2019 Film Festival

4pm TCA

4pm - TCA

6pm - TCA

As the 5th season of the Taos Environmental Film Festival dawns, I now reflect on the year 2019 as I approach seven decades on planet Earth. Films in this 5th season of the film festival explore the many changes that have taken place in my lifetime.

When I first visited the Grand Canyon, circa 1959, there was no concern about pollution in the Colorado River and its tributaries. Little did I know that about fifty years later there would be fears of uranium mines and contamination entering the Colorado River and the precious waterfalls on the Havasupai Indian Reservation.

Circa 1971, I traveled to India in the era of the Indo-Pakistani War, a time before both countries possessed nuclear weapons. During the 70’s, I also traveled overland from San Diego to Costa Rica. The Vietnam War had disenchanted many youth and Costa Rica attracted travelers in search of a country without a standing army. In those days, Central America, outside of Guatemala, was generally at peace. It was another time and place, an era of “Ban the A-Bomb” and much discussion about the dangers of a “Population Bomb”.

Later, while traveling around the world in the early 80’s, I visited Japan and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. I will always remember the photographs and artwork of the devastation from the 1945 nuclear bomb attack. Now, as a result of the proliferation of nuclear bombs, we are all an endangered species.

That year I also traveled, via the Trans-Siberian Railway, across the Soviet Union. This was at the height of the Cold War and the threat of a nuclear bomb attack was real and discussed widely. Three months later, due to a Soviet miscommunication, a nuclear war was narrowly diverted.

As a result of the above experiences, in 1986, while I attended the University of California, I made a short film entitled “Hibaksha” which recorded a Japanese student reading the poetic words of a Hiroshima Hibaksha (atomic bomb survivor). The recording was saved and used in a new short film I created for the 2019 film festival, “Hibaksha Remembers”.

I am grateful for the New Yorker and their article of May 24, 2018, by Eric Schlosser, “The growing danger of the nuclear-arms race has failed to inspire much debate. Nuclear policy is no longer widely discussed in the media; the public has been told little about a subject of existential importance; and questions once passionately argued have been largely forgotten. Why do we have nuclear weapons? What they are for? How might they be used? And, at a time when a single American submarine can destroy the capital city of every country in the United Nations, how much is enough?”

Taos is 45 miles downwind from the birthplace of the nuclear bomb at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is built on Native American sacred land.

It is my hope that the 2019 film festival will give audiences a deeper appreciation of the natural beauty of our planet and honor its biodiversity. It is also my wish that the festival will help spread important knowledge that will assist us all to live together in a more peaceful and sustainable way.

Jean E. Stevens, MFA
She is a filmmaker, screenwriter, yoga practitioner (member of the Yoga Alliance and Sound Healers Association), artist and retired educator. In 2019 she became a Climate Reality Leader and is a member of the Northern New Mexico Chapter of The Climate Reality Project. She is also a great admirer of the climate change activist Greta Thunberg and ICAN, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winner, for its international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons.

Tara Waters Lumpkin, PhD

Founder and Taos resident

Tara Waters Lumpkin, PhD, Founder, Voices for Biodiversity

Tara is president of the non-profit Perception International. She founded Perception International's nonprofit project Voices for Biodiversity to explore, with the help of others, how human beings can shift their perceptions so as to learn to co-exist with other species and nature. In addition, she is an environmental and medical anthropologist who has worked as an international development consultant for UNICEF, the United States Agency for International Development, and a variety of nongovernmental organizations. Prior to international aid work, she was an environmental journalist and professor of writing and media, and has published poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, as well as having won more than half a dozen writing prizes, fellowships, and grants. At this time, she also is writing an eco- memoir.

VOICES FOR BIODIVERSITY

Our vision is a world where humanity and nature coexist in healthy ecological balance. Our mission is to enhance biodiversity conservation through storytelling, collaboration, community and advocacy.
Do you have a story to share about a human relationship with other species? Then join the Voices for Biodiversity (V4B) story-sharing community ... and be heard!

Voices for Biodiversity is a conservation-oriented nonprofit that connects people from around the world to protect biodiversity. Voices for Biodiversity’s multimedia digital platform builds community around global story-sharing, creating a gathering place for those who believe humanity’s health and well-being depend upon the health and well-being of other species.

