Where Are They Today?

October 1st, 2009

A look at Dr. Mark Cucuzella, one of our participants in the 2008 festival and his work organizing an amazing new race!

Many of you who attended the 2008 ACFF Film Festival had the privilege of being introduced to Dr. Mark Cucuzella, a local Physician and avid runner.  He has run over 50 marathons and was named the US Air Force Athlete of the Year in 1997.  He came to the attention of ACFF through his involvement leading the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation “Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities” Project and we were excited to hear about what he had been doing locally.  As part of our panel on Children in Nature, he brought insight into some of the more pressing issues and has been bringing into reality his ideas for getting children and their families active and outside.  He has spearheaded the formation of Tiger on the Trail, a hiking program for the Harpers Ferry Middle School which has taken over 1700 students along 6000 miles of the Appalachian Trail in two school years (wow!) and he is also the director for the exciting and ambitions Freedom’s Run.

On October 3rd, the Freedom’s Run Races will run through four National Parks including several civil war sites in the local area.  This includes Antietam Battlefield, Harper’s Ferry, the Murphy Farm, John Brown’s Fort, as well as a turn on the C & O Canal.  There is a full marathon that serves as a qualifier for the Boston Marathon, or, for those who are not quite as ambitious, there is a 5 K, a 10K, and even a free kids fun run! “It will be amazing to watch a couple hundred kids running up German Street.” Says Dr. Cuczella, and while the race is free, donations will be accepted to fund kid-oriented projects through the Wild and Wonderful Trails for Every Child Project (see below).   http://www.freedomsrun.org/KidsRun.aspx

In addition to highlighting several of our areas historical riches, this run has focused on health and fitness – fighting obesity, and promoting activity in a way that has attracted more than your average runner. Recently, I ran into Traci Morris, friend, wife, professional and mother of two.  She was inspired by the event and the break off groups of families that were meeting on the canal to train in a very low key setting and decided to enter in the first competitive run of her life.  She has been running regularly ever since and is an inspiration to those of us who might have thought you needed to be a hardcore athlete to enter into such an event! As a side benefit, after watching mom circle her on the school trail, her six year old daughter has now run her first mile and was very excited about it!

One primary beneficiary of the run is the Wild and Wonderful trails for Every Child Project.  This project brings together over 40 community partners with the goal of providing outdoor space accessible to children.  The grant will support the building of nature trails and community gardens at area schools and parks, promote family fitness, nutrition, and designate safe walking and biking routes for children to get to school.  Another partner and beneficiary is the Washington’s Way West Heritage Alliance, working toward creating a National Heritage area highlighting our cultural, environmental and agricultural riches as well as working towards a sustainable future for the Eastern Panhandle.

In the end, the real beneficiaries will be the hundreds of participants of every age who have set a goal for fitness and are working to achieve it. “If the outcome of this is more families walking and running, better health for our community, and a deeper understanding of the land we live on…then we will call this a success.” Dr. Cucuzella.

Our thanks to Dr. Cucuzella and the countless volunteers who will make this run possible.

www.freedomsrun.org

–Susan Womeldorf, Secretary, ACFF Board of Directors

ACFF Board President, Amy Matthews Amos

August 13th, 2009

Film introduced me to my passion.  I was only 5 or 6 years old – not contemplating the production quality or story arc on the screen in front of me.  But the visuals were enough:  lions on the Serengeti, cheetah after a kill, elephants at the watering hole.  Those nature documentaries on television got me every time.  And when I learned that some of those fabulous creatures were threatened by human activities, I was hooked.   I had my mission in life.

I’m now 25 years into a career in conservation.  Those old National Geographic documentaries not only captured my heart, but gave me the confidence to pursue my passion.  Growing up in 1960’s and 70’s suburbia, there weren’t a lot of role models for little girls interested in science and conservation.  But if Jane Goodall could save the chimps on television, then so could I.  I’ve done a lot of professional conservation work since then – mostly in the halls of Washington DC rather than the savannah of Africa.  But dry policy briefs can’t inspire the way film does.  ACFF is one way I can help make that happen for others.

Our mission at ACFF is to promote outstanding film and the arts to educate and inspire people to become engaged in conservation.  Our approach is to show the highest quality films we can, that cover a range of conservation topics.  Although charismatic megafauna (as we say in the conservation biz) is always a crowd-pleaser, our films go far beyond traditional wildlife documentaries.   The world is more complicated than it was in 1970 and our audience at ACFF is pretty sophisticated.  Our films explore the intersection between people and the environment, how the environment shapes cultures and how our culture impacts the environment.  This can include hot topics like global climate change (pun intended), mountain-top removal coal mining, and endangered species.  But it can also include subjects like hiking the Appalachian Trail, living “off the grid” in remote New Mexico, or fighting obesity by getting kids outside to play.

One ACFF theme I’m particularly excited about this year is food as a conservation issue.  Food is one of our most fundamental connections to the land, and illuminates how our own health is linked to the health of the earth.  Yet most modern Americans are largely detached from what they eat.  We’re so detached that many of us don’t know what’s in season (and therefore freshest, tastiest, and healthiest) in our own area.   I first started thinking about food as a conservation issue when my mother was diagnosed with cancer years ago.  I immediately began choosing organic food as much as possible, with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in the back of my mind.  My interest in food grew as my husband and I began frequenting the local farmer’s market every weekend and falling in love with the freshness of the produce.  I’m now a full-blown locavore, having moved to Shepherdstown where local farming competes with housing developments, and eating locally means not only having fabulous food, but supporting the rural landscape and reducing our carbon footprint.

At ACFF, we’ve always invited filmmakers to introduce their films and answer questions, but in recent years we’ve also invited experts on the issues raised in the films to engage in dialogue with the audience.   This fall, among others, innovative farmer Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm, featured in the film Food Inc. will be joining us to talk about his techniques for growing healthy food while supporting a healthy environment.  We’ll also have local author and screenwriter Will Stoltzenburg talk about the role of predators in healthy ecosystems, and other panelists as well. We started inviting experts like these because, so often after a film at our festival, someone asks “what can I do?”  That’s when we know we’ve inspired.