Activate your inner environmentalist at Tales from Planet Earth film festival

October 27, 10:37 AMMadison Nature Travel ExaminerCandice Gaukel Andrews

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The film Wild New York features red-tailed hawks in urban landscapes. ©John T. Andrews.

From the 1925 tale of Balto, Sled Dog of Alaska, who led the final relay team carrying diphtheria serum into epidemic-ridden Nome, to 1993’s film Free Willy, nature stories have had the power to motivate us into environmental action. And that’s just what Madison’s upcoming “Tales from Planet Earth” Community and Film Festival hopes to do.

Of all the forms of storytelling, film — with its sight and sound — is one of the most powerful. During the Madison festival in November, more than 45 of them, organized into four major topics (“In the Company of Animals,” “Landscapes of Labor,” “Precious Resources,” and “Strange Weather”) will attempt to inspire viewers to devote some time and energy working for “environmental justice,” this year’s overarching festival theme.

The community festival component of the event encompasses lectures, panel and audience discussions, and interactions with some of the producers, directors, editors, and animators of the films being shown. In fact, this sort of film festival, coupled with broader community involvement, is hoped to become a new national model.

For example, a public lecture titled “Green the Ghetto and How Much It Won’t Cost Us,” by green jobs and environmental justice advocate Majora Carter, will be paired with a screening of the 2008 film “Trouble the Water,” featuring footage shot by an aspiring rap artist as she and her New Orleans neighbors become trapped by Hurricane Katrina.

Northern Ice, Golden Sun explores the Inuits' natural world. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews.

When the last screen goes dark on November 8, bringing the festival to a close in Madison, the environmental encouragement will go on. In 2010, a mini-festival, with a smaller selection of films, will travel across the state — to Baraboo, Milwaukee, Dodgeville, and Ashland — as part of the Wisconsin Humanities Council’s “Making It Home” initiative.

It took a community of organizations to bring these powerful tales of nature to you: The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies’ Center for Culture, History, and Environment, Working Films, Four Lakes Wildlife Center, the International Crane Foundation, among many others.

Nature travels aren’t always by foot. Sometimes you can travel by book or film or lecture. The wish is always the same, however: that the stories you gather from your nature journeys will inspire you to make your world — and planet — just a little bit better.

Tales from Planet Earth Community and Film Festival; Friday–Sunday, November 6–8, 2009
Most events will take place at one of four venues:
Wisconsin Union Theater and the Fredric March Play Circle, both in Memorial Union, 800 Langdon Street; UW Cinematheque, 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Avenue; and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 227 State Street.
Admission: Free, on a first-come, first-served basis (donations help support the festival and are accepted at the door).

For More Info:
The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
Balto and the Hero Dogs of Alaska
Hear the story of Balto
A Lack of “Outdoor” Vitamin D Found in U.S. Kids
Sending Kids Outdoors: A Dose of Nature May Protect Against Health and Environmental Threats (Part One), (Part Two)
Eco-Ethical Issues While Traveling Through Nature
Finding Your True Place in Nature

Looking for other places to travel into nature? Check out these stories:
Tundra swans in Alma
Halloween at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center
Canada Geese Migration at Horicon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge
Wisconsin fall color report
Yahara River Watershed
Glamping with Frank Lloyd Wright: the Seth Peterson Cottage
Hemlock Draw, Baraboo Hills
Olbrich Gardens Thai Pavilion and Bolz Conservatory, Madison
Henry Vilas Zoo, Madison
Muir Woods, University of Wisconsin-Madison

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