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BOOKS ET AL.ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL

Fighting for our future
Science 06 May 2016:
Vol. 352, Issue 6286, pp. 648-653
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf9096
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ILLUSTRATION: CARL WIENS/I2IART.COM

In March 2016, the theaters, libraries, universities, and museums of
Washington, D.C., were once again the setting for the Environmental Film
Festival in the Nation's Capital, an annual event (now in its 24th year)
featuring more than 140 Earth-friendly films. A number of the 2016 selections
sought to celebrate the centennial of the U.S. National Park Service,
highlighting how parks and protected areas play a vital role in the
conservation and preservation of the Earth. Other films invited viewers to
examine the powerful relationship between humans and the places we call
home, probed the institutions driving climate policy, and revealed the
resilience of communities confronting the early effects of global warming.
Read on to learn what Science staff thought of 12 of this year's featured films.

The Babushkas of Chernobyl

Reviewed by Kelly Servick

For the past 30 years, the Ukrainian town of Pripyat has had just one official
identity: a forbidden wasteland permeated with radioactive dust. The
catastrophic explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in
1986 prompted the permanent evacuation of the entire city and all other
areas within a 30-kilometer radius. But within months, hundreds of residents,
undeterred by the risk of carcinogenic particles, had snuck back into the socalled exclusion zone to resume their lives. Now, an aging population of
roughly 100 residents, nearly all of them women, subsists by planting,
foraging, and fishing in a landscape that is slowly being reclaimed by nature.

Filmmaker Holly Morris and her team spent 16 days inside the exclusion zone
to document their lives, many of which were marked by the immediate
threats of poverty and war long before any vague risk of radiation. Her
nuanced depiction in The Babushkas of Chernobyl defines the dangers of the
exclusion zone through many eyes: the geophysicists and government
employees who are its stewards, the defiant groups of young Ukrainians who
periodically sneak in for a glimpse at their generation-defining disaster, and
three exuberant babushkas, who tromp through their contaminated
kingdom with wry humor and mind-boggling grit.

The women featured in the story don't show obvious health effects from the
exposure, and, in fact, the returned residents have tended to survive longer
on average than those who were displacedat great emotional cost. At one
point in the film, a government scientist explains that the residents choose to
stay out of ignorance and a simple lack of knowledge. But these women's
fierce attachment to their land makes it hard to dismiss their choice so easily.
Theirs is an extraordinary case study for a more commonplace issue: our
effort to weigh the risks of an increasingly inhospitable environment against
the necessity of calling it home.

The Babushkas of Chernobyl Holly Morris and Anne Bogart, directors. USA,
2015, 72 min.
Ever the Land

Reviewed by Jennifer Sills

The Thoe people, or children of the mist, of the Mori tribe have suffered at
the hands of the colonizing New Zealand government for more than a
century. But Ever the Land is not a historical film. Rather, it is the story of a
people who are ready to close the door on the troubles of the past and greet
a new era of compromise, one that will allow them to preserve their culture
and land for future generations.

The film takes place at the dawn of this new era, as a new treaty between the
Thoe and the government goes into effect. The Thoe will receive a $170
million settlement, as well as an apology for past transgressions and renewed
rights to the governance of the Te Urewera, the Thoe's native land. We join
them in community meetings, where they discuss the first investment of
funds: a new community center, designed to seamlessly integrate with nature
in accordance with the tribe's traditions. We listen as the 83-year-old
architect, who will not live to see the project completed, explains the blueprints and as his staff checks and rechecks the extensive list of local
materials. We watch the community make clay bricks, one by one, from
molds. Meanwhile, everyday life continues; children go to school, festivals
showcase traditional dance and song, mothers tell their children bedtime
stories about the god who punishes those who pollute the river, and men
gather to grill meat and share stories.

The documentary is unembellished; there are no soaring strings to imbue

events with emotion, no interviews to provide context, no titles to identify the
people shown on the screen, and no omniscient narrator. The viewer is not so
much a spectator as a witness, quietly observing the Thoe people as they
take part in the innumerable mundane moments that cumulatively bring
about change.

Finally, the official government apology is broadcast, and the community

center opens with great fanfare. Yet, even as members of the tribe celebrate
their reclaimed rights to the land, they maintain that they are not its owners,
but rather its guardians. For the Thoe, there is nothing else that brings
prosperity; it's only always ever the land.

Ever the Land Sarah Grohnert, director. New Zealand, 2015, 93 min.
Good Things Await

Reviewed by Dorie Chevlen

This Danish film paints Niels Stokholm's biodynamic farm Thorshjgaard into
a picture of hyperbolic beauty: sweeping shots of verdant landscape,
sensitive close-ups of leaves dripping with morning dew, and sumptuous
sunsets, all accompanied by goose-bump-raising vocals of an a capella choir.
First developed by philosopher Rudolf Steiner (whose thick tome on the
subject Stokholm keeps readily available for curious readers), biodynamic
farming is a holistic approach to agriculture that treats soil fertility, livestock
care, and vegetation growth as one self-sustaining organism.

Throughout the film, the octogenarian farmer Stokholm, who with his white
beard and flannel looks like a sort of agrarian Gandolf, waxes poetic about
the interconnectedness of the Earth and the importance of protecting the
farm's natural rhythms. Barely alluded to is the reality that all the animals so
lovingly raised on this utopian property are eventually slaughtered. The one
scene that even hints at this less-than-picturesque realitya brief shot of a
bright rivulet of blood coursing through the dirtis more painterly than PETAprovoking.

After watching Stokholm cradle baby calves and tenderly pluck carrots from
his chemical-free fields, it's tempting to declare his biodynamic system the
ideal agricultural model. And yet, underlying this pastoral Arcadia is the
threat of both legal and financial troubles. The Danish authorities disapprove
of the freedom Stokholm grants his cattle, which they argue poses a safety
risk. In a telling scene toward the end of the film, Stokholm recounts an
experience in which he was gored by an ox and badly injured. Speaking
nonchalantly into the camera, he defends the ox and, more shockingly,
forgives it. But, then again, not doing so would only prove the authorities
right.

If Good Things Await fails in convincing viewers of the superiority of

biodynamic farming, it's only because, for all its cinematographic power, it
cannot undo the reality that this world is one of love and beauty, yes, but also
of blood.

Good Things Await Phie Ambo, director. Denmark, 2014, 95 min.

Catching the Sun

Reviewed by Marc Lavine

Would a switch from fossil fuels to solar power create or destroy more jobs?
Would the installation of solar panels on houses and businesses empower
individuals and communities? Would it truly shift wealth from
megacorporations to the less wealthy? Although not directly asked, these
questions emerge from the stories told in Catching the Sun from filmmaker
Shalini Kantayya. The documentary begins by detailing the health and
environmental consequences of the 2012 Chevron fire and explosion in
Richmond, California. The disaster became a catalyst for the environmental
movement and shined a spotlight on the close relationship between Chevron
and the local government, as Richmond's mayor at the time, Gayle
McLaughlin, describes in the film.

Against this backdrop, Kantayya proceeds to focus on companies,

entrepreneurs, activists, and nonprofits in the United States and China who
are trying to advance the solar revolution. A key theme emerges through
interviews with Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy, who sees
solar energy as a way to be more environmentally responsible while also
creating jobs, particularly in low-income communities. We see the potential
for the latter in the work of Solar Richmond, a nonprofit that offers training
and green business ownership opportunities for low-income and
underemployed residents. One would think that this sort of win-win situation
would be politically appealing, but many barriers prevent widespread
adoption, particularly in the absence of a clear national policy.

