Sustainability Film Series (formerly Green Film Series) begins 10th Year!
2020 marks the 10th Year of the Green Film Series, renamed ‘Sustainability Film Series’ at the suggestion of two graduate Michigan Tech students serving on the film selection committee. Jessica Daignault (CEE PhD candidate) and Ande Myers (CFRES M.S. student) suggested the new name as they felt that it would sound more relevant to more people, including students. The other committee members agreed!
Keweenaw Co-op donates $716 to the Sustainability Film Series
The Sustainability Film Series recently received a $700 donation from the Keweenaw Coop Market & Deli as part of their Bring a Bag Campaign which donates the savings from not having to purchase paper bags for customers, to local community organizations or programs.The film series is cosponsored by the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative, Michigan Tech Great Lakes Research Center, Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Keweenaw Land Trust, MTU Dept. of Social Sciences, and MTU Sustainable Futures Institute.
2020 film schedule:
Date & Time: 7:00-8:30 pm, 3rd Thursday each month, Jan-May
Jan. 16 – Saving the Dark (57 min.)
80% of the world’s population live under light polluted skies. What do we lose when we lose sight of the stars? Excessive and improper lighting robs us of our night skies, disrupts our sleep patterns and endangers nocturnal habitats. Saving the Dark explores the need to preserve night skies and ways to combat light pollution.
Feb. 20 – Banking Nature (90 min.)
A provocative documentary that looks at efforts to monetize the natural world—and turn endangered species and threatened areas into instruments of profit. It’s a worldview that sees capital and markets not as a threat to the planet, but as its salvation—turning nature into “capital” and fundamental processes like pollination and oxygen generation into “ecosystem services.”
March 19 – Saving Snow (57 min.)
Documentary about the economic impacts of warming winters, tells about the cancelled 2017 Birkebeiner, effects on the downhill ski industry, and includes interviews with US Olympic skiers. The film follows skiers, snowmobilers, sled dog guides, and others who love and/or depend upon winter across the Midwest and Alaska who are struggling with a warming climate. (53 min.)
Discussion Facilitator: Dr. Stephen Handler, U.S. Forest Service As a Climate Change Specialist at the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, Dr. Handler’s primary project is to coordinate the Northwoods Climate Change Response Framework. Most of his work occurs in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, building partnerships, coordinating vulnerability assessments, planning outreach and education events, and working with forest managers on real-world adaptation demonstration projects. In all aspects of his work, the focus is to help people put climate information into practice. Dr. Handler works with a wide array of partners, including National Forests, state agencies, tribes, conservation organizations, private landowners, and consulting foresters.
March 24 (4-6pm ) – Between Earth & Sky (58 min.) & Panel Discussion in 202 GLRC World Water Day Event
Permafrost (permanently frozen ground) in the Arctic and Subarctic sequesters 40% of the Earth’s soil carbon. Alaska has experienced the largest regional warming of any state in the U.S. increasing 3.4oF since 1949. Combines interviews with the world’s leading scientists in climate change and arctic soils, with the day to day struggle of native Alaskans.
April 16 – Seed: The Untold Story (94 min.)
For 12,000 years, humans have been cultivating seeds and building empires. In the last century, 94% of our seed varieties have been lost. As many irreplaceable seeds are nearing extinction, high-tech industrial seed companies control the majority of the world’s remaining seeds.
May 21 – Seven Generations River (27 min.)
A new Great Lakes documentary reveals how a Native American tribe, the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi Indians in SE Michigan, is adopting scientific methods to preserve and protect its traditional culture and the river on which it relies. While never removed from their ancestral lands, the Pokagon are seeing their way of life fractured by encroaching development and land use changes.
Enjoy coffee, refreshments and facilitated discussion. (Save a dime, bring you own mug!)
Cost: FREE, $5 donation suggested
Location: G002 Hesterberg Hall, Michigan Tech Forestry Bldg.
- Archive Green Films 2011-2018 are available for a 2-week checkout for Classroom, Meetings or Home Viewing. To borrow films, contact: Joan Chadde 487-3341 or jchadde@mtu.edu at the 115 Great Lakes Research Center at Michigan Tech
Cosponsored by: Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative, Michigan Tech Great Lakes Research Center, Keweenaw Land Trust,Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Sustainable Futures Institute, and MTU Dept. of Social Sciences
