Earth Day extravaganza 2022
Earth Day is a day to celebrate what our planet gives us and to learn more about how to preserve its natural beauty. This month, the Wayne State Environmental Science Program will be hosting a series of events that showcase our campus's beautiful environment, including a film festival on April 22 in the DeRoy Auditorium from 5 to 8 p.m.
At the film festival, participants will have the opportunity to view inspiring and thought-provoking films about various environmental issues and discoveries. These films are meant to get you thinking about the world we live in and what we decide to do as a society to protect the earth that gives us life.
Films such as Detroit Hives about converting vacant houses into urban bee farms, and A Plastic Ocean about how plastics in the oceans break up into small particulates that enter the food chain where they attract toxins, among other videos, will be featured at the film festival.
This event is co-sponsored by T-RUST (Transformative Research in Urban Sustainability Training), the Office of Campus Sustainability, and Plastic Oceans.
Contact Donna Kashian, director of environmental science, at dkashian@wayne.edu and RSVP for more information.
Film festival line-up
Detroit Hives
Film length: 5:58
Film courtesy of National Geographic & Spruce Tone Films
Tim Paule and Nicole Lindsey are converting Detroit's vacant housing lots into urban bee farms. The young couple is transforming their community one hive at a time by bringing diversity to the field of beekeeping and creating opportunities for the city's youth. Detroit Hives shares their story in this film by Spruce Tone Films.
Unravel
Film length: 13:30
Film courtesy of Aeon Video. Pending permissions.
When people in the West throw their clothes away, their cast-offs often journey east, across the oceans, to India's industrial interior. From the Kutch District of western India to the northern city of Panipat, garment recyclers turn into yarn the enormous bales of clothes that come from people and places distinctly strange. With little exposure to Western culture other than the Discovery Channel, the garment recyclers rely on their imagination and the rumors that travel with the cast-offs to create an intriguing perspective on the West.
Director: Meghna Gupta
Producers: Meghna Gupta, Gigi Berardi
Toxic Algal Blooms
Film length: 9:41
Film courtesy of Great Lakes Now, Detroit Public Television
Each summer, toxic algal blooms grow in Lake Erie and threaten drinking water for communities. Go along on research boats and into the laboratories with scientists working to predict and prevent these blooms. This show is part of "From Rust to Resilience: What climate change means for Great Lakes cities," a collaborative reporting project that includes six members of the Institute for Nonprofit News (Belt Magazine, The Conversation, Ensia, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, MinnPost and Side Effects Public Media) as well as WUWM-FM Milwaukee, Indiana Public Broadcasting and The Water Main from American Public Media.
Director: David J. Ruck
Regenerative Farming - Kiss the Ground
Film length: 8:05
Film courtesy Of Kiss the Ground
"A Regenerative Secret" is a powerful mini-documentary that breaks the thinking that cows are the problem-contrasting the catastrophe of the current cattle industry with the hopeful and inspiring paradigm of Regenerative Ranching. This emerging form of ranching is not only restoring ecosystems but also reversing global warming, restoring watersheds, and helping ranchers across the world become more prosperous.
A film by Ben Cowan & Taliesin Black-Brown, Zephyr Visuals. Produced and created by Finian Makepeace.
Lost Fish
Film length: 25 min
One of the Pacific Northwest's oldest fish is disappearing, and the sacred place it holds among many Native American Indian Tribes. For a species that has squeezed through most of the earth's great extinctions, the plight of the Pacific Lamprey may be a signal of ecological distress. The Lost Fish is Freshwaters Illustrated's feature film - collaborative with the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission and the US Fish & Wildlife Service - captures the fight to save Pacific Lamprey in the Columbia Basin and the passion and determination of those working to ensure their survival.
Director: Jeremy Monroe
Producer: Freshwaters Illustrated
A Plastic Ocean
Film length: 21 min
Our researchers found more plastic than plankton in the center of the Pacific Ocean gyre. A Plastic Ocean documents the newest science, proving how plastics break up into small particulates that enter the food chain where they attract toxins like a magnet once they enter the oceans. These toxins are stored in seafood's fatty tissues and are eventually consumed by us. If it was happening in one gyre, they suspected it was happening in all of them. But the filmmakers needed experts to prove it. At each stage, scientists were brought in to analyze the findings from one part of the story to add their data to the comprehensive report on the five gyres.
Director: Craig Leeson
Producer: Jo Ruxton