Voices for Biodiversity focuses on sharing the voices of people everywhere, many are from those who usually would not be heard — indigenous and local peoples, students, non-experts, and more. Anyone can submit content and be published. For those not sure of their capabilities in writing and other multimedia forms, V4B is able to assign an eco-reporter who will help you share your story.

The Voices for Biodiversity concept began in 2009 when anthropologist Dr. Tara Lumpkin was studying how human nature affects Mother Nature. How people perceive, think and feel (personal philosophies and group cultures) affects how people interact with other species and ecosystems. Dr. Lumpkin thought: What better way to make people aware of this reality than through the ancient art of storytelling? And so, Voices for Biodiversity was born.

Great stories — those that not only inform but also provoke and inspire — are rare. Voices for Biodiversity’s stories help readers answer these questions:

How do my actions affect wildlife and biodiversity near me?
What can I do to improve the world for other species?
How can my story help connect the human animal with the global ecosystem?

Once engaged, Voices for Biodiversity’s storytellers and readers often move on to work in biodiversity advocacy, monitoring and action, scientific research, teaching, writing and photography. Some members go on to higher education while others switch to environmental careers. All are part of a worldwide community speaking out for biodiversity.

Patagonia Works

November 28, 2018 by Tessa Byars (Slightly modified by TEFF)

Patagonia is giving away the $10 million in unplanned cash we saw as a result of last year’s irresponsible tax cut. A tax cut that was not only a windfall for the oil and gas industry but will also open up 1.5 million acres on the coastal plain of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas exploration and drilling. The timing of this tax cut couldn’t have been worse.

Our planet is in peril because of human-caused climate disruption. Patagonia believes the scientists—including the authors of Friday’s National Climate Assessment report—and it is urgent that we all do something about it.

Since 1985, Patagonia has funded grassroots activism as part of our commitment to 1% for the Planet. This additional $10 million will go a long way for the groups defending our air, water and land. It will also include support for the regenerative organic agriculture movement, which we think will not only slow the climate crisis but could begin to reverse it.

Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, says catastrophe is here, and we need all the help we can get to address the climate crisis. He said, “Our government continues to ignore the seriousness and causes of the climate crisis. It is pure evil. We need to double down on renewable energy solutions. We need an agriculture system that supports small family farms and ranches, not one that rewards chemical companies intent on destroying our planet and poisoning our food. And we need to protect our public lands and waters because they are all we have left.”

Patagonia's Mission Statement:

Founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1973, Patagonia is based in Ventura, California. A certified B Corp, Patagonia’s mission is to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. The company is recognized internationally for its commitment to authentic product quality and environmental activism, contributing over $100 million in grants and in-kind donations to date.

We’re in business to save our homeplanet.

Our Reason for Being

At Patagonia, we appreciate that all life on earth is under threat of extinction. We aim to use the resources we have—our business, our investments, our voice and our imaginations—to do something about it.
Patagonia grew out of a small company that made tools for climbers. Alpinism remains at the heart of a worldwide business that still makes clothes for climbing—as well as for skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly fishing, mountain biking and trail running. These are silent sports. None require an engine; rarely do they deliver the cheers of a crowd. In each, reward comes in the form of hard-won grace and moments of connection with nature.

As the climate crisis deepens, we see a potential, even probable end to such moments, and so we’re fighting to save them. We donate our time, services and at least 1 percent of our sales to help hundreds of grassroots organizations all over the world so that they can remain vigilant, and protect what’s irreplaceable. At the same time, we know that we risk saving a tree only to lose the forest—a livable planet. As the loss of biodiversity, arable soils, coral reefs and fresh water all accelerate, we are doing our best to address the causes, and not just symptoms, of global warming.

Staying true to our core values during forty-plus years in business has helped us create a company we're proud to run and work for. To stay in business for at least forty more, we must defend the place we all call home.

Core Values
Our values reflect those of a business started by a band of climbers and surfers, and the minimalist style they promoted. The approach we take toward product design demonstrates a bias for simplicity and utility.

