The following is a guest post by boardmember Nicole Dvorak
It’s a lot to take in: 190 films, in two weeks. And these aren’t just any films. It’s not called the “History of American Literature Film Fest in the Nation’s Capital.” The focus isn’t international politics. Or technology.
As a college student, if someone had told me there was such a thing as an entire film fest dedicated to environmental films, I would have stood in disbelief. It was all I could do to get someone to recycle a plastic bottle or for me to talk about carbon dioxide without being thought of as a loony outlier. I wonder what it would have been like if all of us “fighting against the man” enviros had known we weren’t as alone as we felt.
So today, we’re lucky enough to live in a world, and a city, where in 2013 we could pick from an eco-smorgasbord of flicks, brought to you by the unwavering staff and sponsors of the Environmental Film Fest in the Nation’s Capital.
Picking from the 206 different couches at IKEA would be a heck of a lot easier than picking which of these 190 beauties, at a staggering 75 different venues, would win our heart and our evening. Again, how truly lucky are we to be given such choices!
For the film The Carbon Rush, DC EcoWomen invited our members to see the film together and have a discussion afterwards. The film zeros in on carbon credits and the destructive impact that they are having in some parts of the world.
Our post-film discussion coterie was curious, enlightened, and inspired to do…well, something about what we saw in the film. But at best we had only a few ideas on what we THINK might help, and what we could do. As with all the other environmental crises that we face, we wondered: What can we do to help?
We are skilled, anything-but-faint-hearted enviros, but we agree the number and magnitude of the issues we face is still truly overwhelming. We are dedicated to re-usable water bottles, local & organic food, being fanatical recyclers….and we spend all day at work fighting one enviro-battle after another, but how are we ALSO going to fix a demented carbon credit scheme for the sake of people in Panama? Or for people in India? For Honduras or Brazil? For everyone?
Our intentions are pure and good. And that we have the Environmental Film Fest in the Nation’s Capital as a vast educational resource is incredible. We now have to figure out what we do next, and how we can do it. The answer will probably include the word “together.” Let’s think creatively. And maybe…we can even make a film about it. 🙂
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