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With stunning footage of Antarctica's unique landscapes and wild life, The Last Ocean profiles the international battle over commercial fishing in the Ross Sea, the last pristine ocean ecosystem on earth.
The Ross Sea is a vast, icy landscape that teems with life -- whales, seals and penguins carving out a place on the very edge of existence. This 'living laboratory' is one of the last places where the delicate balance of nature still prevails, largely untouched by humans. But an international fishing fleet has recently made its way to the Ross Sea, targeting the highly lucrative Antarctic Toothfish, sold as Chilean Sea Bass around the world.
Californian ecologist Dr. David Ainley has studied the Ross Sea's unique ecosystem for more than forty years and knows that unless fishing is stopped, the natural balance will be lost forever. He rallies fellow scientists and builds a global campaign to protect this last pristine marine ecosystem.
Featuring top scientists, including Dr. Sylvia Earle and Dr. Daniel Pauly, as well as international political leaders, the film examines both the science and politics behind the debate over preserving Earth's last truly wild ocean.
Reviews
"Four Stars. The Last Ocean is a spectacular, informative and urgent piece of work... Through Peter Young's lens, the Antarctic looks wild and wonderful." - Graeme Tuckett, Dominion Post
"Four stars. Young's film is absorbing, politically and ecologically informative, nightmarish, and excellent, albeit disturbing, cinema." - Sam Edwards, Waikato Times
"Peter Young's ravishing footage lends emotive force to his detailed account of the case against fishing Antarctic waters." - Bill Gosden, New Zealand International Film Festival
Awards
Winner, Best Feature & Best Science Communication Film, Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival
Winner, Best Call2Action Film, Boulder International Film Festival ?
Winner, Royal Reel Award Documentary, Canada International Film Festival
Winner, Best Documentary, Real to Reel International Film Festival
Winner, Moving Mountains, Mountainfilm in Telluride
Winner, Independent Producer of the Year, New Zealand Screen Producer and Development Association
Plastic floats. The World's biggest plastic dumps are at sea. Millions of tons enter the ocean every year, pouring out from rivers and shores, ships and platforms. The world's scientists have studied the phenomenon with alarming results. Plastic contains synthetic hormones that are released when it breaks down into tiny particles through wind, waves and exposure to sun. Once in sea, plastic absorbs toxic substances known as POP's (persistent organic pollutants). This process allows these toxins to accumulate in a million times higher than normal. What happens when fish and seabirds mistake the plastic for food? Scientists have found evidence that these toxins are entering the food chain, ultimately winding up in our bodies. Even worse, plastic does not biodegrade. It becomes trapped in massive maelstroms of garbage. Scientists have identified five of these so-called gyres. A few of them are larger than Spain and Portugal combined.
Many questions remain. Scientists have noticed that the amount of plastic in the gyres has remained constant for the past twenty years, leaving millions of tons unaccounted for. Where has the plastic gone? The world's scientists are on the verge of solving a mystery that might uncover one of the biggest ecological disasters of our time.
In our throw away world a plastic bag outlives it's usefulness after around fifteen minutes. A plastic bottle might last a little longer, party balloons a whole occasion. But the ocean likes to hang onto these discarded treasures for decades, even centuries giving many other consumers a taste for plastic.
The planet's oceans are rapidly becoming the world's trash dump. Every mile of ocean now contains an average of 74,000 pieces of plastic. A "plastic soup" of waste, killing hundreds of thousands of animals every year and as chemicals trickle slowly up the food chain. In California, conservationists are seeing increasing numbers of whales and dolphins die agonizing deaths. Their intestines blocked with plastics and other trash. In Holland, scientists researching the decline of the fulmar bird found plastic in the stomachs of 95% of all samples. In Germany, chemicals leached from plastic have been found to affect the reproductive systems of humans as well animals. What will be the long-term impact of this "plastic pollution?" Can anything be done to clean up our oceans?
An epic cinematic poem that reveals the extraordinary beauty and complex toxicity of the Great Lakes, the largest remaining supply of fresh water (20%) on Earth.
