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Each year I see a couple of films through the DC Environmental Film Festival. Two years ago I watched LOTS of movies because they offered so many virtual screenings due to COVID-19. This year they only hand a handful of virtual screenings, and I wasn't interested in some of them to begin with, so I only watched a few in total. But the couple I saw were really good!
We've all seen documentaries about how raising animals for food is killing our planet. But this one, narrated by Kate Winslet, was the most effective yet. The film looks at all kinds of husbandry: cows, chickens, even salmon. This film focuses less on how eating meat effects your health, but it does make some impactful highlights, like interviewing Tony Robbins about his mercury poisoning or showing the pus that is in a lot of beef (ew). I already don't eat pork and beef, but I was ready to go full-on vegan after watching this film (I even added a bunch of vegan cookbooks to my Goodreads list). Very well done film, and yet another one that shows how our industrial greed supersedes our own suicide in destroying Mother Earth.
This was another film that made me want to take personal action. The documentary is about how major toilet paper brands, such as Charmin, use the trees of boreal forests to make their products, decimating the forests in much of Canada. Most of the people featured in the film are members of different Native American tribes throughout the country, and they talk about how gratitude for the earth is important in their culture, the opposite of the Judean-Christian/Western ethic. They also go more broadly than just this specific destruction of the forests: they extrapolate all the way to colonization, and how Westerners have not only hurt the earth but the native peoples as well, taking children from the families and trying to eradicate the Native cultures, which has lasted hundreds of years. It was sad to see how those Native societies have been impacted so terribly, along with the wildlife, too (especially caribou). I am definitely going to look into recycled toiled paper brands, like Seventh Generation. I don't want to literally flush those beautiful forests down the drain!
I saw this screening in person at the National Geographic in downtown DC (after enjoying a Shamrock shake from McDonald's, another annual March treat along with this film festival). I am one of the (few) people who wants to protect nature just for nature's sake, not because of what nature provides to humans. This is especially true of wildlife: the biodiversity of our planet is so amazing, and I hate that we are killing so many different kinds of animals and plants, creatures that cannot do anything about their own demise. So this film is all about protecting the Florida panther, a subset of the panther/cougar/mountain lion that historically roamed all of the Americas. Carlton Ward, Jr., a National Geographic Explorer, is the main "character" of the movie, and the film follows his adventures of setting up camera traps and trying to find these elusive cats. We also hear from other people like a local rancher and a representative from a Native tribe who speak about caring about the wildness that is left of Florida and not wanting to see it all developed, shattering any hope of saving the panther. It was sad to see some parts, like the cats hit by cars or the kittens with a neurological disease that affects their back legs, but it was also very cool to see the awesome photographs and video footage of the panthers and other animals like black bears. [SPOILER ALERT] The most moving part of the film was when, after local government officials were shown the documentary, those leaders were inspired to protect areas of land where the panther is known to be, or "wildlife corridors," and passed legislation on it. I was crying in the audience, both for the joy of that win for nature, but also for knowing that this is just a drop in the bucket of the annihilation of our planet that we continue, and will continue, to take part in.
Since this was an in-person screening, I got to hear from the photographer, the writer and director Eric Bendick, and a few others, and they discussed the process of making this film and the movie's impact (as well as answered questions from the audience). I always enjoy that part of in-person screenings, although I know several people scoot out after the movie. I cannot recommend this film enough. You can watch the film online on the Path of the Panther website, as well as sign a petition, make a donation, and take other actions to protect the Florida panther. I signed it and told all my friends and family to watch the film ASAP, and you should, too!
If you missed the festival this year, you can catch some of their "encore" screenings in a few weeks! So it's not too late!
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