Educators across the country are turning to the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest (YFC) as a teaching tool for their students. YFC can teach valuable lessons in science, art, communications and enhance the overall learning experience, they say.
“This contest was a great way for [my students] to translate their research into something interesting for a lay audience,” Nancy Landrum, who teaches sustainable business management at Chicago’s Loyola University, said.
Picture this. A former drug dealer and inmate living in crime-ridden southeast Washington, DC, becomes a trained falconer. Picture the heavy leather glove, the majestic bird perched on his wrist, his eyes fixed on its eyes. Imagine he uses the connection he feels with these animals to connect with neighborhood children.
This is the film “The Falconer,” one of 137 films evaluated by 130 judges to prepare for the One Earth Film Festival, taking place March 6 to 15, 2020, at venues throughout the Chicago region.
Imaginations soared at the 2019 Young Filmmakers Workshops (YFW) with results ranging from a documentary about endangered box turtles to a humorous fantasy involving the Loch Ness monster, no longer able to hide in a dried up lake due to global warming.
With all Young Filmmakers Workshops, teachers focus content on the environment, encouraging but not requiring students to enter the Young Filmmakers Contest.
On November 20 and 21, three of Climate Reality Project’s 1600 worldwide events were held in Oak Park. The Climate Reality Project, a global non-profit organization founded by Al Gore, is tasked with explaining the science of climate change and the already-existing solutions to the current crisis to people all over the world.
The first of three “24 Hours of Reality: Truth to Action” presentations in Oak Park was held at Oak Park River Forest High School. Sponsored by the school’s Environmental Club and young leaders of It’s Our Future, the after-school talk was given by Lisa Albrecht, an experienced climate change educator and owner of the local business All Bright Solar.
Chuck Wolf, retired shareholder at Vedder Price, P.C. and current president of the Walter S. Mander Foundation, believes in the mission of the One Earth Film Festival (OEFF). The foundation he leads honors the legacy of Walter “Wally” Mander, who fled Nazi Germany to start a new life in Chicago, where he realized great success in the meatpacking industry. Part of the foundation’s mission is to support grassroots organizations that build community engagement, particularly in the areas of local and sustainable food and agriculture in Illinois.
The 2020 festival marks the foundation’s fourth year of support at the grantor level, and Wolf encourages others to support the film festival because, “Every dollar the festival receives helps attendees have a much richer and transformative experience.”
The Village of Oak Park won a green leadership award at the Chicago Area Clean Cities (CACC) coalition annual meeting on Thursday, Dec. 5. The awards are given each year to local organizations and individuals that take actions to reduce petroleum consumption and improve air quality, such as by using cleaner-burning alternative-fuel vehicles, electric vehicles (EVs) or other advanced technologies.
The Village of Oak Park received the “Best Performing Municipality” award for the many steps it is taking to lower the carbon footprint and emissions of its vehicle fleet.
