Event: Re-engineering Cultures to Save Human Civilization

Event: Pesticides, politics, and progress?

Event: The 8th Annual Fall 2012 Film Series

AU’s Center for Environmental Filmmaking

and Filmmakers for Conservation

Present

The 8th Annual Fall 2012 Film Series

Hosted by Chris Palmer and Justine Schmidt

Free and Open to the Public

No Reservations Required

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Wechsler Theater, 3^rd Floor, Mary Graydon Center

American University

4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016-8017

Directions: http://www.american.edu/maps/

Metro: Tenleytown/AU, shuttle bus service bus service to AU

For more information, please contact:

Chris Palmer (202)885-3408 or palmer@american.edu

Or visit environmentalfilm.org or filmmakersforconservation.org

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 at 7 PM
Death at SeaWorld
Do killer whales belong in captivity? Investigative journalist David Kirby’s gripping new book, Death at SeaWorld: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity, will form the basis of this presentation. David Kirby, Dr. Naomi Rose (Senior Scientist  at Humane Society International), and Courtney Vail (Campaign Director for the Whales and Dolphin Conservation Society) will discuss the consequences of keeping large, intelligent, free-ranging orcas confined to tanks for the delight of tourists.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2 at 7 PM
Lessons from the Deep: What the Oceans are Telling Us and Why it Matters
From a tiny sub 2,000 feet below the Bering Sea, to a living time machine teeming with sharks in the underwater wilds of Cuba, to the world's most remote inhabited island, Dr. David E. Guggenheim, the "Ocean Doctor" - recently featured on 60 MINUTES - takes us on a multimedia underwater journey, up close to breathtaking marine life we are just beginning to understand in a realm that has barely been explored, and shares the latest insights on the work to protect and restore our oceans.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23 at 7 PM
Alexandra Cousteau’s Expedition Blue Planet
A National Geographic “Emerging Explorer,” filmmaker, and globally recognized advocate on water issues, Alexandra Cousteau continues the work of her renowned grandfather Jacques-Yves Cousteau and her father Phillipe Cousteau, Sr. Tonight, Alexandra talks about her stories and films from expeditions across North America and throughout the world.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30 at 7 PM
Stories from the Wilderness
SOC grad film students Sarah Gulick and Sylvia Johnson were on a mission last year: to go into National Park Service Wilderness areas and bring back stories from the wild. Working with the National Park Service's Wilderness Stewardship division and the Harpers Ferry Design Center through a special arrangement with SOC's Center for Environmental Filmmaking, Sylvia and Sarah braved the elements and brought back six stories from the wilderness. Join Sarah and Sylvia along with the National Park Service's Chief of Wilderness Stewardship, Garry Oye, and Producer Chuck Dunkerly for a screening of these short films and discussion about the role of film in protecting wild lands.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6 at 7 PM
Classroom in the Wild: Film Screening Followed by Q&A
Come and hear first-hand about the extraordinary experiences of Classroom in the Wild in the Chesapeake Bay and Alaska. This past year, students ventured into the outdoors to produce original short films. In a presentation of photos, videos, and student accounts, you will learn more about these unique courses as well as future opportunities to practice environmental filmmaking with Classroom in the Wild in 2013.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13 at 7 PM
National Geographic’s Television Film War Elephants
One of National Geographic’s top writer/producers, David Hamlin, shows clips from War Elephants and discusses the stories behind the film. In Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, elephants are in crisis. Years of civil war and ivory poaching have left them frightened and hostile toward humans. The world’s foremost elephant researcher Dr. Joyce Poole works to build trust and retrain the animals away from their violent behavior.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11 at 7 PM
Sneak preview of two documentaries produced by AU students for MPT and PBS
The documentaries - conceived, written, produced, shot, directed and edited - by students in Environmental & Wildlife Production (COMM 568), will air during MPT's Chesapeake Bay Week next April.  The films focus on net-zero housing and the health of the Potomac River. Professor Sandy Cannon-Brown and her students will introduce the films and answer questions.