The film tells the epic story of the Great Lakes by following the cascade of its water from northern Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean, through the lives of some of the 35 million people who rely on the lake for survival.
Providing earth with 20% of its surface fresh water and its third largest industrial economy, the Great Lakes are a unique and precious resource under assault by toxins, sewage, invasive species, evaporating water and profound apathy. They are also one of the planet's great preserves of extraordinary wilderness beauty and a bounty of unique species.
WATERLIFE blends these realities with a dreamlike fluidity as it pours through the lives of some amazing characters. We meet an Anishinabe medicine woman who walked 16,000 miles around the lakes to sympathize with them; the last of the great Michigan fishing families; a man whose lakefront home now borders a field thanks to sewer overflows; the people of a village where mysterious toxins ensure that most new babies are girls; and the residents of Love Canal, a notorious Niagara Falls neighborhood abandoned in the 1970s and now dubiously refurbished.
Along the way, WATERLIFE show viewers the Great Lakes as they might appear to a seagull, a fish or a water molecule...and from a myriad of other amazing perspectives. Filmed over a full year with a battery of specialty cameras and techniques, WATERLIFE provides an unprecedented view of an incredible ecosystem rarely seen by the city dwellers who form most of its population. From the ornate fountains of Chicago to the sewers of Windsor, viewers are carried through marsh and pipe, across pounding waves and through thunder clouds on a journey which, as the film says, has no "ending or beginning, that shapes every body it passes through and unites them all across space and time."
WATERLIFE's director, Kevin McMahon, is one of Canada's most innovative documentary filmmakers. Gord Downie, leader of The Tragically Hip and a Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, narrates the film. Topping off this epic cinematic poem is a fabulous soundtrack featuring Sam Roberts, The Allman Brothers, Dropkick Murphys, Sufjan Stevens, Sigur R?, Robbie Robertson, Daniel Lanois, Phillip Glass, Brian Eno and a new song by The Tragically Hip. Plus check out the award-winning interactive website.
Awards
Special Jury Prize, Canadian Feature, HotDocs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival
Best Documentary Cinematography, Canadian Society of Cinematographers
The story of the Exxon Valdez and the 20-year legal battle to get restitution from ExxonMobil.
In the early hours of March 24th 1989 the Exxon Valdez oil supertanker runs aground in Alaska. It discharges millions of gallons of crude oil. The incident becomes the biggest environmental catastrophe in North American history.
In a flash, dramatic images shoot across the planet. They show thousands of carcasses of seabirds and sea otters covered in oil. A thick black tide rises and covers the beaches of once-pristine Prince William Sound.
For twenty years, Riki Ott and the fishermen of the little town of Cordova, Alaska have waged the longest legal battle in U.S. history against the world's most powerful oil company - ExxonMobil. They tell us all about the environmental, social and economic consequences of the black wave that changed their lives forever.
This is the legacy of the Exxon Valdez.
Review
"A stunning reminder of the havoc wreaked...by the grounding of the Exxon Valdez." - Arthur R. Miller, University Professor, School of Law, New York University
Award
Gemini Award (Canadian Emmy Awards), Best Direction in a Documentary Program
Reveals the history and worldwide scope of plastics pollution, investigates its toxicity and explores solutions.
Directed by Ian Connacher
Camera: Ian Connacher, Gad Reichman
Music Supervision: Oliver Johnson courtesy of the Hive
Editors: Martyn Iannece, Gad Reichman, Kevin Rollins
From styrofoam cups to artificial organs, plastics are perhaps the most ubiquitous and versatile material ever invented. No invention in the past 100 years has had more influence and presence than synthetics. But such progress has had a cost.
For better and for worse, no ecosystem or segment of human activity has escaped the shrink-wrapped grasp of plastic. Addicted To Plastic is a global journey to investigate what we really know about the material of a thousand uses and why there's so darn much of it. On the way we discover a toxic legacy, and the men and women dedicated to cleaning it up.
