows Barrie on his 18-month journey across the southeast of the United States, where more than six tons of coal are burned annually to create enough electricity for the average home. Barrie studies the social and environmental effects, such as global warming, mountain top removal, pollution and health issues.
Barrie proposes that using alternative energy sources that are available to us today could reduce these long-lasting environmental problems. Kilowatt Ours presents viewers with a plan to shift America’s energy paradigm towards conservation and renewable power.
Disappearing Frogs
Chris Bauer, producer and director of the short film Disappearing Frogs, shows us the surprising decline of the frog population due to pollution, disease and climate change. Because frogs bridge the gap between water and land habitats, they are the first indicators of any changes in our ecosystem.
Waste=Food
The theory of ecologically intelligent design asserts that manufacturers‘ products, when discarded, should either be completely recyclable in the technosphere to be reused by other products or become biodegradable remains left for the biosphere.
Waste=Food explores this theory through interviews with its leading advocates, American architect William McDonough and German ecological chemist Michael Braungart. Large corporations and governments around the world are embracing their ideas, spurring a new eco-inspired industrial revolution,
The film shows how this system uses completely nontoxic and sustainable production methods and how different corporations – including manufacturers in Switzerland, Germany, the United States and China – have adopted it. The manufacturers discuss the benefits of “eco-effectiveness” and designing eco-friendly structures as well as the cost efficiency.
Waste=Food also illustrates McDonough’s architectural designs, where buildings and structures become part of nature rather than conflict with it.
FLOW: For Love of Water
Irena Salina and Steven Starr, the director and producer of FLOW, shed light upon the water crisis that is beginning to flood our conscience. The film clarifies the importance of water and reports that we have already reached a global water supply crisis.
It highlights the local issues of the emerging global catastrophe by sharing stories that have affected people worldwide.
The film focuses on politics, pollution and human rights and ensures viewers that “the relationship between humanity and water can no longer be ignored,“ as stated by the UNAFF website.
For more information, visit unaff.org or davisvarsity.net.
SIMONE WAHNG can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.