This weekend, Madison will host the city's first environmental film festival to explore and celebrate the power of film as a force of environmental change.
Tales from the Planet Earth,"" will offer more than 20, free 60- to 90- minute films around town. Scientists, historians, and film scholars from UW-Madison and across the country will speak before and after each film, sharing personal insights and leading audiences to reflect on and discuss how film has shaped our interactions with the natural world. The festival will include a mixture of historical and contemporary environmental films as well as a series of short movie trailers around the theme ""What's so natural about Wisconsin,"" generated by a group of UW-Madison students enrolled in a small film production class for non-majors.
In addition to teaching the environmental film class, Gregg Mitman, UW-Madison history of science professor, helped organize the environmental film festival. Last week, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Mitman about why the festival marks a unique chance for the Madison community to explore how our attitudes and interactions with the environment have been influenced by film.
Daily Cardinal: What's the goal of the ""Tales from Planet Earth"" film festival?
Mitman: We want to try to open up what people think of as environmental film. Environmental film is more than Gore's ""An Inconvenient Truth"" and the now popular films of gloom and doom and despair. Many people don't realize environmental film has a long history. We hope the film festival will help people to see the diverse kinds of storytelling filmmakers have used in the past and present to inspire audiences and empower them in ways that can make a difference in the interactions and impact we have on the natural world.
DC: Why are we now seeing the sudden boom in environmental film production?
Mitman: Throughout the country, there is a growing interest in environmental films due to the urgency of environmental issues like global warming and the popularity and success of recent documentary films. I see film as a powerful medium for getting messages across; it is an important tool for environmental messaging. We want to figure out, 'how do we tell stories that translate to action?'
DC: How is the film festival similar/different to other environmental film festivals?
Mitman: ""Tales from Planet Earth"" is unique because contemporary films are being placed in dialogue with historical films. The discussions that will follow the film screenings are also meant to get audiences to think about 'what is an environmental film,' and how the genre (if we can call it that) has evolved over the years. We want to get people to think about the history and development of a genre. It will be helpful to look at contemporary film in relation to a greater body of work and to begin to look at how artists tell their stories differently.
DC: Why is the environmental film festival important to you?
Mitman: Film is such a powerful medium and, yet, little attention is paid to how film has shaped our attitudes and interactions with the environment. For instance, ""Flipper"" changed the public's attitude toward dolphins and ""Bambi"" changed the way people felt about hunting deer. We tend to think about film as only entertainment, but it influences how we see nature and how we see the world.
DC: What do you hope students gain from attending festival?
Mitman: I hope students come to enjoy films and celebrate a long tradition of films about the environment and nature. And I hope they come away surprised at the truly innovative, artistic approaches that filmmakers took in illuminating realities beyond that which the human mind, even in its wildest fantasies, could imagine or comprehend. I also want the festival to move students to see the connection between the environment and their own lives. Maybe, it will even serve to inspire them to tell their own stories about the environment and help to influence change.
The Environmental Film festival will be the first public outreach event hosted by UW-Madison's Center for Culture, History and Environment. This interdisciplinary group of graduates and faculty formed this year draws from people from humanities as well as the social and natural sciences to study the changing relationships between people and the environment over time, particularly through the lens of historical and cultural analysis.
