April 22 is Earth Day (and Shorts Night!), but did you know this entire month is Earth Month? Over the years, RMWF has strived to bring the Pikes Peak region voices that care about and care for our beautiful planet. Check out the list below for some of our favorite films from those voices.
Bag It | Directed by Jeb Berrier | 78 mins.
It’s everywhere: we can’t seem to get away from plastic– but what if we tried? One plastic bag was enough to send documentarian Jeb Berrier on a journey to cut his use of plastic down, and that evolved into a quest that took him all around the world to investigate how exactly we got here and what we can do to get ourselves out of the single-use plastic dilemma. BAG IT takes a hard look at the excessive use of plastic in our lives and its often huge, often harmful impact on life as we know it. More info and where to watch.
The Age of Stupid | Directed by Franny Armstrong | 89 mins.
The year is 2055, and the Earth is on fire, flooded, deforested, and melted. But one archivist, residing in a now nearly iceless Arctic, wants to know why– what went wrong and why didn’t we try to stop it? THE AGE OF STUPID combines news segments, interviews, and other real life footage to weave together six stories about what we’re doing to the Earth and what we can do differently to save it before it’s too late. More info and where to watch.
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai | Directed by Lisa Merton & Alan Dater | 81 mins.
Wangari Maathai started with one simple idea: plant more trees to counter the deforestation in her native rural Kenya. This initiative went on to inspire environmental stewardship throughout the world, founding the Green Belt Movement, and she would be the first African women to win a Nobel Peace Prize. TAKING ROOT sheds light on an incredible woman and the important work she did to care for the land, promote human rights for rural communities, and even take down a 24-year long dictatorship. More info and where to watch.
Sun Come Up | Directed by Jennifer Redfearn | 38 mins.
The inhabitants of the Carteret Islands–located in the remote South Pacific–have for centuries lived on a simple diet with nothing but the resources around them, no electricity, cars or running water. Despite having some of the lowest carbon footprints on Earth, the Islanders were also some of the first to have to carry out a community-wide evacuation, as rising sea levels contaminated their water, eroded their land, and made weather patterns too volatile. This Academy Award-nominated short documentary follows their bittersweet journey. More info and where to watch.
Jane | Directed by Brett Morgen | 90 mins.
Many know the name Jane Goodall, but fewer know her story and just how revolutionary her work was. This documentary follows Goodall’s years-long study of chimpanzees in the Tanzanian rainforest, and her fight to have her work recognized as legitimate. In the 60s, when her work first began, few believed that animals could create and use tools, feel emotions, express affection, or have distinct personalities and relationships, but she proved those beliefs wrong and would go on to be perhaps the most important primatologist of our time. More info and where to watch.
