Wednesday, January 30, 2008

A new movie on Wangari Maathai in a DC Environmenal Film Festival





If you like green films, you should check out the Environmental Film Festival that will take place in Washington D.C. ON March 11-22.

This is the 16th Annual Festival and it will include 100 documentary, featured, archival, experimental and children's green films. Screenings will include discussion with filmmakers and sincentists and are FREE. You can check the list of movies at the festival website -
http://www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org/.

One of the highlights of the festival will be the new film 'Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai'. The film, produced and directed by
Lisa Merton and Alan Dater, is about Wangari Maathai and the grassroots movement she founded, the Green Belt Movement of Kenya.

Here's a description of the film from
its website: TAKING ROOT travels inside the world of one of today's most respected and inspired human rights and environmental activists, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. Maathai's groundbreaking work began in the 1970s in her native Kenya, where in opposition to an entrenched dictatorship, she nevertheless mobilized over one million Kenyans to take action against the destruction of their lands and the silencing of their voices.

Now in its third decade, Maathai's
Green Belt Movement has helped transform Kenya's physical, cultural and political landscape through its advocacy for sustainable development.

Through Maathai's rich, tumultuous and uplifting life, TAKING ROOT will show how her work addresses this seminal and most urgent question of our time - how do we preserve our environment, while also meeting people's needs?

Maathai's deep understanding of the linkage between culture, conservation of biodiversity and a sense of individual dignity have been and continue to be paramount in her success as a visionary leader in Africa, and as an example to the rest of the world.

Wangari Maathai is one of my heroes and I am very excited to hear about this new film and I look forward to seeing it. Here are the details of the screening:

When: March 15, 2008 3:00PM

Where: Grosvenor AuditoriumNational Geographic Society, 1600 M Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20036 (phone: 202 857 7700)

Tickets: $15 (for National Geographic memebers it's $13). You can order tickets here.

After-film discussion: This screening will be followed by a discussion with filmmakers Lisa Merton and Alan Dater, and Chris Tuite, director of the Green Belt Movement's Washington office.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris