Films and Festivals

The movie industry generates large amounts of money and, as Brian Raftery put it in an article for Wired, “giddy fandemonium,” but most observers appear to agree that the medium has less socio-cultural impact than in decades past (mostly because of the many other media options now available). Even so, movies continue to affect and embody what individuals and communities value. This is certainly true with the films and festivals that speak to animal welfare and environmental issues, but my sense is that cinema, already a friend for those causes, could even more powerfully influence attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

By way of context, there is an abundance of films (feature, documentary, animated) and festivals (in the United States and abroad) directly dedicated to animals and the environment. Several of these movies have won recognition; for instance, WALL-E and The Cove each earned an Academy Award. In addition, many of these events are well sponsored and impressively attended; an especially good example is the Environmental Film Festival held each year in Washington, DC. Moreover, the “greening” theories and methods of ecocriticism and animal studies are giving us interesting new ways to look at things filmic.

Despite such trends, Christopher Palmer, who heads the Center for Environmental Filmmaking, concludes that awareness leads to action only if a movie is reinforced with a campaign. I wonder if films by young people, magnified with social media, might create awareness and action. There is a “youth and student” category at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival; could others, like the American Youth Film Festival, also incentivize a cinema of animal welfare and the environment?