I recently had a chance to screen five documentaries that I believe are important viewing for anyone who wants to stay informed.
1. “Elemental” is a beautifully shot feature-length documentary by Gayatri Roshan and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee about three environmental activists on three different continents. Rajendra Singh is devoted to cleaning up the heavily polluted Ganges River in India. The basin provides 60 percent of the country’s water and is considered sacred. Yet, like many waterways in the U.S. and elsewhere, it’s being treated like a toilet bowl.
Eriel Deranger, a leader of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta, Canada, is also profiled in the film. She has worked to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and continues to fight for clean air and water, as well as the land rights of indigenous peoples.
The third person profiled in the film is Jay Harman in Australia. His story was the most uplifting for me because he’s working hard to invent ways to combat climate change. His engineering company, PAX Scientific, has invented a number of energy-efficient machines, and he’s hopeful that we can reverse the damage that has been done.
Most environmental documentaries leave me feeling depressed and hopeless, but “Elemental” gave me hope. The film opened in New York on Friday, May 17 and opens in other cities on May 24, 2013.
2. “State 194” is a feature-length documentary about the conflict between Palestine and Israel. There is some fascinating behind-the-scenes footage of recently resigned Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, including film of him cooking in his kitchen. Director Dan Setton paints quite a humanizing picture of the man and chronicles his plan to prove that Palestine is deserving of statehood.
Setton also follows and profiles Israeli activists who are pro-Palestinian state, and he doesn’t try to hide his desire for two states in the region. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, the documentary is an infinitely interesting account of this conflict in the last few years. The film opened in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, May 17, 2013.
3. “Scavenger Hunt” is a short documentary (just under one hour) about the highly endangered California condor. I wasn’t aware that one of the causes of their endangered status is lead poisoning from ammunition used to kill game. When the birds eat the remains of animals that have been shot by hunters, they also consume the lead fragments from the ammunition. This is a problem with other predatory birds around the world as well.
There is also some evidence that the lead gets into our soil and water and causes health problems in people. Yet, the EPA continues to refuse to ban lead-based ammunition. Directed by Matthew Podolsky and Eddie Chung, the film profiles the people involved in this mess and their efforts to save the condor population and ban the ammunition. The DVD is available for purchase on their Web site.
4. “The First 70” is about the 70 California national parks that the state has threatened to close. Filmmakers Jarratt Moody, Lauren Valentino, and Cory Browne decided to visit all 70 of the parks, and as a result, the 30-minute documentary includes some gorgeous footage of these natural landscapes.
What I learned from the film is that closing these parks is idiotic for many reasons and that it may just be more economical to keep them open than to close them. Fascinating stuff! You can buy the DVD by visiting the film’s website.
5. “Save the Farm” is a short film by Michael Kuehnert that I first saw at the Tulsa Film Festival back in 2011. It’s a heartbreaking story of a group of people growing their own food in a community garden in Los Angeles as a way to feed their families and make ends meet. Then, that land is taken from them in spite of major efforts on their part, including support from celebrities like Darryl Hannah and Alicia Silverstone.
Despite what happened to the people in Los Angeles, the urban farming movement continues. You can watch the film online (available on Netflix and Amazon Streaming), but the DVD is now available and provides features that you can’t see anywhere else, including an interview with Julia Butterfly Hill.
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