Mar. 19 | Mar. 20 | Mar. 21 | Mar. 22 | Mar. 23 | Mar. 24 | Mar. 25 | Mar. 26 | Mar. 27 | Mar. 28
THURSDAY, MARCH 19
Angel Azul
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Marcy Cravat.
FRIDAY, MARCH 20
Reaching Blue: Finding Hope Beneath the Surface
Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Jen Rustemeyer via video conference.
SATURDAY, MARCH 21
Shark Girl
Pelican Dreams
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Judy Irving via video conference.
Chuitna: More Than Salmon on the Line
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers via video conference.
En La Orilla
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers via video conference.
Mother Kuskokwim
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers via video conference.
Song of the Sea
After the screening ice cream and sorbet will be served courtesy of our friends at the bent spoon.
SUNDAY, MARCH 22
Song From the Forest
Today, twenty-five years later, Louis Sarno has recorded more than 1,000 hours of unique Bayaka music. He is a fully accepted member of the Bayaka society and has a 13-year-old son, Samedi. Once, when Samedi was a baby, he became seriously ill and Louis feared for his life. He held his son in his arms through a frightful night and made him a promise: “If you get through this, one day I’ll show you the world I come from.” Now the time has come to fulfill his promise, and Louis travels with Samedi from the African rainforest to another jungle, one of concrete, glass, and asphalt: New York City. Together, they meet Louis’ family and old friends, including his closest friend from college, Jim Jarmusch. Carried by the contrasts between rainforest and urban America, with a fascinating soundtrack and peaceful, loving imagery, Louis‘ and Samedi‘s stories are interwoven to form a touching portrait of a man and his son. “Song from the Forest” is a modern epic set between rainforest and skyscrapers. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with David Rothenberg, the film’s music supervisor.
Oil & Water
Their journeys lead them to explore what could be a more just future, not just for the Cofan, but for all people around the world born with oil beneath their feet. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers via video conference.
Field Biologist
Christensen’s adventure took him to the cloud forests of Monteverde to the mangrove swamps of the Nicoya Peninsula and culminated in a plan to try to help save the highly endangered mangrove hummingbird. The screening will be followed by a Q&A will filmmaker Jared Flesher and Tyler Christensen, the subject of the film.
MONDAY, MARCH 23
No Pipeline: Say the Friends of Nelson
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers George McCollough and Anna Savoia.
Switch
The screening will be followed by a discussion led by Dr. Karl Muessig, State Geologist, Director of the New Jersey Geological and Water Survey.
Above All Else
TUESDAY, MARCH 24
The Walking Revolution
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Sam Bunting, Princeton Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee, featuring: Kathy Smith, Program Officer at ‘Partners for Health’ and Board Chair, America Walks; Janet Heroux, Physical Activity Specialist, New Jersey Department of Health; Jim Constantine, Principal, Looney Ricks Kiss; and Jerry Foster, Safe Routes To Schools Coordinator, Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association
Antarctic Edge: 70º South (World Film Festival Premiere)
Screened at the library and Princeton Garden Theatre, 160 Nassau St. The screening at the Garden Theatre will be followed by a Q&A with director Dena Seidel, Mason Gross School of the Arts Dean George B. Stauffer; Rick Ludescher, executive producer; Steve Holloway and Xenia Morin, co-producers; and scientists Oscar Schofield and Doug Martinson, and Rutgers University students Darrel Gordon, Vincent Bradley, Isaiah McNeill, Stef Wong, Jaime Flores, and Gabriele Elise. All welcome to the after-party with the filmmakers and film team at the Princeton Public Library starting at 8:45 p.m., with refreshments courtesy of The Nature Conservancy.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25
The Family Farm
The film focuses on imbuing the importance of understanding where our food comes from and emphasizes the crucial role family farms play in ensuring the survival and well-being of local communities and environments. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Jared Flesher, filmmaker and Editor, Edible Jersey Magazine, featuring local first generation farmers: Rachel Mackow and Jared Rosenbaum, Wild Ridge Plants, LLC; Alec Gioseffi, Lauren Nagy and Matt Weiss, Cooperative 518; and Steven and Robin Tomlinson, Great Road Farm.