Sept 18, David Hunter: An Introduction to International Environmental Law

Tomorrow: Neil Chambers @ AU

Waking the Green Tiger - March 19 @ AU

AU’s Center for Environmental Filmmaking on the Chesapeake Bay!

AU’s Center for Environmental Filmmaking is excited to offer a one-week program on the Chesapeake Bay March 11-17.

Registration is beginning now and is open to AU students as well as the public. The course is limited to 12 people.

This week-long, non-credit class is for both first-time and experienced filmmakers and photographers who have an interest in the environment, natural history, and the outdoors. 

Led by award-winning filmmaker and AU MFA alum Danny Ledonne, students learn how to prepare for and organize a shoot, how to shoot the footage necessary to tell a compelling story, how to edit a polished project, and how to use tapeless HD cameras and supporting sound gear.

The program serves as an enjoyable educational experience for aspiring filmmakers, photographers, and anyone interested in communicating environmental issues through media.

For more information and for a copy of the syllabus, please write to Professor Chris Palmer at palmer@american.edu.

MTR Event: Tomorrow, Tuesday Nov. 29, 8pm

ramps at au

Nov. 29: Showing of "Hawks in the City" & "Entangled"

Colliding Civilizations—Humans vs. Wildlife:

Presented by Maggie Stogner, Aditi Desai, and Kai Fang

On Tuesday, November 29 at 7 pm in the Wechsler Theater

How do our ever-increasing urbanization, population growth, and cultural traditions impact the wildlife community around us? Join us in viewing two documentaries that explore this question. Hawks in the City, presented by Executive Producer Maggie Burnette Stogner, follows the exploits of two red-tailed hawks struggling to raise a family in the concrete environs of Philadelphia. Entangled, a documentary work-in-progress by MFA candidates Aditi Desai and Kai Fang, takes a look at different perspectives on an age old annual kite flying festival in India involving joy, suffering, and death. The producers will introduce the films and answer questions.

Wechsler Theater, 3^rd Floor, Mary Graydon Center

American University

4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016-8017

Directions: http://www.american.edu/maps/

Metro: Tenleytown/AU, shuttle bus service to AU

Rethinking pesticide-drenched, manicured lawns: TOMORROW at 7 pm in Wechsler

Walking the Talk:

Environmental Filmmaker Takes her Subject Seriously

On  Tuesday, November 8 at 7 pm in the Wechsler Theater

Catherine Zimmerman is a filmmaker and sustainable landscape designer based in the Washington, DC area. She has recently authored Urban & Suburban Meadows: Bringing Meadowscaping to Big and Small Spaces and is putting the finishing touches on a companion video. The book, video, and Catherine’s Meadow Project are her efforts to help people rethink their pesticide-ridden, manicured, monoculture lawns and return their land to beautiful, natural habitats for native plants and wildlife.

Wechsler Theater, 3^rd Floor, Mary Graydon Center

American University

4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016-8017

Spring 2012 Class with Professor Wapner

SPRING COURSE 2012

SIS-315.001
CONTEMPLATION AND POLITICAL CHANGE
(Tuesdays 11:45-2:25)

Professor Paul Wapner

(an advanced undergraduate course for students committed to environmental protection;
Prerequisite: SIS-388, “International Environmental Politics” or permission of the professor)

How do we best address environmental issues?  What types of activism are most effective at shifting structures of power?  How can we, as unique individuals, find our deepest engagement with environmental change?

This course explores the dynamics of environmental activism.  Students will undertake projects aimed at addressing climate change, loss of biological diversity, fresh water scarcity, or pollution.  In doing so, they will work to alter widespread practices at the university and beyond, and explore their own understandings of political engagement and internal growth. 

For centuries, thinkers and activists have wrestled with the question of political change.  Is genuine change a matter of altering structures of power, or adopting a different internal attitude to the world?  This course places studentsat the center of such questioning by investigating the interface between political engagement and self-understanding.  The course utilizes contemplative practices such as meditation, yoga, journaling and so forth as well as traditional methodologies to explore the relationship between external and internal environmental change.