Addicted To Plastic is a point-of-view style documentary that encompasses three years of filming in 12 countries on 5 continents, including two trips to the middle of the Pacific Ocean where plastic debris accumulates. The film details plastic's path over the last 100 years and provides a wealth of expert interviews on practical and cutting edge solutions to recycling, toxicity and biodegradability. These solutions-which include plastic made from plants-will provide viewers with a new perspective about our future with plastic.
Reviews
"A sobering must-see and needs to be shown at every educational level globally!" - Dr. James M. Cervino, Visiting Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Department of Marine Chemistry
"For anyone who's wondered what eventually happens to all the plastic in water bottles, packaging, and hundreds of other everyday uses, the feature-length documentary Addicted to Plastic offers a visually compelling, entertaining, ultimately frightening explanation...Candid interviews, especially a particularly revealing one with a representative of the industry's American Plastics Council, permit viewers to form their own opinions. Connacher's on-screen presence as a curious, energized hipster on a plastic road trip lends immediacy to his narrative and enables him to filter complex information and hypotheses into a manageable form that will provoke viewers without confusing them. All in all, Addicted to Plastic is an absorbing, shocking, only partially reassuring odyssey." - Jeffrey L. Meikle, Professor, American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Author, American Plastic: A Cultural History
"Addicted to Plastic was a wake-up call for me as a marine scientist. This film presents the viewers with a grim, realistic look at how the food chain is being affected due to plastic confetti invading nearly every square centimeter on earth. This documentary is a sort of eco-horror movie, detailing how persistent plastics sprinkled throughout the ocean and land carry chemical compounds up the food chain and onto our dinner plates. The word 'bioaccumulation' truly strikes home in a frightening and understandable way after viewing this film. Addicted to Plastic is a sobering must-see and needs to be shown at every educational level globally!" - Dr. James M. Cervino, Assistant Professor, Biology and Health Sciences, Pace University, Visiting Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Department of Marine Chemistry
"Addicted to Plastic is a journey of discovery of what happens to the various plastics we use and what we can do about them. The documentary is riveting, disturbing, and even sometimes comforting. Everyone should see this important film." - Reah Janise Kauffman, Vice President, Earth Policy Institute
Awards
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
Vancouver International Film Festival
Milano Film Festival
Planet In Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival
Looks at the failure of our current sewage disposal system and presents alternatives.
A hazardous mix of solid and liquid waste is flushed into the sewer every day. With literally billions of gallons of water passing through municipal sewer systems-composed of unknown quantities of chemicals, solvents, heavy metals, human waste, and food-the question becomes: where does it all go? And what effect does that have on us?
From ancient times, countries have chosen the sewer as the waste management system of choice, flushing untold amounts of household and industrial contaminants that inevitably resurface in the food chain; fish swim through rivers choked with waste water, while processed sewage sludge is spread on farmland as a fertilizer.
With CRAPSHOOT, filmmaker Jeff McKay takes viewers on an eye-opening journey around the world to explore different approaches to sewage, starting at the 2,500 year old Cloaca Maxima in Rome, where the modern concept of sewers began. Filmed in Italy, India, Sweden, the United States and Canada, this bold documentary questions whether the sewer is alleviating or compounding our waste problem. While scientists warn of links between sewage practices and potential health risks, our fundamental attitudes toward waste are being challenged by activists, engineers, and concerned citizens alike. Does our need to dispose of waste take precedence over public health and safety? What are the alternatives?
Reviews
"One of the very best films I've screened this year." - Matthew Hays, (Montreal) Mirror
"3 stars1/2... Despite the lighthearted title, this...production takes a serious look at the question of what happens when we flush... The visuals here are occasionally spectacular... Thought-provoking, scary as all-get-out, and engrossing, Crapshoot is a must for environmental studies collections and highly recommended in general." - Video Librarian
"Out of sight and out of mind, most people will say, however there exist some fairly significant questions regarding our massive investments and miscalculations in waste management. Well, Canadian director Jeff McKay has tackled the dirty issue and formed it into a stunningly disgusting and thought-provoking documentary." - Creative Generalist
"One of the very best films I've screened this year is a thoughtful NFB doc about what happens to human waste and the dilemma ridding ourselves of it is creating...Yeah it's disgusting alright, and it's also a harrowing look at yet another environmental travesty that's unfolding everywhere-not just third world spots..." - Matthew Hays, (Montreal) Mirror
"The haunting message of the film is that nothing flushed down the toilet is ever just gone. The problem caused by using water to move our waste cannot be solved by technology. This will take a major social change...Crapshoot could generate a healthy discussion. The film would have great applicability in courses with environmental units, but it could also be used in Sociology, Law, Civics, Science, Ethics or Technology." - Frank Loreto, CM Magazine
"[A] strongly recommended addition to school, college, and community library collections." - The Midwest Book Review
"The City of Moncton was gearing itself to promote the use of 'bio-solids' with its new plant. I think [Crapshoot] showed a lot of people that the use of bio-solids has serious long-term effects on the environment and people's health...a few people who saw the film wrote editorials in the local paper and that stirred up interest and questions from the local community. This might not have happened if we had not seen the film." - Eric Arseneau, Coordinator of the Petitcodiac Watershed Monitoring Group
"The film had a really powerful impact on me...It wasn't until I saw [Crapshoot] that I fully grasped that a toilet doesn't have to be designed to use water. Nor does that whole system of underground sewage pipes even have to exist. There are and can be options." - Leslie Forrester, resident of the small community of Stirling, Ontario Canada
Awards
Runner- Up in Category, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
Montreal World Film Festival
United Nations Association Film Festival
Vermont International Film Festival
Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
The Green Film Festival, Washington DC
Global Visions Film Festival
World Community Film Festival, Courtenay, BC
Plymouth Independendent Film Festival
Silver Plaque, Chicago International Television Awards
Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
Examines the global marine fisheries crisis and the efforts to implement sustainable fishing practices.
"Many of the new changes that are happening in the oceans are a consequence of activities that people have always been engaged in. It's just a much greater rate and a faster scale. Nobody created these problems deliberately." - Dr. Jane Lubchenco, National Academy of Sciences
"Never before has a wake-up call from nature been so clear, never again will there be better opportunities to protect what remains of the ocean's living wealth." - Dr. Sylvia Earle, former Chief Scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Our oceans are not yet empty but the signs are not good. The seas have always been humanity's single largest source of protein, but for the first time in history this critical food supply is at risk in many areas. Despite an ever-intensifying fishing effort, the global catch appears to have reached its limit while the demand for seafood continues to grow.
According to the FAO, 15 of the world's 17 major ocean fisheries are already depleted or over-exploited. These trends are even more troubling when population growth is considered. The world population-now at six billion-will continue to grow by over 60 million people per year, with nearly half this growth in areas within 100 kilometers of a coastline. Over one billion people in Asia already depend on ocean fish for their entire supply of protein, as does 1 out of every 5 Africans. Although North America and Europe rely less on ocean-caught protein, much of the seafood consumed on both continents is imported from developing countries. The entire world shares an interest in restoring and maintaining this critical food supply.
EMPTY OCEANS, EMPTY NETS examines the full extent of the global fisheries crisis and the forces that continue to push many marine fish stocks toward commercial extinction. The program also documents some of the most promising and innovative work being done to restore fisheries and protect essential fish habitat. New market initiatives are examined that give consumers a powerful vote in deciding how our oceans are fished. Commentary is provided by fishermen and by many of the world's most respected marine and fisheries scientists.
