RiverFilms: An HRI Video/Discussion Series

 

Hackensack Riverkeeper announces our newest educational program: a winter video/discussion series held in conjunction with the Puffin Cultural Forum.  The program is free but donations are welcome.  Refreshments will follow each session.  For info contact Kathy @ 201-968-0808.  For directions point your browser to www.gpnj.org/bergen/puffindir.htm.

 

Nov. 19th – The Waterkeepers, 48 min, Outside Television. The video documents the devotion of dozens of river, bay and sound Keepers from Alaska to North Carolina. A discussion with Captain Bill Sheehan will follow.

 

Dec. 17th – Lavender Lake: Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, 52 min, Directed by Allison Prete. South Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, opened in 1866, was once hailed as "one of the shortest and most important waterways in the world." It was also known as the dirtiest and was dubbed "Lavender Lake." Almost immediately after it opened, local residents called for it to be flushed out or filled in. One Hundred and thirty years of raw sewage, toxic sludge, drowned dogs, and dumped corpses later, the community continues to fight to clean up the Gowanus.

 

Jan. 21st – Containment: Life After Three Mile Island, Directed by Nick Poppy. Nick Poppy, a video editor at Comedy Central and film critic for Salon, IndieWire and Surface Magazine, was a resident of Middleton, PA during the 1979 nuclear tragedy at Three Mile Island. He evacuated his family and later witnessed the sustained effects in nearby communities of the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history. He highlights the legacy of the accident through a series of interviews, archived material and digital verite scenes, and places them in the historical context of the rise of anti-nuclear activism. Poppy's video is made especially timely by the current fear of terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants. Kyle Rabin from Hudson Riverkeeper will speak on Riverkeeper’s campaign to close Indian Point.

 

Feb. 18th – Blue Vinyl (2002) 101 min, Directed by Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold. This documentary provides a uniquely fun take on a serious subject as filmmakers Helfand and Gold--armed with a camera and a chunk of Helfand's parents' blue vinyl siding--undertake a journey from Merrick, Long Island to Louisiana, from San Francisco to Venice, Italy, to find the truth behind the potential hazards of polyvinyl chloride (commonly know an vinyl) production, use and disposal. The director is a friend of Tim Blunk of Puffin, http://www.bluevinyl.org/animationlow.htm.

 

March 18th – Drumbeat for Mother Earth (1999) 54 min, Produced/Directed by Joseph DiGangi & Amon Giebel. Many scientists and tribal people consider persistent toxic chemicals to be the greatest threat to the long-term survival of Indigenous Peoples. Drumbeat for Mother Earth explores how these chemicals contaminate the traditional food web, violate treaty rights and travel long distances. The video features testimony from a variety of Indigenous Nations in the U.S., Central America and the Arctic as well as interviews with scientists, activists, and the chemical industry, www.bullfrogfilms.com.

 

April 15th – Rivers to the Sea (1990) 46 min, Directed by John Brett. Containing some of the most spectacular underwater footage ever shot, this film explores the abundant life in Atlantic coastal rivers. The river is the thread that binds together species as different as salmon, lampreys, ospreys and humans. Ospreys, kingfishers, cormorants, beavers, snapping turtles, sturgeons, and bass are some of the creatures that appear above or below the surface of the rushing river. The film stresses that humans have a role in the river's ecology. Clear-cutting, herbicides, toxic wastes and fishing activities put severe stress on river systems.