Build the best product
Our criteria for the best product rests on function, repairability, and, foremost, durability. Among the most direct ways we can limit ecological impacts is with goods that last for generations or can be recycled so the materials in them remain in use. Making the best product matters for saving the planet.

Cause no unnecessary harm
We know that our business activity—from lighting stores to dyeing shirts—is part of the problem. We work steadily to change our business practices and share what we’ve learned. But we recognize that this is not enough. We seek not only to do less harm, but more good.

Use business to protect nature
The challenges we face as a society require leadership. Once we identify a problem, we act. We embrace risk and act to protect and restore the stability, integrity and beauty of the web of life.

Not bound by convention
Our success—and much of the fun—lies in developing new ways to do things.

TAOS ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL AND SATELITE EXHIBITON AT THE PHILIP BAREISS GALLERY

Reception Saturday, April 13 from 4 to 6pm Closing Reception, April 21 from noon to 3pm

THIS EXHIBITION WILL BE IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE FILMMAKER’S BEAUTIFUL FILM, WALKING THUNDER, WHICH WILL BE SCREENED AT THE TAOS COMMUNITY AUDITORIUM ON SUNDAY, APRIL 21 AT 4PM.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S WORK WAS SEEN AT THE COP21 - PARIS 2015 EXHIBITION. ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE: LEGACY–LUCIE FOUNDATION CURATES PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTING GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE.

Curatorial Statement: Photography in the hands of great artists can transmit a visual message that can make an impact, like no other medium. A single still image is capable of saying something so profound that its effect is undeniably felt by all people. The artistic expression may be an individual one, but an image can be universally understood, and resonate around the world. The Lucie Awards is honored to have been asked to curate and present exceptional images that do just that.
For the UN Climate Change Legacy Exhibition, we have called upon renowned photographers who have dedicated their lives to documenting melting icebergs, drought, air, water, waste pollution and the undeniable effects these things have had on our planet. It is a condensed, compassionate plea, through their lenses, of the effects of climate change.
Their images may be startlingly beautiful, which can complicate the horrific message they convey, but look beyond the amazing artistry and try to understand the subliminal ideas within these framed works. Bravo to these brilliant image-makers who challenge us with their documentary record of what is taking place. It has been a privilege to curate their works for the COP21. We have been humbled by their clarity and consistent endeavour to keep shouting to the world to do something. Hossein Farmani, Chair, The Lucie Awards, Susan Baraz, Co-Chair, The Lucie Awards

THE MIGHTY GIRAFFE

by Lysander Christo, Writer/Photographer. Age 12
Silent steps of evolution, highest height of all the world.
Of all the world a graceful trot,
so fast, yet so slow through the savannah,
where the elephants trumpet and blow.
Your long purple tongue so strong, and so speechless
you eat the thorns of a tree of a foliage,
that resembles barbed wire fence.
If you could speak, you would tell us,
the ways of living in peace, with no menacing gaze.
If you could speak, my friend, you would tell us
how to revive ourselves, or what we have done.
We have blackened the earth and sullied our air,
we have killed your friends,
for nothing but the triumph of money
and the triumph of cash, no matter
who we are deep inside, we’re sorry for this.
Despite the commandments, despite the laws,
we have done what we wish and transformed
rainforests to deserts and savannahs to dust,
we have escaped the laws of nature,
the true laws that keep all animals from destroying the earth. From your unjudging heights
you look down upon us.
You see so much that you know the answers,
you are the messenger of knowledge itself. You are the mighty giraffe.

