I am locked in a love-hate relationship with my TV.
I know–it wastes energy, time and brain cells. 90% of the programming it broadcasts into my brain is sheer and utter garbage. (Well, that’s not really the TV’s fault- more the digital cable service my BF and I also can’t seem to live without).
However, there is no better companion when fighting a nasty cold, and though it sounds contrived, that 10% of worthwhile programming is really just that! When the Planet Earth series premiered, we actually had friends come over on Sunday nights to watch a nature show. Never before would you have seen six or more “20-somethings” packed into our tiny living room to learn about species of the deep ocean.
But the TV made it possible. So I’ll continue the sordid dance of desire and despair. Meanwhile, here are some groundbreaking movies dealing with issues of real environmental importance, so gather up your own “somethings” and put that TV to good use.
Didn’t make to Sundance this year? Well that makes… thousands of us. Living up to a big rep as the quintessential indie film festival, Sundance has started it’s own greening process and as such has begun to feature films with a heart for the environment. One of this year’s selections was Dirt! The Movie, “an insightful and timely film that tells the story of the glorious and unappreciated material beneath our feet. Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, Dirt! The Movie takes a humorous and substantial look into the history and current state of the living organic matter that we come from and will later return to. An eclectic group of participants ranging from biologists to prisoners incarcerated on Rikers Island offer answers to problems and inspire us to clean up the mess that we’ve created. Dirt! The Movie will make you want to get dirty.”
Already squirming from An Inconvenient Truth? Well now you’re in for A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash. A 90 minute documentary on the planet’s dwindling oil resources, the movie is produced and directed by award-winning European journalists and filmmakers Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack, and tells the story of how our civilization’s addiction to oil puts it on a collision course with geology. Available now on DVD.
Another Sundance pick: No Impact Man: a movie, from a book, inspired by a blog! (That’s got to be one of the first; bloggers take heart, your 15 minutes are coming!). According to the blog, the No Impact Man Experiment was and is the quest of Colin Beavan (a.k.a. No Impact Man) and his long suffering family to develop a way to live in the heart of New York City while causing no net environmental impact. (Think, Negative Impact + Positive Impact = Zero). The blog itself is a delightful little read, although, as I’m writing this, the current post pegs the TV as the “enemy in the living room.”
Ahhhh…coincidence how you humble me.
An original 5 Minutes for Going Green post. To read more of Beth’s sustainable scribblings, visit ecospheric.blogspot.com and blog.gengreenlife.com.