Focus

Discussing environmental issues and climate change can be overwhelming. Youth are beginning to take the lead, demanding an end to the inaction.

Motivated by the words of Greta Thunberg, “No one is too small to make a difference,” the Focus program offers these films to inform, enlighten, and inspire action.

Program runs from September 23 – December 16, 2019

CHASING ICE: One of the first films to generate a visual and tangible awareness of climate change that was accessible to the public.

FASHION’S DIRTY SECRET: Looking at the social and environmental implications of fast fashion, this doc will challenge students to make a difference, starting with their own closet.

STRAWS: Plastic straws can be the catalyst for conversation about our use of plastic, and this doc shows that we have a long way to go.

YOUTH UNSTOPPABLE: At 15, Slater Jewell-Kemker began documenting the untold stories of youth on the front lines of climate change, and for the next 11 years we follow her journey.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Films are booked for one-week increments. Select the week that you think the film content is relevant to your subject teaching. The film will be sent to you the week prior for preview before showing to students.

BOOK NOW

The films may be booked each week starting Monday, September 23, and the last week a booking may be made is for Monday, December 16.

Booking links is recommended, as links and password are easily sent and co-ordinating the mailing of a DVD is avoided. Straws is available as a link only. The other films are available by link or DVD.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Elspeth Arbow, Docs For Schools Coordinator, at [email protected].

CHASING ICE

USA
2012
75
PG

Jeff Orlowski

In the spring of 2005, acclaimed National Geographic photographer James Balog was dispatched to the Arctic on a tricky assignment: to capture images that tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. At the time, Balog was skeptical. Even if human-caused climate change is real, can we correct it? But what he saw on that first trip was too compelling to dispute. Balog had to act and so created the Extreme Ice Survey, a multi-year project that would, through time-lapse photography, document dramatic changes to numerous glaciers around the world. With stunning cinematography and access to never before seen areas of the Arctic, Chasing Ice documents Balog's incredible journey to provide incontrovertible proof—at great risk to his own health—that our planet is in crisis and what we do to it matters.

View Film Website

FASHION'S DIRTY SECRET

UK
2018
60

Emeka Onono

Looking at the social and environmental implications of fast fashion, this film aims to raise awareness of the demands consumers are putting on the planet when they participate in this billion-dollar industry. How toxic chemicals released by the garment industry are polluting waterways that millions of people rely on. We will see the former Aral Sea once one of the largest bodies of fresh water now reduced almost entirely to dust. The doc challenges the viewer to make a difference, starting with their own closet.

STRAWS

USA
2017
32

Linda Booker

Through animation, interviews, and a viral Youtube video, this film confronts audiences with a silent killer: plastic drinking straws. We meet environmental activists from all over the world and of all ages working to educate individuals on how we can all can make a difference and keep straws out of the oceans.

Film website

YOUTH UNSTOPPABLE

Canada
2018
53

Slater Jewell-Kemker

The film takes us inside the rise of the Global Youth Climate Movement. Slater Jewell-Kemker was 15 when she began documenting the untold stories of youth on the front lines of climate change refusing to let their futures slip away. Over the course of 11 years the film follows the evolution of a diverse network of youth rising up to shape the world they will live in.

Film website

Director speaking about the film

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Supported By

Additional support is provided by The S. M. Blair Family Foundation, Patrick and Barbara Keenan Foundation, Pitblado Family Foundation, Flavelle Family Foundation, The McLean Foundation and through contributions by individual donors.

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