Published Nov. 29, 2017: BIODIVERSITY.ORG

TAOS ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL A SOMOS BENEFIT

CELEBRATING EARTH DAY APRIL 22 at 7pm

108 Civic Plaza Drive, Taos NM 87571 575-758-0081

Will Barnes

Will Barnes was raised in Colorado and has lived in New Mexico for 24 years. He is an ecologist and botanist, and teaches middle school language arts and science in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1998 and 1999, he was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize while studying for his masters in biology at the University of New Mexico. He has recent poems in the CutBank Review and has just completed his first manuscript of poems. He lives in Santa Fe with his wife and three children and is thrilled to contribute to the Taos Journal of Poetry and Art. The Ledgerbook, with author Will Barnes’ poetry, found diary entries, and photographs, encourages a lyric exploration of landscape, memory, and identity in the American West. Drawing from the indigenous traditions of record keeping on the western plains—winter count, ledger art, diary making, letter writing, scientific description and journalism—The Ledgerbook takes the motif of writing over and on top of the stories and texts that make up the history of the American West to write its own story of identity and the experience of dissolution. These poems are lyric, ambitious, and multi-faceted. Using collage and erasure, The Ledgerbook then surely creates polyphony of voices through which a personal reconciliation of the beauty and violence of the West might take place. Underneath all of it, always, is the land itself.

Olivia Romos

Olivia Romos is a farmer, poet and water rights activist from Taos, New Mexico. She earned her dual Bachelor’s degrees in English and Chicana/o Studies from the University of New Mexico in 2015. Currently, she is the Communications and Outreach Coordinator at the New Mexico Acequia Association, a grassroots, statewide organization that defends water rights and cultivates an inter-generational movement to protect water resources and educate people about the various aspects of acequia systems. Olivia is also a recognized spoken word artist. In 2011, she was titled the New Mexico State Slam Poetry Champion. Olivia is a bilingual poet whose language is immersed in the regional Manito dialect and culture of Northern New Mexico. Olivia intentionally focuses her activism and poetry to educate and mobilize New Mexicans around the risks and uncertainties of their natural resources. She was featured in the Western Folklife Center’s poem-film Series.

Anne MacNaughton

Anne MacNaughton originated the Taos High School’s award-winning Poetry Slam Team --the first one in the nation specifically for teenagers-- and established the very first State Championship Poetry Slam for secondary students. She continues to work with youth through workshops and mentorships.
Along with the poet Peter Rabbit and eight others, she co-founded S.O.M.O.S., the Taos Poetry Circus and the Poetry Education Project, later creating the spin off non-profits Minor Heron and The World Poetry Bout Association. She still produces poetry shows through Lucid Performance, a company she started with Rabbit. https://www.lucidperformance.com/ Anne MacNaughton holds a B.A. in history and government from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in English from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque.

Her work has been published in many journals and anthologies, including The Best Poetry of 1989 (Scribners 1990), Robert Bly’s The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart (HarperCollins 1992), and In Company: an Anthology of New Mexico Poets after 1960 (UNM Press 2004). The New Mexico Poetry Renaissance (Red Crane, 1994), The Ecstatic Moment: The Best of Libido (Dell 1997), Written with a Spoon (Sherman Asher); Thus Spake the Corpse: (Black Sparrow 2000); XY Files (Sherman Asher, 2001), Written with a Spoon (Sherman Asher, 1995)

and The Hell with Love Poems to Mend a Broken Heart (Time-Warner, 2002) among others.
Her poems have appeared in numerous literary journals, small magazines and periodicals including several volumes of Adobe Walls, Blue Mesa Review, Exquisite Corpse, The Taos Review, Libido, Crosswinds, Ant Farm,

Esprit, la Ventana, ARTlines, Taos Magazine, Seen From Space, Alma, Wordworks, The Taos News, Albuquerque Poetry Festival Anthology, 51% Magazine, Desnudas del desierto, Venus Envy, Howl, and others.

VISUAL ART

Although MacNaughton considers herself primarily self-taught, as a child she was able to study briefly under Lowell Collins on scholarship to what is now the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and in her youth she took classes now and then in various university art programs. She has participated in several group shows in Taos and her illustrations have been printed in publications from Baton Rouge to Taos. She has won several awards, including placing at Taos County Fairs in the 1980s and an honorable mention from the Museum of Fine Arts as a teenager.

Alexandra Grajeda

Press April 4 THE TAOS ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL 2019 OFFICIAL SELECTIONS:

The Taos Environmental Film Festival is celebrating its 5th edition beginning on Thursday, April 18 to Friday, April 22. The film festival prides itself in presenting beautiful, thought provoking and award winning films by professional filmmakers who seek truth and scientific knowledge regarding our natural environment and all its inhabitants. This year the festival is excited to present films that explore and search for inner and outer peace while also exploring various natural environments, its diverse inhabitants and the challenges posed to the world’s biodiversity.

