The Babushkas of Chernobyl

72 Minutes
Filmmaker:  Holly Morris
TRAILER

Click Image for Trailer!

Click Image for Trailer!

In the radioactive Dead Zone surrounding Chernobyl’s Reactor No. 4, a defiant community of women scratch out an existence on some of the most toxic land on Earth. They share this hauntingly beautiful but lethal landscape with an assortment of visitors – scientists, soldiers, and even ‘stalkers’ – young thrill-seekers who sneak in to pursue post-apocalyptic video game-inspired fantasies. Why the film’s characters, Hanna, Maria and Valentyna, chose to return after the disaster, defying the authorities and endangering their health, is a remarkable tale about the pull of home, the healing power of shaping one’s destiny, and the subjective nature of risk.

Screens on Saturday, October 22 during BLOCK 6, which begins at 6:30 pm at the Frank Center on the Shepherd University Campus.

Beneath Paradise

12 Minutes
Filmmaker: Darlien Morales
TRAILER

Beneath Paradise Poster

Click Image For Trailer!

The island of Culebra, located off the coast of Puerto Rico, is one of the richest ecosystems in the Caribbean. Abundant mangroves, coral reefs and world-renowned beaches, like Flamenco Beach, attract tourists from all over. Today, active munitions from WW2 pose a threat to people, wildlife, and the environment. Activists, fishermen, professors, and military personnel aim to prevent further irreparable damage to Culebra’s coral reefs.

Screens on Sunday, October 23 during Block 8, which begins at 3:30 pm at Reynolds Hall on the Shepherd University Campus.

The True Cost

92 Minutes
Filmmaker: Andrew Morgan
TRAILER

Click Image for Trailer!

Click Image for Trailer!

This film explores the impact of the fashion industry on people and the planet.  While the price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, the human and environmental costs continue to grow. Filmed in 13 countries around the world, The True Cost explores the global damage being done and the ways we are buying into it and includes interviews with top voices from the fashion industry as well as prominent human rights and environmental activists.

Screens on Sunday, October 30th during BLOCK 15, which begins at 3:30 pm at the Frank Center on the Shepherd University Campus.

Unacceptable Risk: Firefighters on the Front Lines of Climate Change

12 Minutes
Filmmakers: Ted Wood and Daniel Glick
TRAILER

Click Image For Trailer!

Click Image For Trailer!

The Story Group recorded the experiences of firefighters who are repeatedly responding to record-breaking wildfires. Human-caused climate changes are transforming Colorado’s fire environment, bringing higher temperatures, drier fuels, and diseases to forest. These climate impacts mix with other human pressures to create a volatile situation for firefighters and communities.

Screens on Sunday, October 23 during Block 7, which begins at 1:00 pm at Reynolds Hall on the Shepherd University Campus.

Bikes vs. Cars

88 min

Filmmaker: Fredrik Gertten

Bikes vs. Cars depicts a global crisis where climate is changing; resource depletion is real and cities are sprawling with more and more surface consumed by the car. The bike is a great tool for change, but the powerful interests who gain from the auto industry invest billions each year on lobbying and advertising to protect their business. In Bikes vs. Cars we meet activists who are fighting for better cities and who refuse to stop riding despite the increasing numbers of bicyclists being killed in traffic.

3:35 pm on Sunday at the Byrd Center for Legislative Studies – Block 12

TRAILER

Bikes vs. Cars 1

Blood on the Mountain

93 min

Filmmakers: Mari-Lynn Evans, Jordan Freeman

Blood on the Mountain is a searing investigation into the economic and environmental injustices that have resulted from industrial control in West Virginia. This new feature documentary details the struggles of a hard-working, misunderstood people, who have historically faced limited choices and have never benefited fairly from the rich, natural resources of their land. This film delivers a striking portrait of a fractured population, exploited and besieged by corporate interests and abandoned by the powers elected to represent them.
6:30 Friday at the Byrd Center for Legislative Studies – Block 1

TRAILER

Blood on the Mountain

Broken Landscape

13 min

Filmmaker: Michael T. Miller

An explosion in unregulated ‘rat-hole’ coal mines turns a rural community in India into the Wild West until the environmental destruction prompts the government to ban coal mining completely. Mine owners and villagers clash in this moving examination of the cost of unmonitored industrial development.

3:57 pm on Saturday at the NCTC Byrd Auditorium – Block 7

TRAILER

final-cut-3-tol00_02_46_09still007_15386781083_o

Merchants of Doubt

Green Fire Award Winner

94 min

Filmmaker: Robert Kenner

Robert Kenner, acclaimed director of Food Inc., lifts the curtain on a secretive group of highly charismatic, silver-tongued pundits-for-hire who present themselves in the media as scientific authorities – yet contrarily are aiming to spread maximum confusion about well-studied public threats ranging from toxic chemicals to pharmaceuticals to climate change.

7:30 pm on Saturday at Reynolds Hall – Block 10

TRAILER

MOD

Nature Rx: Prescription Strength

3 min

Filmmaker: Justin Bogardus

Nature and humanity have a terrible marketing problem. Polar bears, hurricanes, and ice caps are not waking people up fast enough. It’s too impersonal and too easy to ignore. Here comes Prescription Strength, a hilarious, unflinching, timely look at what a person really needs to save themselves, each other, and our planet.

6:09 pm on Saturday at the Opera House – Block 8

9:05 pm on Saturday at Reynolds Hall – Block 10

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 7.03.02 PM

Overburden

65 min

Filmmaker: Chad Stevens

After a coal mine disaster kills her brother, a pro-coal activist joins forces with a tree-hugging environmentalist to take on the most dangerous coal company in America, Massey Energy. As the coal industry faces extinction, will our two heroines be able to heal their wounded community?

4:15 pm on Saturday at the NCTC Byrd Auditorium

TRAILER

Overburden