Brilliant Darkness: Hotaru in the Night
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Emily V Driscoll and Karl J. Fischer.
THURSDAY, MARCH 26
Great Ideas Breakfast – “How Is Our Planet Changing?”
Switch
Racing to Zero
The PEFF Sustainability Bowl
The Overnighters
Over at Concordia Lutheran Church, Pastor Jay Reinke is Hell-bent on delivering the migrants some dignity. Night after night he converts his church into a makeshift dorm and counseling center, opening the church’s doors to allow the “Overnighters” – as he calls them – to stay for a night, a week or sometimes longer, sleeping on the floor, in the pews, and in their cars in the Church parking lot. As broken men continue to arrive in droves, the congregants sling criticism, neighbors get suspicious, and the City Council threatens an ordinance to shut the Overnighters program down. When the Williston Herald gets wind that sex offenders are among Reinke’s church guests, a mounting controversy peaks, and even the Pastor’s determination and heartfelt quest for humanity can’t stop things from spiraling enormously out of control. A modern-day “Grapes of Wrath,” the film engages and dramatizes a set of universal societal and economic themes: the promise and limits of re-invention, redemption and compassion, as well as the tension between the moral imperative to “love thy neighbor” and the practice of one small community when confronted by a surging river of desperate, job seeking strangers. Screened at Princeton University Lewis Center for the Arts, James M. Stewart ’32 Theater, 185 Nassau Street, Princeton. Presented in partnership with Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion, Council of the Humanities, Department of Sociology, Lewis Center for the Arts, Program in American Studies and The University Center for Human Values. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Jesse Moss.
FRIDAY, MARCH 27
School’s Out: Lessons from a Forest Kindergarten
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Rona Richter.
The Wound and the Gift
As the fable and the film unfold, the narrative spine of the film is an ancient fable about a wounded crane, saved by peasants, that attempts to express her gratitude with a gift. Scenes from the folktale weave together with stunning real life footage of rescued animals and their sanctuaries. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Linda Hoaglund.
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret
SATURDAY, MARCH 28
The Puddle Garden (Storytime and Rain Garden Presentation)
In this story full of native plants and wildlife, learn how Bear Cub invite friends to his new house – by creating a puddle farden. Bear Cub plants cardinal flower, swamp milkweed, elderberry, and more. His garden quickly fills with wild friends from hummingbirds to frogs, and his new home is no longer lonely. The reading is followed by a presentation for children and parents on creating a native plant rain garden at home, with photos and stories about wildflowers and wildlife. This program is intended for children ages 3 and older and their families and will run about 45 minutes.
Five in One The Accidental Sea Tales from the Sand Imagine a World Without Fish The Accidental Environmentalist Why I Think This World Should End
Inhabit (East Coast Premiere)
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Costa Boutsikaris. Fruit smoothies will be served courtesy of our friends at Tico’s Eatery and Juice Bar.
Trashion Show
Project Wild Thing
After the screening ice cream and sorbet will be served courtesy of our friends at the bent spoon, and all invited to play in a Drum Circle led by Mark Wood, Wood N Drums.
SUNDAY, MARCH 29
Divide in Concord
In the same town that incited the American Revolution and inspired Thoreau’s environmental movement, can one little old lady make history? A tense nail-biter of a vote will decide. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Kris Kaczor and David Regos. Sunday Brunch Screening coffee courtesy of our friends at Small World Coffee.
Occupy the Farm
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Todd Darling.
Project Wild Thing
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RESOURCES Festival Trailer
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Angel Azul tells the story of one artist’s inspiring attempt to draw attention to the perilous situation coral reefs currently face worldwide. Jason DeCaires Taylor is an eco-sculptor who casts cement statues from live human models and installs them on the ocean floor to create an artificial coral reef. The film follows the making of an angel, a symbol of hope, with wings made from live fan coral, to reside in an underwater museum alongside 400 of Jason’s statues located off the coast of Cancn in the National Marine Park, El Museo Subacuatico De Arte (MUSA). Over time the statues grow coral, provide habitat for marine life and a diversion for tourists offering the natural reefs a reprieve from heavy usage. The story takes a turn when the coral that had been growing on the statues starts to die and issues related to waste water pollution and rising sea temperatures become evident. Through local experts and scientists in the field the full scope of the problem is revealed.
A writer, an oyster farmer and an ocean scientist on the Pacific coast expose new changes found in the Salish Sea, linking each of us to the world’s oceans. With twenty-two cinematographers contributing imagery from deep-sea submarines, ocean research vessels and drone cameras around our local waters, we catch a glimpse of the Salish Sea as it has never been seen before. From John Steinbeck’s old research vessel The Western Flyer to residents of coastal communities facing dramatic changes in their own back yards, Reaching Blue shows that we are all connected to the ocean at our doorstep.
Filmmakers and food lovers Jen and Grant dive into the issue of waste from farm, through retail, all the way to the back of their own fridge. After catching a glimpse of the billions of dollars of good food that is tossed each year in North America, they pledge to quit grocery shopping cold turkey and survive only on foods that would otherwise be thrown away. In a nation where one in 10 people is food insecure, the images they capture of squandered groceries are both shocking and strangely compelling. But as Grant’s addictive personality turns full tilt towards food rescue, the ‘thrill of the find’ has unexpected consequences.
Conservationist, filmmaker, activist, delinquent – 19-year-old Madison Stewart has been called many things, but to her friends she’s simply ‘shark girl’. Growing up on the Great Barrier Reef, Madison soon realized the creature she loves most is disappearing fast. Driven by fear, every year up to 80,000 sharks are killed in this UNESCO World Heritage Site for cheap fish steaks and luxury shark fin soup. So turning passion into action, she sets out to stop the slaughter and shatter our perception of these alleged man-eaters. Armed with just a video camera, she fearlessly swims with tiger sharks, feeds a rowdy gang of Caribbean reef sharks and removes fishhooks from the mouths of oceanic silky sharks. She also investigates how more and more countries protect their sharks – Mexico, Palau, the Bahamas – and back home she bravely takes her campaign right to the heart of the shark fishing industry. Madison’s story is a powerful and call moving journey of one determined young woman’s passion to save the animal she loves.
What’s it like to try to get to know a flying dinosaur? Sundance-and- Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker Judy Irving (“The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”) follows a wayward California brown pelican from her “arrest” on the Golden Gate Bridge into care at a wildlife rehabilitation facility, and from there explores pelicans’ nesting grounds, Pacific coast migration, and survival challenges. The film is about wildness: how close can we get to a wild animal without taming or harming it? Why do we need wildness in our lives, and how can we protect it? “Pelican Dreams” stars “Gigi” (named for Golden Gate) and “Morro” (a backyard pelican with an injured wing).
Set in Alaska’s remote Chuitna Watershed, the film chronicles the journey of conservation-minded fly fishermen who travel to this unspoiled wilderness to wade waist-deep into its salmon-rich waters and the fight to defeat the proposed Chuitna Mine, which would destroy more than 30 square miles of this invaluable ecosystem. Through the eyes of Al Goozmer (Tyonek Tribal President), Terry Jorgensen (a commercial fisherman), and Judy and Larry Heilman (founders of the Chuitna Citizens Coalition), these anglers learn about the devastating impact the mine would have on the Chuitna’s residents as well as its vibrant lands and waters.
Gaspar and his family live in Agua Verde, a 256-person town on the eastern coast of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. Day by day, they struggle to catch enough fish and make enough money to pay for the things they need, living at the edge of their means.Fishing is getting harder every year, but Gaspar still has faith that with enough patience and time, he can maintain his family’s quality of life. Gaspar knows that his might be the last generation that can manage this balancing act, so he and his wife Silvia work hard to ensure their children will lead a different life from theirs – one that does not depend solely on fishing.
Mother Kuskokwim is a film about the people who live in the remote Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta of Southwest Alaska. Here the native Yup’ik people continue to practice a subsistence lifestyle in a region suffering from severe economic hardship and climate change.
Based on the Irish legend of the Selkies, the animated “Song of the Sea” tells the story of the last seal-child, Saoirse, and her brother Ben, who go on an epic journey to save the world of magic and discover the secrets of their past. Pursued by the owl witch Macha and a host of ancient and mythical creatures, Saoirse and Ben race against time to awaken Saoirse’s powers and keep the spirit world from disappearing forever.
As a young man, American Louis Sarno heard a song on the radio that gripped his imagination. He followed the mysterious sounds all the way to the Central African rainforest and found their source with the Bayaka Pygmies, a tribe of hunters and gatherers. He never left.
Oil & Water is the true story of two boys coming of age as they each confront one of the world’s worst toxic disasters. Hugo and David were born on opposite ends of the oil pipeline. Hugo comes to America to fight for the survival of his Cofan tribe in the Ecuadorian Amazon, while David leaves the U.S. and goes to Ecuador to launch the world’s first company to certify oil as “fair trade.”
Tyler Christensen, a high-school graduate who loves the outdoors and wildlife, one day decides to begin his own research on birds in Costa Rica.
The effects of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) are felt far and wide. “No Pipeline” looks at a community in Nelson County, Virginia fighting a gas pipeline which threatens the beauty of the countryside and change the way of life they have come to love.
Every energy resource — fossil, nuclear and renewable — is undergoing profound changes. This sweeping transition is the subject of “Switch” and travels the world to discover how it most likely will happen, with a focus on the practical realities and balanced understanding about changing the way we use energy, to realize the many economic and environmental benefits of efficiency.
In this first-hand account of activists on the front line of the climate fight, one man risks it all to stop the tar sands of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from crossing his land. Shot in the forests, pastures, and living rooms of rural East Texas, “Above All Else” follows David Daniel, a retired stunt man and high-wire artist, as he rallies neighbors and activists to join him in a final act of brinkmanship: a tree-top blockade of the controversial pipeline.
Cities were once designed on a human scale. As more and more people took to the roads, the suburbs quickly became the new frontier. After 75 years of planning that produces a sedentary lifestyle, a radical redesign of our cities and open space has begun. Parks and paths are making a comeback to create truly walkable communities through partnerships between residents, businesses, developers, municipalities, urban planners and health care providers.
In 2014, scientists declared West Antarctic ice sheet melting unstoppable, threatening the lives of millions of people over the next century. In the wake of devastating climate events such as Hurricane Sandy and Typhoon Haiyan, “Antarctic Edge: 70º South” follows a team of scientists who choose to live a life at sea in a race to understand climate change in the fastest winter-warming place in the world. While trekking through the dangerous and uncharted landscape of the West Antarctic Peninsula, these scientists push the limits of their research and come to terms with the sacrifices necessary to understand this rapidly changing world.
“The Family Farm” explores the diverse agricultural pursuits of earnest farm families, and serves as a window into the small-scale food production process.
“Brilliant Darkness: Hotaru in the Night” explores the importance of darkness, and erosion of it, through the study and preservation of firefly habitats in Japan and the United States. Fireflies disappear as artificial night lights disrupt their “languages of light.” The film features artists and scientists on different continents working to understand firefly flash patterns and how to live among wildlife in urban settings.
Sustainable Princeton
Every energy resource — fossil, nuclear and renewable — is undergoing profound changes. This sweeping transition is the subject of “Switch” and travels the world to discover how it most likely will happen, with a focus on the practical realities and balanced understanding about changing the way we use energy, to realize the many economic and environmental benefits of efficiency.