With nuclear proliferation resurfacing and a resurgence of military spending it is important that we honor the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winner, ICAN (international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons) in their work to help our endangered species. Each year that passes it has become apparent that humanity must find a way towards world peace.

Such films as A Bold Peace, directed by Matthew Eddy and Michael Dreiling, takes the viewer to Costa Rica. It is a country that has many lessons the USA, and various countries, can learn from. The film juxtaposes the national policy of demilitarization (since 1948-49) with their investment in education, health, and the environment.
https://aboldpeace.com
TRT: 57 min; 2016

Another film, A Quest for Meaning, directed by Marc de la Menardiere and Nathaniel Coste, takes the viewer from India to Guatemala, the United States and across Europe to discover the message of activists, biologists, philosophers and guardians of ancestral traditions from across the world.
https://aquestformeaning-themovie.com/
TRT: 88 min; 2015

Plastic Paradise As a result of humankind’s massive technological and industrial revolution we are now witnessing a collective existential crisis. The multi-award winning film, Plastic Paradise, takes viewers thousands of miles away from civilization to Midway Atoll. It is one of the most remote places on earth. And yet its become ground zero for The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Journalist/filmmaker Angela Sun travels on a personal journey of discovery to uncover this mysterious phenomenon. Along the way she meets scientists, researchers, influencers, and volunteers who shed light on the effects of our rapid plastic consumption.
https://plasticparadisemovie.com
TRT: 95 min; 2013;

The Serengeti Rules, directed by Nicholas Brown, is one of the most important but untold science stories of our time—a tale with profound implications for the fate of life on our planet. Beginning in the 1960’2, a small band of young scientists headed out into the wilderness driven by an insatiable curiosity about how nature works. Immersed in some of the most remote and spectacular places on Earth—from the majestic Serengeti to the Amazon jungle; from the Arctic Ocean to Pacific tide pools—they discovered a single set of rules that govern all life. These five unsung heroes of modern ecology share the stories of their adventures; reveal how their pioneering work flipped our view of nature on its head, and give us a chance to re-imagine the world as it could and should be.
https://www.theserengetirules.com
TRT: 84 min; 2018;

The Map to Paradise, directed by Danielle Ryan and James Sherwood, is an adventure- filled and spectacularly gorgeous tale about the birth of the global movement to protect the sea. From underwater worlds of ice to glistening coral sanctuaries, discover what it takes to build a movement and to create positive change. Filmed across six continents, the filmmakers have set out to challenge the mainstream narrative of hard-hitting environmental documentaries with a “doom and gloom” message and replace it with one of hope and courage. Along the way, we meet a prince, a president, a pirate, and also an island chief—among others—who are all playing a role in the quest to save the planet.
https://www.themaptoparadise.com
TRT 95 min; 2018;

Hiro’s Table, directed by Taos resident Lynn Hamrick is a documentary portrait of master chef Hiroli Obayashi and his wife Yasyo over a sixtenn-year span as they managed the day to day operation of their intimate Mom and Pop restaurant, Hirozen Gourmet, nestled in the unlikely corner of a West Hollywood strip mall. The film is a tribue to the subtleties of Hiro’s unique culinary vision and the perseverance it took for his family to transition from immigrant business owners to established restauranteurs with all the joys and sorrows that entailed. Like many of the small eateries in hidden spots in Los Angeles championed by Jonathan Gold, Hirozen Gourmet had a loyal following of regulars, foodies, chefs and food critics who are interviewed in the film.
https://hiros-table.com
TRT: 55min; 2018

Humpback Whales directed by Greg MacGillivray and narrated by two-time Golden Globe nominee Ewan McGregor is an extraordinary journey into the mysterious world of one of nature’s most awe-inspiring marine mammals. Set in the spectacular waters of Alaska, Hawaii and Tonga, this ocean adventure offer audiences an up close look at how these whales communicate, sing, feed, play and take care of their young. Humpbacks are found in every ocean on earth and were nearly driven to extinction 50 years ago, but today are making a slow but remarkable recovery. Join a team of researchers as they unlock the secrets of the humpback and find out why humpbacks are the most acrobatic of all whales, why they sing their haunting songs, and why these intelligent, 55-foot, 50- ton animals migrate up to 10,000 miles round-trip every year.
https://macgillivrayfreeman.com/project/humpback-whales/
TRT: 39 min; 2015

