News & Events

For Immediate Release                                                      

DATE: October 17, 2008

Contact:          
Tatiana Petrone at (304) 876-7373 or (202) 316- 8281
Amy Mathews Amos at (304) 876-0647

American Conservation Film Festival Announces New Program for November Festival

Shepherdstown WV - The American Conservation Film Festival (ACFF) announces a schedule of more than 20 films for its 2008 fall festival, and the introduction of a new program:  Conservation in Context.  This year, in addition to a full roster of conservation films and discussions with filmmakers, ACFF will host experts on the conservation issues raised in many of the films to engage audiences in dialogue.

In its 6th year, ACFF’s annual 4-day event will be held in beautiful Shepherdstown, West Virginia on November 6-9 at locations at Shepherd University, the historic Opera House theatre, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center.  This year’s films examine global climate change, endangered species, mountaintop removal in West Virginia, modern agriculture and more.  A festival preview event will be held the evening of November 5 in partnership with the National Conservation Training Center featuring Gregg Mitman, Director of the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, and his presentation Glorious Species: Animals in Film. 

Spaced throughout the festival, environmental experts will discuss many of the issues raised in the films.  Environmental activist Lauren Glickman will talk about fostering a societal switch to clean energy and energy-efficient products.  Cindy Rank, Chair of the mining committee of the West Virginia Conservancy, will discuss coal mining.  Shepherdstown author Will Stolzenburg, who recently completed a book on predators, will discuss wolf reintroduction.  Joette Borzik, an expert on parrots and other non-game birds, will discuss the need for bird rehabilitation.  And children’s author, Lynne Cherry, will discuss hands-on things that kids can do to protect the environment. 

ACFF includes films and activities for children during our children’s festival Saturday, November 8th.   At noon, the film Zoo Vets will show kids how wild animals are cared for in a zoo.  After the film, a wildlife veterinarian will talk about the care of zoo animals and there will be two short presentations of live reptiles and birds.    

A full schedule of movie times, venues and directions is available at conservationfilm.org.  All films shown at the National Conservation Training Center are free of charge.  Tickets to the films shown at the Shepherd University’s Erma Ora Byrd Auditorium and the Opera House are $7 for an evening of films, $5 for one film, or $3 for students with an ID.  

The 2008 American Conservation Film Festival is sponsored in part by the National Conservation Training Center, Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment, West Virginia Humanities Council, Carl M. Freeman Foundation, Friends of the National Conservation Training Center, Bowles Rice, LLC, and many individual donations. 

Films to be screened at the 2008 American Conservation Film Festival include:

American Outrage - The US spent millions to prosecute two elderly Shoshone sisters for grazing livestock in a desolate stretch of tribal land.  Are we to blame?

Burning the Future: Coal in America - When you turn on the lights, think of this:  Every two weeks more explosives than the Hiroshima bomb are unleashed on the Central Appalachians.

Everything’s Cool - Now that even naysayers admit the reality of climate change, the Columbo of Climate Change and friends search for an icon to energize political action.

Fish and Cows - Biologists and ranchers find common ground while trying to preserve the ecological health of Big Hole Valley, Montana.

Flow: For Love of Water - The case against the growing privatization of the word’s fresh water supply: politics, pollution, human rights, and a cutthroat world water cartel.

In the Valley of the Wolves - It’s two wolf packs, the Druids against the Slews.  But the story unfolds like Bernstein’s Jets versus Sharks.  A story of love, devotion and warfare.

King Corn - Two friends, once acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.  With genetically modified seeds and herbicides, they grow a bumper crop and raise questions about how we eat, and how we farm.

The Lord God Bird - George Plimpton said of the Ivory-billed woodpecker:  “If America had a bird of paradise this would be it, and its history is the story of American conservation.  A 40-year tale of hope and survival.

Plight of the Puffin - An Icelandic island’s deep centuries-old connection inspires their intense search.  Why have the birds stopped breeding?

Seed Hunter  - Near the North Pole, a frozen vault holds the seed bank that could save world food supplies from global climate disruption.  Smithsonian Network travels the world in a race to find the rare seeds we’ll need.

The American Chestnut - At one time a squirrel could leap from one chestnut tree to another from New England to South Carolina, without touching the ground.  Then the entire species vanished in a decade.  There is new hope for its revival.

Understory  - A group of university students travel to North America’s northernmost rainforest in Varacruz, Mexico, where they discover an environmental disaster in the making.

Waste=Food  - An architect and designer are re-imagining the way we design and build everything- and turning the world right side up.

Where Do Children Play?  A study of children’s diminishing access to woods, fields, vacant lots, parks, and other semi-wild play spaces.

Zoo Vets  - Children will enjoy this film about zoo veterinarians.