Reviews
"If you knew nothing about fishing, this would be an awesome introduction. From Indonesian out-rigger canoes to Bering Sea factory trawlers, from cyanided reefs and dynamited fish in the western Pacific to tuna weirs in the Mediterranean, it's all here." - National Fisherman
"Empty Oceans is a stunning and substantive new documentary on the horrific impacts of current destructive fishing practices around the globe. The film takes its viewers on a journey that unravels the mysteries of declining fish populations around the globe. Hopefully, seeing this film will convince you that it's time for us all to take action to protect the world's oceans." - Ted Danson, President and Founder, American Oceans Campaign
"Empty Oceans, Empty Nets examines the disturbing decline of marine fisheries around the world...The good news is that fish populations can be restored and sustained through careful regulation of fishing. Consumers can also become more aware of which kinds of fish are best to buy, shunning those listed as commercially endangered." - Los Angeles Times
"54 minutes of film that will...(help you) reorder your priorities and your entrees." - San Francisco Chronicle
"Tells a cautionary tale about the overfishing of the world's oceans, but it also gives us hope for the future as well...the viewer is left with the realization that we can help." - Tri- Valley (CA) Herald
"There are many things concerned individuals can do. I'd start by watching "Empty Oceans, Empty Nets," a gripping new documentary about the state of the world's fisheries...As the saying goes, save a fish, save a fisherman. And if we save the oceans, we save ourselves." - The Providence Journal
"Empty Oceans, Empty Nets delivers a thorough summary of the global marine fisheries crisis and makes excellent use of ship-board videos, interviews and graphics... By the end of the film viewers will understand the problems of by-catch, juvenile (pre-reproductive) fish harvest, habitat destruction and problems posed by the increased mechanization of the fishing process.... The footage of sea-floor disturbance caused by bottom trawls is dramatic and something not commonly seen in other fisheries related videos. Empty Oceans, Empty Nets shows some thought provoking footage of fish farming operations and does a wonderful job of explaining the pros and cons of intensive fish culture. The film is certainly a wake-up call...I highly recommend this video to all public, school and college libraries as it is the best, most informative and well balanced fisheries video I have seen." - Educational Media Reviews Online, Barb Butler, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology
"Water, water everywhere and nary a fish in the drink. A scandalizing expose of the rampant destruction visited on global fisheries by sophisticated maritime technologies and free market 'logic.' " - Prof. Timothy McGettigan, PhD, Department of Sociology, Colorado State University- Pueblo
"The stunning visuals of fish in the oceans and the sometimes horrifying footage of catching those same fish, together with the factual information make this video a must have for all library environment collections." - School Library Journal
"Empty Oceans, Empty Nets is a video that challenges viewers to rethink the impact that their choice of fish for dinner has on the environment...presents beautiful scenes of the ocean habitat as it documents modern-day fishing practices...Empty Oceans, Empty Nets is appropriate for high school and college students. The video could easily be used in the classroom to increase general awareness of the global issues involving the fishing industry and its impact on science and society...This video highlights how informed consumers and citizens can make a difference in restoring and maintaining this critical food supply. Recommended." - Science Books and Films
Awards
CINE Golden Eagle
Best Public Affairs Documentary, Ekotopfilm, Bratislava
Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
Honorable Mention, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
Vermont International Film Festival
United Nations Association Film Festival, Stanford
MountainFilm, Telluride
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
Shows that global warming is already hurting the Pacific Islands.
" We are like the warning system for the whole world to see." Penehuro Lefale, Samoa
For 7 million people living on thousands of islands scattered across the Pacific ocean, global warming is not something that looms in the distant future: it's a threat whose first effects may have already begun.
Through personal stories of Pacific Islanders, RISING WATERS: Global Warming and the Fate of the Pacific Islands puts a human face on the international climate change debate.
The majority of scientists around the world now agree that global warming is real, and key studies show that the tropical Pacific islands will be hit first and hardest by its effects. The water temperature in the tropical Pacific has risen dramatically over the last two decades, bleaching coral and stressing marine ecosystems. Sea level rise threatens to inundate islands, and extreme weather events -- such as more frequent and intense El Ni?os, severe droughts, and mega hurricanes -- could wipe out ecosystems and the way of life that has existed for thousands of years.