In contrast, Wally Jiang is able to grow his Chinese solar business by 50% a
year through the support of the government. In the film, we see his attempts
to advance his business as he pursues a range of international partnerships.
Catching the Sun is thin on numbers, from how much solar technology really
costs to how well it might integrate into the electricity grid on a large scale to
a proper comparison of the successes of different countries in implementing
renewable energy. But it does show the personal side of solar energy and is
thus an important part of the broader story.

Catching the Sun Shalini Kantayya, director. USA, 2015, 74 min.

Ice and the Sky

Reviewed by Brent Grocholski

In Ice and the Sky, glaciologist Claude Lorius reflects on the history of climate
research and the future of the warming planet.
PHOTO: WILD-TOUCH
Claude Lorius arrived in Antarctica for the first time in 1956 on a trip that
lasted 16 months but hooked him into a life dedicated to returning to the
bitter cold. Ice and the Sky is a film that traces the French glaciologist's life
and discoveries. Director Luc Jacquet combines Lorius's commentary with
archival footage of his scientific expeditions that range from the bare-bones
three-man operation in 1956 to the much larger international deep-ice-drilling
collaboration at the Vostok research base decades later. Interspersed are
more recent scenes depicting the bright and brilliant landscapes of Antarctica
as Lorius, now in his 80s, makes what may be his final return to the continent.

Lorius's discoveries had a profound impact on our understanding of climate

change. He was the first to recognize that tiny gas bubbles trapped in ancient
ice tell a story of our planet's temperature in the deep past. The film
succeeds in demonstrating the strong tie between greenhouse gases like CO2
and temperature, making the connection between humans and global
warming obvious. Surprisingly, it was the discovery of radioisotopes from an
atmospheric nuclear test, not the results of his own research, that eventually
shocked Lorius into the realization that no place on Earth has escaped the
imprint of humanity.

Despite having recognized and raised the alarm about human-induced

climate change decades earlier than most, Lorius strikes an optimistic tone
about the potential for humanity to avert disaster. Man is never so sublimely
in his element than when faced with adversity, he maintains near the end of
the film. Perhaps we should expect nothing less from a man who knows the

power of teamwork to overcome what seem to be insurmountable obstacles.

Ice and the Sky Luc Jacquet, director. France, 2015, 89 min.
Women and Water

Reviewed by Carolyn Gramling

Access to clean, safe water sources remains out of reach for many women in
India.
PHOTO: WOMEN AND WATER
A young Indian woman, heavy with child, carries a bright yellow plastic urn to
the village well. Eight times a day, she hauls water from the well and carries
it home to prepare food; wash children, floors, and pots; and tend to crops.
She visits an obstetrician, who tells her she must not lift heavy things. The
woman nods, expressionless.

There are few words in the film Women and Water; only occasional quiet
narration from its subjects and the ambient sounds of their work punctuate
the often stunning visuals. But Spanish filmmaker Nocem Collado still tells a
powerful story of modern India's water woes: rivers choked with trash,
sewage, and chemical waste; mosquito-borne diseases; and women traveling
long distances to fetch water.

Four stories, each loosely centered on a different woman, anchor the film:
the expectant mother; a village woman who travels 5 hours a day to fetch
water from a distant well; a rubbish collector in the slums of Mumbai; and a
member of the untouchable caste. The film watches them unflinchingly as
they go about their often-grueling daily chores and worry about their
children's health and futures. It makes a strong case that the country's waterrelated hardships disproportionately affect women, who must find ways to
channel the water to their families.

The film ends quietly; it offers no suggestions for management, little sense of
the historical context in which these problems arose, and, consequently, little
hope for the future. One expert interviewed in the film cites Mahatma
Gandhi's famous quote, Sanitation is more important than political
independence, made nearly a century ago. In recent decades, the country
has launched several campaignsthe latest in 2014to bring clean toilets to
every one of its people and end open defecation. Sanitation is only one of the
many environmental challenges India faces. It will be, to say the least, an
uphill climb.