SHORTS: THE NEW ENVIRONMENTALISTS

Total program 74 min

Narrated by Sigourney Weaver, The New Environmentalists — from Malawi to Peru (US 2022, 30 min) is the latest in the Mill Valley Film Group’s Emmy Award-winning series about the dedicated recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize who all have a common goal: safeguarding Earth’s natural resources while fighting for justice in their communities. Evan-Marie Petit’s POMO LAND BACK: A Prayer from the Forest (US 2022, 7 min), created in collaboration with the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, aims to honor the vital movement towards indigenous-led stewardship and rematriation of California forests. In Ben Derico’s Hasta la Última Gota (Until the Last Drop) (US 2022, 17 min), the citizens of Chile’s drought-afflicted Petorca Province fight to legislate water as a human right while enormous agribusinesses leech the vital resource from their community for profit. Nancy Kelly’s I’m a Burner (US 2022, 3 min) looks at how the Mountain Maidu tribe has managed forest fires for generations by thinning excess fuel build-up with prescribed burns. In Josh Izenberg and Brett Marty’s Eco-Hack! (US 2021, 17 min), biologist Tim Shields quits traditional observational biology, instead adopting direct intervention methods to prove that innovation, technology, and imagination may be the last hope for saving the planet. —Kelly Clement