31 results for your search
Losing Alaska
LOSING ALASKA tells the story of a small community dealing with a slow-moving disaster. They have known for decades that their future was in peril; they have seen the land dropping away on all sides and the river growing stronger year after year. They will lose their first building some time in 2018. The school €..
LOSING ALASKA tells the story of a small community dealing with a slow-moving disaster. They have known for decades that their future was in peril; they have seen the land dropping away on all sides and the river growing stronger year after year. They will lose their first building some time in 2018. The school – the highest building in the town – could be taking in water by 2019. They are losing up to 50 ft of land per year, every year.
Saving Vaquita: Considerations in the Race Against Extinction
As Brooke Bessesen writes in her new book, Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez, “Conservation is messy business.”
Economic, cultural, political, and legislative forces all come into play when considering protection strategies for an at-risk species. And, frustratingly, the best approach for...
As Brooke Bessesen writes in her new book, Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez, “Conservation is messy business.”
Economic, cultural, political, and legislative forces all come into play when considering protection strategies for an at-risk species. And, frustratingly, the best approach for victory isn’t always clear. Local communities have to balance potential job losses and preservation of their cultural history with co...
As Brooke Bessesen writes in her new book, Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez, “Conservation is messy business.”
Economic, cultural, political, and legislative forces all come into play when considering protection strategies for an at-risk species. And, frustratingly, the best approach for victory isn’t always clear. Local communities have to balance potential job losses and preservation of their cultural history with conservation goals. When governments help or hinder the cause, lawsuits become tools for action. Because of these complex dynamics, key players in the conservation effort may, at times, find themselves at odds—even if their end goal is the same.
This webinar, moderated by Dr. Tom Jefferson, explores the complicated issue of endangered species recovery through the lens of the now extremely rare porpoise, the vaquita, asking: When it comes to saving a species, is it possible to unify all concerned parties to fight for a common, singular objective?
Bessesen introduces the world’s smallest cetacean and explains the history of its plight. By examining the economic, cultural, and legislative aspects of vaquita conservation, audience members are encouraged to consider the universal goals and challenges related to disappearing species worldwide.
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Water Trilogy, Stolen Paradise
Frontline, Season 35, Episode 16, War on the EPA
Protesting Coal Mining From a Treehouse
Saving the Great Swamp: Battle to Defeat the Jetport
Saving The Great Swamp: Battle to Defeat the Jetport is a new one-hour documentary about the events, people and politics behind the struggle to preserve a rural area of New Jersey between 1959 and 1968. The fight began when the powerful Port of New York Authority announced plans to construct a huge 10,000 acre "j...
Saving The Great Swamp: Battle to Defeat the Jetport is a new one-hour documentary about the events, people and politics behind the struggle to preserve a rural area of New Jersey between 1959 and 1968. The fight began when the powerful Port of New York Authority announced plans to construct a huge 10,000 acre "jetport" 26 miles west of New York City in a little-known place called the Great Swamp. In the name of progress, entire towns would be o...
Saving The Great Swamp: Battle to Defeat the Jetport is a new one-hour documentary about the events, people and politics behind the struggle to preserve a rural area of New Jersey between 1959 and 1968. The fight began when the powerful Port of New York Authority announced plans to construct a huge 10,000 acre "jetport" 26 miles west of New York City in a little-known place called the Great Swamp. In the name of progress, entire towns would be obliterated, the aquifer and wildlife destroyed, and a way-of-life threatened for thousands of people.
The events that followed became one of the most defining environmental confrontations of its time - a grassroots movement that started in a local high school and grew to historic proportions. It was a battle that took almost a decade, a President and an Act of Congress to stop, and ultimately led to the creation of a national treasure - the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
Two years in the making, Saving The Great Swamp: Battle to Defeat the Jetport was produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Scott Morris, co-produced by Larry Fast and narrated by Blythe Danner. The film features in-depth interviews with residents, historians and officials, and a rich visual tapestry of historic film footage, old photographs and high-end cinematography of the Great Swamp today. The inspiring story continues to resonate as a model for community action in the face of powerful forces.
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Ghosts of our Forest
We the People 2.0
Overburden
Dust
A group of former miners from the mountainous villages of Sichuan take on the government in their bid to get compensation for the deadly lung disease pneumoconiosis. He Bing is a fighter. He has pneumoconiosis; his father has pneumoconiosis, as does his brother. Another brother has already died from the disease. T...
A group of former miners from the mountainous villages of Sichuan take on the government in their bid to get compensation for the deadly lung disease pneumoconiosis. He Bing is a fighter. He has pneumoconiosis; his father has pneumoconiosis, as does his brother. Another brother has already died from the disease. Together with his comrade in arms, Chen Xiezhong, He Bing travels back to the dust-filled mines where they contracted the disease in ord...
A group of former miners from the mountainous villages of Sichuan take on the government in their bid to get compensation for the deadly lung disease pneumoconiosis. He Bing is a fighter. He has pneumoconiosis; his father has pneumoconiosis, as does his brother. Another brother has already died from the disease. Together with his comrade in arms, Chen Xiezhong, He Bing travels back to the dust-filled mines where they contracted the disease in order to file a lawsuit against the government. Chen Xiezhong has done more than anyone to bring the miners together, but the disease eventually took its toll and he passed away in 2012. As a final gesture, he donated his corneas for research at the hospital that had taken care of him in his last months.
The miners are under constant pressure, harassment, and intimidation from the local authorities who see them as threats to social stability. But they never give up. The battle for compensation is continued by Hu Qihong, who grew up in the same village as Chen Xiezhong, and who has now married, Zhao Mingxiu, the widow of another villager who died from pneumoconiosis. We travel back home with Hu Qihong to see first-hand the devastation that this terrible disease, combined with the heartless attitude of local officials, has wrought in this picturesque but profoundly sad mountain village.
Director’s Note:
Pneumoconiosis is the by far the most prevalent occupational disease in China. Statistics reveal that China is home to over six million people with pneumoconiosis. Many of them have already died of this disease, and more will follow.
Our film crew investigates the stories of several workers from Muchuan County in Sichuan, who have all contracted pneumoconiosis while working in the mines. We focus on the worker activists who are standing up for their rights and demanding compensation. Life is hard and the challenges are many, but these enlightened individuals are striding out on the rocky path in defense of their rights.
At the time the film was completed, a large number of workers with pneumoconiosis from remote parts of China, were still flocking to the coastal cities in search of work. Many others were stuck in the mountains, helpless, awaiting death.
They have done their best, but their plight goes largely unnoticed. Their lives come and go like dust, occasionally flickering under the sun, then disappearing into nothingness in the blink of an eye.
We hope that this film can arouse public interest in this terrible disease and the struggle of China’s workers so that their lives can improved by greater interaction with society at large.
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