H 23°, L 4° | Tomorrow: 
H 21°, L 6°This year’s Tales from Planet Earth film festival aims to ignite community activism through the many community, social and environmental outreach programs involved with the festival to enhance the messages expressed in the films.
“If you look carefully at the films, and you look carefully at the organizations we are working with, you can see how they are interrelated,” said Tom Sinclair, communications director for the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies.
Contrasting traditional environmental activism such as preventing pollution and protecting wildlife, Sinclair said,TfPE uses a broader definition of environmental activism that addresses both social and community, as well as environmental, problems.
The festival, taking place Nov. 6 to Nov. 8, will incorporate multiple community outreach organizations such as Centro Hispano, the Four Lakes Wildlife Center — which alleviates wildlife destruction — and Porchlight, Inc.
Porchlight, Inc. is a nonprofit agency that seeks to give homeless people in Madison meaning and structure in their lives by having them prepare and cook products used by various shops, restaurants and sororities around campus.
“[Cooperating with UW students involved with the film festival] really seemed like a win-win,” Jennifer Hall, the kitchen programs manager for Porchlight, Inc. said in an in an e-mail to The Badger Herald. “We have no marketing budget, and it seemed that participating in the film festival would be a great way to get help with getting our message out there to a large audience.”
Director of TfPE film festival Gregg Mitman saw the addition of such community outreach programs as a great way to sway students and community members of the festival’s audience to take actions in helping the environment.
“I think that when people see these films, many of them will be moved by the films and wish that they could do something related to what the problems of these films portray,” Sinclair said.
For this reason, TfPE is trying to make it easy for audience members to follow up on the ideas presented in the films by supporting local organizations working in related areas.
Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow evaluated the film festival’s approach to causing environmental change with some skepticism.
“I don’t think that film festivals are a way to save the earth,” Midwest Director of CFACT Christina Wilson said. “I don’t think that film festivals are a call to action — I don’t think that they move people to do things.”
Instead, Wilson advocated CFACT’s approach, which takes a free-market approach to dealing with environmental concerns while also taking initiative in clean-up projects as well. She said this free-market approach allows people to forgo government regulations and create a cleaner earth based on their own judgments and intuition.
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Was is really necessary to include Christina Wilson’s opinion— which offers no supporting evidence? What you have here is a story of the university positively engaged with the Madison community. Why end on such a negative note? Why make a political issue out of this, when the community organization involved are so non-controversial? This article takes the “fair and balanced” approach to its illogical extreme.
Beside the fact that the missions of places like Four Lakes Wildlife or Porchlight have absolutely nothing to do with advocating government regulations. Wilson’s input is a complete non-sequitur. I don’t really blame Wilson, though, for the author’s poor choice.
I for one enjoyed the festival and appreciate all the hard work that went into it. I talked to many people there who indeed felt moved by the films and discussions.”
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You know, the community organizations that were involved with Tales from Planet Earth were pretty darn non-controversial and non-partisan. Was it really necessary to included CFACT’s opinion (which appears to offer no supporting evidence)? Why end a positive story about the university’s engagement with the community on such a negative note?