Journey into Amazing Caves A scientific exploration into some of the world’s most remote, unexplored caves, Journey into Amazing Caves, directed by Stephen Judson, follows the story of two cavers, Dr. Hazel Barton and Nancy Aulenbach, as they search for extreme living organisms in the ice caves of Greenland, the underwater caves of the Yucatan Peninsula, and the earth caves of the Little Grand Canyon.
https://macgillivrayfreeman.com/project/journey-into-amazing-caves
TRT: 38 min; 2001

The River and the Wall A spectacularly photographed film is The River and the Wall, directed by Ben Masters. The film follows five friends on an immersive adventure through the unknown wilds of the Texas borderlands as they travel 1,200 miles from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico on horses, mountain bikes, and canoes along the Rio Grande River. Conservation filmmaker Ben Masters realizes the urgency of documenting the last remaining wilderness in Texas as the threat of new border wall construction looms ahead. Masters recruits NatGeo Explorer Filipe DeAndrade, ornithologist Heather Mackey, river guide Austin Alvarado, and conservationist Jay Kleberg join him on the two-and-a-half month journey down 1,200 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. They set out to document the borderlands and explore the potential impacts of a wall on the natural environment, but as the wilderness gives way to the more populated and heavily trafficked Lower Rio Grande Valley, they come face-to-face with the human side of the immigration debate and enter uncharted emotional waters.
https://theriverandthewall.com
TRT: 97 min; 2018

Blue Heart Patagonia’s latest documentary film, Blue Heart, is directed by Britton Caillouette and depicts the fight to protect Europe’s last wild rivers and brings international awareness to a potential environmental disaster in Europe. The Balkan Peninsula between Slovenia and Albania is home to the last wild rivers in Europe where more than 3,000 proposed hydropower projects threaten to destroy the culture and ecology of this forgotten region. If fierce local opposition fails, 20,000 kilometers of pristine sparkling creeks, raging tributaries and swift, braided currents of the last undammed watersheds on the continent will be forever damaged by thousands of dams and diversions—at a time when dams are being decommissioned throughout much of the developed world. Local activists living along the shores of these rivers and European NGOs such as RiverWatch are fighting against government corruption and foreign investment. Blue Heart documents the battle to protect Albania’s Vjosa River, the largest undammed river in Europe; the effort to save the endangered Balkan Lynx in Macedonia, and the months-long fight by women of Kruščica,Bosnia and Herzegovina, who are protesting day and night to save their community’s only source of drinking water.
www.patagonia.com/blueheart
TRT: 43 min; 2018

Nasario Remembers is a documentary directed by Santa Fe resident, Shebana Coelho, about landscape and memory, set in the ghost towns of New Mexico’s Rio Puerco valley and featuring acclaimed oral historian Nassario Garcia. The film combines footage of Dr. Garcia and his stories amid ruins and mesas with archival photos, and lyric scenes that evoke the storytelling spirits of the valley. Together, these elements create a deeply-felt cinematic encounter between teller and tale, what is gone and what is left of memory, and coming home to the story that only you can tell. Dr. Nasario Garcia received a 2012 Lifetime Acihievement Award from the Historical Society of New Mexico for his “unparalleled” worik in the “preservation of Hispanic language, culture and folklore in New Mexico. https://www.nasarioremembers.com/home.html
TRT: 56 min; 2017

