The Screening Party aka The Greening Party

November 18, 2008, Santa Cruz, CA…The Santa Cruz Film Festival (SCFF), a celebration of independent-minded filmmakers, is excited to announce its new merger with The EarthVision Environmental International Film Festival. Since 2002, SCFF has brought over 800 films and tens of thousands of film lovers from all over the world to the beautiful beaches, breathtaking redwoods and theatre houses of Santa Cruz. The EarthVision recently celebrated 10 years of showcasing films about crucial ecological issues that have inspired viewers to create positive change for the planet. These two Film Festivals champion voices and stories that are frequently absent from mainstream cinema. In May of 2009 they will co-present several environmentally themed programs during the SCFF.

Earthvison grew out of the documentary work of partners Katherine Knight and Ed Schehl, and their production company, Raindancer Film & Video. The couple wanted to create a venue in which environmental filmmakers could converge and consider each others' work. Earthvison founder Ed Schehl says of the Earthvision and SCFF partnership, "I believe partnering with The Santa Cruz Film Festival will greatly expand our impact on the local community. And allow us to reach a much larger audience with the important messages the EarthVision films present. The partnership could also encourage film makers to experiment with more narrative driven films with environmental themes to reach the public in new and exciting ways."

Like SCFF, EarthVision is locally organized and relies on support from local businesses, organizations and individuals. Its films, produced by community members and international activists, address both local and global issues. The films are powerful educational tools for Santa Cruz, as many entries are shown throughout the year on Community Television of Santa Cruz County (CTSCC). SCFF will partner with CTSCC to extend film makers the opportunity to show their work on CTSCC as well on a variety of new and alternative channels. The winning films (with permission by the filmmakers) will be programmed an average of sixteen hours per week on (CTSCC). This will give EarthVision and The Santa Cruz Film Festival film makers the possibility of reaching another 65,000 member subscribers county wide throughout the year.

Call for entries are happening now! Films and videos of all lengths and formats completed after January 1, 2007 are invited to submit for consideration; Narrative, Documentary, Animation, Experimental, Student and Youth-produced works. Submit online at Withoutabox (withoutabox.com) or download the application from the Festival website santacruzfilmfestival.org . The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2009.

Posted on 08-27-2008 16:37:27 PDT tell a friend

EarthVision International Environmental Film Festival Presents

2009 "Take Action Now"

As environmental issues become more pressing, there are two possible responses: ignore it and hope that government or someone else will fix it, or take action.

I lived in Los Angeles from the mid 1950s to the mid 1990s. When I was a kid, growing up in the 50s and 60s, the L.A. air was a perpetual shade of brown. On some days I would just look down the block and be able to actually see the air between where I was standing and my friend’s house, half a block away. Even from where I was living up in the Hollywood Hills, I couldn’t clearly see downtown L.A. or the ocean, there was just too much smog.

The only relief was on one of those rare days of L.A. rain. I think we only got about 30 of them a year. Then suddenly the views were breathtaking; I could see the L.A. basin as it looked in one of those tourist postcards they sell on Hollywood Blvd, and I could see west well past the ocean, all the way out to Catalina Island, 26 miles off the Southern California coast.

Well I had a pretty hardy constitution, so the smog didn’t really impact my health, but there were plenty of others who were really suffering, including the asthmatics and the elderly. Thanks in part to Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show, the Los Angeles air was a worldwide joke. Maybe it was that, or maybe it was that crystal clear image of L.A. on the postcard, but eventually people said, ‘Enough!’

Well there are between four and six times as many cars on the road as there were back then, which is not great news, but the air pollution has been cut in half. They did it through all of the measures that the special interests said would drive California to the brink of bankruptcy; clean air regulation, catalytic converters, stationary source reduction, removing VOC’s from paint. People took action, came together and made it work. The air is simply much cleaner than the air in which I grew up. We’re getting closer to that postcard image.

If we can dig a tunnel from England to France, there are no problems, or solutions, that are 'too big'. That is why I agreed to take on the role as Director of EarthVision; to make sure that cutting edge environmental and social issues have a forum to be heard when they might not otherwise be in the mainstream media. I hope you will join us this year in supporting the EarthVision Film Festival.



John Blyth Barrymore
Director

Posted on 01-29-2008 19:04:51 PST tell a friend