About the Festival
Mar16
Washington, DC
Mar 16 - Mar 28, 2010
Website: http://www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org
Phone: 202-342-2564
No Ticket Information Available.
The 2009 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (EFF) presented 141 documentary, animated, feature, experimental, archival and children’s films from March 11 to 22 throughout Washington, D.C. The 17th annual Festival provided diverse perspectives on global environments to a record audience; more than 25,000 people attended 111 events featuring a wide variety of cinematic work by filmmakers from 34 countries, including 56 Washington, D.C., United States and World ...morepremieres.
The twelve-day Festival featured films unavailable in commercial theaters, including winning selections from international festivals such as the United Nations Association Film Festival, Slow Food on Film in Bologna, Italy, the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, and the Wildscreen Film Festival in Bristol, UK. Our commitment to the work of international filmmakers brought films from around the world to Washington audiences. Switzerland, Colombia, Ecuador, South Africa, Bhutan and China are just six of the countries featured in EFF’s 2009 film selections.
For the fourth consecutive year, EFF organized a special program designed for middle and high school students. On March 10th at the historic Warner Theatre more than 800 Washington, D.C. public and charter school students attended a screening of the award-winning documentary, “Sharkwater.” The screening was followed by a lively question and answer session with Andy Dehart, a shark expert from the National Aquarium. The response from students, parents, and teachers was very positive and powerful. Other programs geared towards young people and students were held at numerous venues city-wide, including four different neighborhood public libraries. At the library programs, class groups were given books based on the films; some 60 books were handed out to classes during the Festival. In total, an estimated 4,400 students benefited from EFF programs in 2009.
The ocean was a special theme of the 2009 Festival. Screenings were held at the National Museum of Natural History in conjunction with the newly opened Sant Ocean Hall, along with other venues. Some 30 films dealt with this subject, three of which were world premieres, including “A Sea Change,” a film about ocean acidification with a panel following the screening that included the filmmakers Barbara Ettinger and Sven Huseby, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Drs. Richard Spinrad and Richard Feely, and David Rockefeller, Jr. of Sailors for the Sea.
Other highlights of the Festival included the Washington premiere of “Earth Days,” followed by a panel that included Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality; the Washington premieres of “Secrets of the Reef,” “RiverWebs,” and “At the Edge of the World,” followed by a discussion with the environmental activist Paul Watson who was featured in the film; and a special sneak preview of “Return of the Honeybee.”
A total of 156 special guests, including 53 filmmakers, addressed the 2009 EFF audiences. Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and documentarian Hedrick Smith, president of the Brookings Institution Strobe Talbot, Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Sean and Andrea Nix Fine, organic food pioneer and Washington restaurateur Nora Pouillon, and independent filmmaker David Conover, joined other noted filmmakers, scientists, and environmentalists to discuss the broad range of topics presented at the Festival.
Presented in collaboration with 101 unique organizations, EFF is recognized as a major collaborative cultural event in the nation’s capital and the largest environmental festival of its kind in the world. In 2009, films were screened at 52 venues in all four quadrants of the city, and in all of its eight wards. Museums, embassies, universities, libraries, theatres, and schools participated in the Festival. Most of the films included introductions by, or discussions with, filmmakers or environmental experts. Most of the events were free, and all were open to the public.
The Festival’s Web site serves as a resource to interested parties around the world throughout the year, with a detailed listing of the films, distributors and contact information as well as short films, filmmaker bios, and other features that effectively extend the reach of the Festival. From January through April 2009, the Web site received approximately 4.6 million hits, an increase of 35 percent over the same period last year, and a measure of the increased visibility of the site.
The Festival received broad media coverage. From interviews with EFF staff and filmmakers on local and national television (27 separate programs), to similar exposure on local and national radio, to wide-ranging coverage in print (50 known articles or mentions in newspapers and magazines), the public learned about the Festival and its environmental themes through a myriad of media. Included were three separate film reviews in The Washington Post, as well as five back-lit advertisements in DC Metro stations. In addition, unprecedented use of the Internet and the Web site resulted in exposure on news, tourism, film, and environmental sites, greatly extending the reach of the Festival.
The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital is pleased to report that the organization met or exceeded its programmatic and financial goals for the season just concluded. The generous support of many organizations and individuals makes these successes possible, and we are most grateful.
Indeed, over the past five years, EFF has steadily undergone substantial and encouraging growth in all areas of its planning and programming. The number of films screened has increased by over 30 percent, while audiences attending Festival screenings have increased by 66 percent. The number of collaborating organizations rose by 68 percent, and the number of screening venues throughout the city has risen by 49 percent. And the number of special guests enhancing Festival programs, including filmmakers, scientists, and other environmental experts, has surged by more than 210 percent over the last five years. ...hide