Silent Forests is directed, written and edited by Mariah Wilson. The film is an intimate portrait of conservationists and activistswho are fighting against all odds to stop forest elephant poachingin Africa's Congo Basin region. This film takes viewers to thefrontlines of conservation using an immersive, vérite-́ style approach. SILENT FORESTS is a character-driven and cinematic look at the battle for the future of the forest elephant. We take advantage of Congo and Cameroon’s natural beauty by showcasing time lapses, slider “dolly” shots, wildlife scenics, and aerials to help make this film as cinematically captivating as possible. The storyline is driven by scenes and vérité moments with our main characters. These scenes are buttressed by explanations from either on-the-fly interviews or sit-down interviews with those characters, who speak to the big picture of what is happening right now in the central Africa... and what is at stake if they aren’t able to halt this ivory highway.
TRT: 109 min; 2018

The Human Element We humans are a force of nature. At the same time human activities alter the basic elements of life-earth, air, water, and fire- those elements change human life. The Human Element is an arresting new documentary from the producers of Racing Extinction, The Cove and Chasing Ice,environmental photographer James Balog captures the lives of everyday Americans on the front lines of climate change. With rare compassion and heart, The Human Element’scoast- to-coast series of captivating stories inspires us to reevaluate our relationship with natural world.
https://thehumanelementmovie.com
TRT: 76 min 2018

Dii’go to Baahaane: Four Stories About Water (accents on Navajo words not present due to keyboard) Co-Directed by Deborah Begel (reports for New Mexico’s KSFR) and David Lindblom (Northern NM Community College Media Arts Professor), Navajo with English subtitles. This documentaryis a four part meditation on the Navajo people’s problems with contaminated drinking water. Four Stories About Water opens with a waterfall of people who reveal the scope of water contamination problems on Navajo lands, from the health problems that were likely caused by uranium tailings left uncovered to the view of water as “a spiritual element’ to the fact that 30% of the Navajo people don’t have access to safe water. 2012,
TRT: 33 min.

Too Precious to Mine, 2017, director Justin Clifton. The Grand Canyon is an irreplaceable natural treasure that draws over 5.5 million visitors to the park each year. Yet, irresponsibly operated uranium mines located on federal public land just miles from the North and South Rims threatens to permanently pollute the Grand Canyon landscape and the greater Colorado River.
TRT: 10 min.

Tale of a Toxic Nation, 2012, Director, Louis Berry. It is the story of a nation rich in resources but weak in political influence. The Navajo Reservation has been left with over 500 abandoned uranium mines, toxic surroundings and an impossible clean up. The story has never been more relevant under an administration threatening to restart uranium mining.
TRT: 13 min; 2018

Half Life: The Story of America’ s Last Uranium, Director: Justin Clifton. In southeastern Utah, not far from many of America’s famed national parks, lies America’s last remaining uranium mill. After more than 36 years in operation, the leaders of the nearby Ute Mountain Tribe’s White Mesa community worry that las regulations and aging infrastructure are putting their water supply, and way of life, at risk.
TRT:12 min; 2016

Walking Thunder, Directed by Santa Fe residents, Cyril Christo & Marie Wilkinson and narrated by their son Lysander. The filmmakers travel with their young son Lysander across East Africa, filming over the course of ten years as they observe the role of the elephant and its own rapidly changing reality. Walking Thunder presents a unique way of engaging a broad audience on these topics, telling a story through a family’s perspective and a child’s eyes. The directors have published photography books and articles, and have lectured and exhibited artwork on the subject internationally- but they see documentary as a way to engage audiences on a wider scale and with greater emotional impact.
TRT: 94 min; 2018

I Am Nature, directed by Elke Duerr who divides her time between New Mexico, Montana and Europe. I Am Nature : You are human nature, nature in human form. You humans are the outside Earth, animated Earth. What befall one us, befalls us all. Now the time has come for reciprocity, for caring for me and yourselves, for giving and receiving, for healing All Life on this planet.
TRT: 8 min; 2019

Anthem for the Amazon, Anthem for the Amazon is a collaboration to unite the world in a compelling call to action to save the world’s greatest rainforest through the universal language of music. 500 children from 50 different countries around the world came together to sing this global anthem and stand up for the Amazon rainforest. We hope you’ll sing along with them.
Amazon Aid Foundation
TRT 5 min 6min

An Earth Day Proclamation by the Governor of New Mexico and the Mayor of Taos will be read at the beginning and during the film festival, which is April 22, 2019.

“In nature nothing exists alone.” Rachel Carson