"Way before most of these islands go under, they're going to lose their fresh water supply." Anginette Heffernan, Fiji
In the program, islanders show the viewers the physical and cultural impacts caused by global warming. Unusual high tides have swept the low-lying atolls of Micronesia, destroying crops and polluting fresh water supplies. Ancestral graveyards are being destroyed by the impacts of rogue waves and erosion never witnessed before the last decade. An increase in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes is making it difficult for island communities and ecosystems to recover.
"It's very difficult for someone living in the United States to grasp the fact that if the sea level rises just a few feet, a whole nation will disappear." Ben Graham, Republic of the Marshall Islands
But the islanders' stories have not convinced everyone in the rest of the world. Some scientists refute the studies, and business leaders and economists warn that forcing industries to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions will cause a global economic collapse.
While the policy makers and scientists argue about when and how much to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next twenty years, many Pacific Islanders are wondering if they will have a future. One thing is known: the longer emission reductions are delayed, the harder it will be to curb the effects of global warming, and prevent sea level rise from devastating the Pacific Islands.
What, then, should the islanders do? Whom should they believe? Where would they go if forced to leave their homes? RISING WATERS explores what it means to live under a cloud of scientific uncertainty, examining both human experience and expert scientific evidence. The problems facing the islanders serve as an urgent warning to the rest of the world.
Locations include Kiribati, the Samoas, Hawai'I, the atolls of Micronesia including the Marshall Islands, as well as laboratories and research centers in the continental United States. RISING WATERS weaves the portraits of the islanders with historical film and video materials, interviews with top scientists, and voiceover. 3D animation is used to illustrate key scientific concepts.
Reviews
"Perhaps it is no great wonder that the issue of global warming appears so remote to most U.S. citizens. The front lines of the crisis, and even the venues of the debate are so remote...The brilliance of this film is that it brings these front lines into your living room." - The Amicus Journal
"Hauntingly beautiful, this groundbreaking film is a quantum leap from pedantic environmental films...revealing a remarkable pan- Pacific effort to save entire nations...utilizing new science and a fresh idiom." - MountainFilm Festival Program
"A successful tool to illustrate the effect of industrialization on our global ecosystem...Recommended" - Barb Butler, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, MC Journal
"The documentary treats global warming itself as an anthropogenic catastrophe in the making. Indeed, the strength of this approach to global warming is the human and cultural dimension that this film highlights." - H- NET MULTIMEDIA REVIEW
Awards
Certificate of Merit, The Chicago International Television Competition
Taos Talking Picture Festival
Vermont International Film Festival
Hawaii International Film Festival
Equinox Environmental Film Festival
Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema
Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
Olympia Environmental Film Festival
Marin Environmental Film Festival
Special Jury Award, MountainFilm, Telluride
Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
Second Place Winner, EarthVision Environmental Film & Video Festival
We live in the Age of Plastic. It's cheap and practical, and it's everywhere – even in our blood. But is it a danger to us?
This feisty, informative documentary takes us on a journey around the globe - from the Moroccan Sahara to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, from a factory in China to the highest peaks of the Alps - to reveal the far-flung reaches of our plastic problem. Interviews with the world's foremost experts in biology, pharmacology, and genetics shed light on the perils of plastic to our environment and expose the truth of how plastic affects our bodies and the health of future generations.
Review
"Plastic Planet is that rare call-to-action documentary that might rouse viewers to do something more than nod their heads in agreement. A methodically researched yet engaging examination of the environmental and health problems associated with plastic, this wide-ranging warning cry uses an intelligent investigative style along with animation and vintage footage to drive home its message." - Jay Weissberg, Variety
DVD (English and German with English Subtitles) / 2009 / 99 minutes
The U.S. needs more than 340 billion gallons of fresh water every day, but industrial effluent, agricultural runoff, and municipal discharge are contributing to an ongoing decline in water quality. In this program, Marty Tittelbaum, of the University of New Orleans; a water quality consultant; an environmental attorney; teachers; and many others address public health concerns, the need for stricter process controls, and broader enforcement of the Clean Water Act, while emphasizing the importance of information-sharing, educational outreach, and grassroots involvement in citizen action groups and environmental restoration projects.