Environmental Film Festival

Friday, March 26 and Saturday, March 27, 6 p.m.

Every March, the DC Environmental Film Festival presents a diverse selection of quality environmental films, including documentaries, features, animations and shorts as well as archival, experimental, and children’s films at a wide variety of venues throughout the region. CPNAS participated in the Festival for the first time this year with Division Street and Last Call for Planet Earth. Panel discussions will follow both films.

Division Street (2009, 63 minutes)
Friday, March 26, 6 p.m.
National Academies' Keck Center
500 Fifth St., N.W., Room 100
Washington, D.C.
Free; Photo ID required.

Washington, D.C. Premiere A quest to visit the most remote place from any road in the lower 48 states is chronicled in this film. Roads have fragmented wild landscapes, ushered in the "age of urban sprawl" and challenged out bedrock sense of community. The film explores the concept of wildlife corridors, the potential for greening our highway system, and the fusion of high-tech engineering with the best and brightest environmental research happening today. But as the transportation crisis appears to be spiraling out of control, a new generation of ecologists, engineers, city-planners and everyday citizens are transforming the future of the American road. Division Street is at once a portrait of ancient wilderness and new technologies as well as a call for connectivity, innovation and solutions to shape the emerging green transportation movement. Directed by Eric Bendick. Produced by Frogpondia Films.

A panel discussion facilitated by Christine Gerencher, Senior Program Officer for Aviation and Environment, Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Sciences followed the screening. Participants were Joe Burns, National Transportation Ecology Program Leader; Patricia White, Director, Habitat and Highways Campaign, Defenders of Wildlife; and Bill Branch, an ecologist with the Maryland Department of Transportation.

Last Call For Planet Earth (2009, 74 minutes)
Saturday, March 27, 6 p.m.
National Academies' Keck Center
500 Fifth St., N.W., Room 100
Washington, D.C.
Free; Photo ID required.

Washington, D.C. Premiere Twelve leading architects and urban planners from around the world including Thomas Mayne of the United States, Kengo Kuma of Japan, Markku Komonen of Finland, Jaime Lerner of Brazil, Ivan Harbour of the United Kingdom and Massimiliano Fuksas of Italy, share their vision on architecture that respects nature. Focusing on people who care about our future and who want to make a difference, the film is a reflection on the value society places on the built environment and how architecture influences society. The quick and energetic mastery of sustainable development and its application to architecture and town planning concerns us all. Directed and produced by Jacques Allard. Nominated as one of the five best projects of Sustainable Energy 2007/2008.