Past Highlights

Film Series

Working with Filmmakers for Conservation, the center showcases important new films and celebrated filmmakers every Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. in AU’s Wechsler Theatre. Topics have included Whale Wars, the role of humor in environmental activism, the Chesapeake Bay, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the crisis facing our oceans. Speakers include top executives and filmmakers from organizations such as National Geographic, Discovery, Animal Planet, Friends of the Earth, and the Earth Conservation Corps. Here are a few highlights from the Spring 2009  series.

1Sky and WITNESS: Video for Change

Gillian Caldwell, Campaign Director for 1Sky and former Executive Director of WITNESS

Gillian Caldwell showed video from 1Sky's climate change campaign. She also demonstrated the use of video in environmental advocacy and its power to change human rights policies.

 

The Reality of Documentary TV

Michael Cascio, SVP, National Geographic

Michael Cascio shared stories from the front lines of making real – as opposed to reality – television, and why documenting the truth about our world is way more interesting than fiction.

 

Animal Planet’s Whale Wars

Jason Carey, Executive Producer, Animal Planet

The EP of Whale Wars discussed the challenges of tackling controversial animal conservation as dramatic storytelling and how doing so is beginning to rebrand a television network.

 

Laughter, Comedy and Environmental Activism

Chris Palmer, American University

A film-clip illustrated presentation on how to take advantage of one of the most powerful tools available to us in environmental activism—humor.

Student Environmental Short Film Festival, plus Panel Discussion (co-sponsored by REI)

Hosted by Professors Chris Palmer and Sandy Cannon-Brown
Panel: Charles Dunkerly (National Park Service), Danny Ledonne (CEF and AU), and Jen Shoemaker (National Geographic)

Some of the best environmental films being produced by students today.

 

Bombs in our Backyard (Work in Progress), plus Panel Discussion

Ginny Durrin, Durrin Productions, Inc., plus panel

Toxic chemical weapons secretly buried in the past now haunt residents of a wealthy DC neighborhood.

Safari Sisters on Animal Planet

Kathryn Pasternak, formerly Senior Producer with National Geographic

Series Producer Kathryn Pasternak talked about her experiences producing her first Animal Planet series out of a concrete bunker in the middle of a wildlife reserve in Zimbabwe.