NEWPORT BEACH FILM FEST ENVIRONMENTAL FILM SERIES
The Environmental Film Series presented by the Newport Beach Film Festival from April 25-May 2 features a curated program of documentary films designed to raise awareness of important issues affecting the planet. The program explores a wide array of "eco" and "green" topics, including water quality, sustainability, natural resource preservation, animal protection, ecosystems, pollution, public health issues, citizen activism, and the adverse effects of industrialized agricultural practices.
Films in the Environmental Film Series will screen at Edwards Big Newport, The LOT in Fashion Island, Regency Lido Theater and The Triangle.
Three films in the Environment Film Series explore the negative impacts that industrialization, pesticides, and factory farming have on the quality of life of humans, animals and beneficial insects. The films depict how geological transforming activities and pollution generating corporate entities, such as mining, unsustainable animal and agricultural practices, pose a severe threat to our food system, water and air quality and precious natural resources.
A cinematic meditation on humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet, the visually stunning documentary Anthropocene follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group who, after nearly 10 years of research, are arguing that the evidence shows the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century, as a result of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth. The Pollinators tells the story of how our very food system is under threat and rests on the wings of honey bees and the commercial beekeepers that move them from farm to orchard pollinating crops that native pollinators can no longer adequately accomplish. Right to Harm presents an exposé on the public health impact of factory farming across the United States, told through the eyes of residents in five rural communities.
From Antarctic Icebergs and to the Indian Ocean to the Sea of Cortez, the Environmental Film Series spotlights two films about the international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and their quest to protect precious sea life from greedy and dangerous poachers. Winner of the Audience Award (World Cinema - Documentary) at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Sea of Shadows chronicles a group of brilliant scientists, high-tech activists, investigative journalists and courageous undercover agents in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, who attempt to rescue the most endangered and elusive whale on Earth while battling the vicious Mexican drug cartels and Chinese traffickers whose destructive poaching methods are threatening the region’s marine life. Chasing the Thunder follows the unbelievable story of the activist organization Sea Shepherd’s 110-day pursuit of the world’s most notorious poaching vessel, The Thunder.
From the mountain ranges of Yukon, Canada to the U.S.-Mexico border, two films in the Environmental Film Series take viewers on outdoor adventures into environmentally sensitive regions. Return to Mount Kennedy sits at the intersection of politics, human rights, environmentalism and adventure. Following the footsteps of Senator Robert Kennedy and mountaineer Jim Whittaker, an ambitious team of young, amateur mountain climbers embark on an expedition to tackle the remote Mountain Kennedy, one of the highest peaks in the world. The River and the Wall follows five friends on an immersive adventure through the unknown wilds of the Texas borderlands as they set out to document the borderlands and explore the potential impacts of a wall on the natural environment
The Environmental Film Series is supported by Community Partners including Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Environmental Nature Center, Oceana, Ocean Institute, The Whale Sanctuary Project, SPON, Surfrider, Newport Bay Conservancy, Orange County Coastkeeper.