By substituting the word “resource” for the word “garbage,” a culture can be transformed, and a new wealth of industries can emerge, presenting new solutions to the global problem of waste. The film examines how the mayor of San Francisco pledged to achieve zero waste by 2020, and tracks San Francisco’s waste stream diversion tactics and presents innovative new solutions to waste. This film documents a surprising, engaging and inspiring race to zero.
Kids in grades 3-6 are invited to compete in teams in this “Jeopardy” style game to win the PEFF Sustainability Bowl! Questions will be in categories and relate to energy, recycling, water, wildlife and more. Show what you know, and learn something too! Anyone interested in participating on a team is encouraged to 
In the tiny town of Williston, North Dakota tens of thousands of unemployed hopefuls show up with dreams of honest work and a big paycheck when hydraulic fracturing in that region unlocks a vast oil field in the nearby Bakken shale. Upon arrival, however, busloads of newcomers step into the sad reality of slim work prospects and nowhere to sleep – the town lacks the infrastructure to house even those who do find gainful employment.
No classroom for these kindergarteners. In Switzerland’s Langnau am Albis, a suburb of Zurich, children 4 to 7 years of age go to kindergarten in the forest every day, no matter what the weatherman says. The filmmakers follow the forest kindergarten through the seasons of one school year, looking into the important question of what it is that children need at this age. There is laughter, beauty and amazement in the process of finding out.
“The Wound and The Gift” explores the major transformation in our relationship with animals through the growing “Rescue” movement. All over the world, people are saving the lives of animals that were bred for profit, abused, or sold on the black market. Millions of us are adopting dogs and cats from shelters, rather than buying pets from breeders and pet stores. Many people devote their lives to providing sanctuaries and shelters for rescued animals. By caring for wounded animals in need, we are learning just how much animals give back to those who care for them.
“Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret” follows an intrepid filmmaker investigating the environmental impact large scale factory farming has on the planet. The film examines animal agriculture as the leading cause of deforestation, water consumption and pollution, and primary driver of rainforest destruction, species extinction, habitat loss, topsoil erosion, ocean “dead zones,” and virtually every other environmental ill.
Join author Jared Rosenbaum for a dynamic reading of his new children’s book “The Puddle Garden.”
“Inhabit” explores the many environmental issues facing us today and examines solutions that are being applied using the ecological design process called ‘Permaculture’. Permaculture is a design lens that uses the principles found in ecosystems to help shift our impact from destructive to regenerative. Focused mostly on the Northeastern and Midwestern regions of the United States, Inhabit provides an intimate look at permaculture peoples and practices ranging from rural, suburban, and urban landscapes.
Students will walk the runway modeling original “trashion” clothing designs created with imagination and recycled materials.
Filmmaker David Bond is a worried man. His kids’ waking hours are dominated by a cacophony of marketing, and a screen dependence threatening to turn them into glassy-eyed zombies. Like city kids everywhere, they spend way too much time indoors – not like it was back in his day. He decides it’s time to get back to nature – literally.
Jean Hill, a fiery octogenarian, is deeply concerned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—the world’s largest landfill. She spends her golden years attending city council meetings and cold-calling residents. Since 2010, she’s spearheaded a grassroots campaign to ban the sale of single-serve plastic bottled water in her hometown of Concord, Massachusetts. So far, her attempts to pass a municipal bylaw have failed. As she prepares for one last town meeting, Jean faces the strongest opposition yet, from local merchants and the International Bottled Water Association. But her fiercest challenge comes from Adriana Cohen, mother, model and celebrity publicist-turned-pundit, who insists the bill is an attack on freedom. When Adriana thrusts Jean’s crusade into the national spotlight, it’s silver-haired senior versus silver-tongued pro.
“Occupy the Farm” tells the inspiring story of a community taking direct action to create a healthier and more just food system and stewardship of a precious resource: publicly owned urban farmland. 200 farmers occupy a last piece of farmland in California’s urban East Bay, plant 15,000 seedlings to feed the community and disrupt plans to build a shopping mall. What happens next will change the fate of the land and reveal a new strategy for activism.