PEFF 2019 Schedule
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Monday, April 8
Free Solo
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Free Solo, a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of the free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock…the 3,000ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park…without a rope.
Celebrated as one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind, Honnold’s climb set the ultimate standard: perfection or death. Succeeding in this challenge, Honnold enters his story in the annals of human achievement. Free Solo is both an edge-of-your seat thriller and an inspiring portrait of an athlete who exceeded our current understanding of human physical and mental potential. The result is a triumph of the human spirit. Film followed by a Q&A with director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. Presented in partnership with Princeton University Lewis Center for the Arts and Outdoor Action. 7 p.m. at the James Stewart Film Theater, Princeton University
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Tuesday, April 9
Patrimonio
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Patrimonio begins in 2015 as a mega development is poised to engulf a small Mexican community with a vast hotel/condo complex called Tres Santos. Marketed to wealthy Americans as “green” and “mindful,” Tres Santos threatens to transform and overwhelm the idiosyncratic desert town of Todos Santos, quadrupling its population and causing irreversible damage: not only are the fishermen being forced off the beach they’re used for generations but the developers would also drain an already diminished aquifer, taking drinking water from a town where many residents have little or no access. Patrimonio tells a unique and inspiring story of resistance, a real-life tale about feisty fishermen who dared to stare down an American corporate Goliath – confronting their own government, denouncing corruption, demanding respect and refusing to blink first.
Film followed by a Q&A with director Sarah Teale 4:30 p.m. at the Computer Science Building, Room 104, Princeton University
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The Biggest Little Farm
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A testament to the immense complexity of nature, The Biggest Little Farm follows two dreamers and a dog on an odyssey to bring harmony to both their lives and the land. When the barking of their beloved dog Todd leads to an eviction notice from their tiny LA apartment, John and Molly Chester make a choice that takes them out of the city and onto 200 acres in the foothills of Ventura County, naively endeavoring to build one of the most diverse farms of its kind in complete coexistence with nature. The land they’ve chosen, however, is utterly depleted of nutrients and suffering from a brutal drought. The film chronicles eight years of daunting work and outsize idealism as they attempt to create the utopia they seek, planting 10,000 orchard trees and over 200 different crops, and bringing in animals of every kind– including an unforgettable pig named Emma and her best friend, Greasy the rooster. When the farm’s ecosystem finally begins to reawaken, so does the Chesters’ hope – but as their plan to create perfect harmony takes a series of wild turns, they realize that to survive they will have to reach a far greater understanding of the intricacies and wisdom of nature, and of life itself.
Free advance tickets available in person at the box office at the Princeton Garden Theatre 7 p.m. at Princeton Garden Theatre, 160 Nassau Street
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Wednesday, April 10
Elephant Path
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An indelible tale of friendship and commitment set against the luminous beauty of the Central African Rainforest. Together, elephant behavioral biologist, Andrea Turkalo, and indigenous tracker, Sessely Bernard, are tested by the realities of war and the limits of hope for the majestic animals they have committed their lives to study and protect.
4:30 p.m. at the Computer Science Building, Room 104, Princeton University
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Eating Animals
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How much do you know about the food that’s on your plate? Based on the bestselling book by Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals is an urgent, eye-opening look at the environmental, economic, and public health consequences of factory farming. Tracing the history of food production in the United States, the film charts how farming has gone from local and sustainable to a corporate Frankenstein monster that offers cheap eggs, meat, and dairy at a steep cost: the exploitation of animals; the risky use of antibiotics and hormones; and the pollution of our air, soil, and water. Spotlighting farmers who have pushed backed against industrial agriculture with more humane practices, Eating Animals offers attainable, commonsense solutions to a growing crisis while making the case that ethical farming is not only an animal rights issue but one that affects every aspect of our lives.
7 p.m. in the Community Room, Princeton Public Library
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Thursday, April 11
Grit
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When Dian was 6 years old, she heard a deep rumble and turned to see a tsunami of mud barreling towards her village. She remembers her mother scooping her up to save her from the boiling mud. Her neighbors ran for their lives. Sixteen villages, including Dian’s, were wiped away.
A decade later, nearly 60,000 people have been displaced from what was once a thriving industrial and residential area in East Java, located just 20 kilometers from Indonesia’s second largest city. Dozens of factories, schools and mosques are submerged 60 feet under a moonscape of cracked mud. 4:30 p.m. at the Computer Science Building, Room 104, Princeton University
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Cooked: Survival by Zip Code
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In her signature serious-yet-quirky-connect-the-dots style, Peabody Award winning filmmaker Judith Helfand takes audiences from the deadly 1995 Chicago heat disaster deep into one of our nation’s biggest growth industries – Disaster preparedness. Along the way she forges inextricable links between extreme weather, extreme disparity and the politics of disaster.
Film followed by a Q&A with director Judith A. Helfand. 7 p.m. in the Community Room, Princeton Public Library
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Friday, April 12
All The Time in the World
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A family with three children leave the comforts of home to live for nine months in the remote wilderness of the Canadian North. They spend the long winter living in a small cabin with no road access, no electricity, no running water, no internet and not a single watch or clock. Set in the Yukon, All The Time In The World is a deeply personal documentary that explores the theme of disconnecting from our hectic and technology laden lives in order to reconnect with each other, ourselves and our natural environment.
Film followed by a Q&A via Skype with filmmaker Suzanne Crocker 12 p.m. in the Community Room, Princeton Public Library
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ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch
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A cinematic meditation on humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet, ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch is a four years in the making feature documentary film from the multiple-award winning team of Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky.
Third in a trilogy that includes Manufactured Landscapes (2006) and Watermark (2013), the film follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group who, after nearly 10 years of research, are arguing that the evidence shows the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century, as a result of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth. From concrete seawalls in China that now cover 60% of the mainland coast, to the biggest terrestrial machines ever built in Germany, to psychedelic potash mines in Russia’s Ural Mountains, to metal festivals in the closed city of Norilsk, to the devastated Great Barrier Reef in Australia and surreal lithium evaporation ponds in the Atacama desert, the filmmakers have traversed the globe using high-end production values and state of the art camera techniques to document the evidence and experience of human planetary domination. 4:30 p.m. at the Computer Science Building, Room 104, Princeton University
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The World Before Your Feet
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There are 8,000 miles of roads and paths in New York City and for the past six years Matt Green has been walking them all – every street, park, cemetery, beach, and bridge. It’s a five-borough journey that stretches from the barbershops of the Bronx to the forests of Staten Island, from the Statue of Liberty to Times Square, with Matt amassing a surprisingly detailed knowledge of New York’s history and people along the way.
Something of a modern-day Thoreau, Matt gave up his former engineering job, his apartment, and most of his possessions, sustaining his endeavor through couch-surfing, cat-sitting and a $15-per-day budget. He’s not sure exactly why he’s doing it, only knowing that there’s no other way he’d rather spend his days. Executive produced by Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg, The World Before Your Feet is a tribute to an endlessly fascinating city and the freedom to be found, wherever you live, in simply taking a walk. Film followed by a Q&A with director Jeremy Workman and film subject Matt Green. Free advance tickets available through Hopewell Theater. 7 p.m. at Hopewell Theater, 5 South Greenwood Avenue, Hopewell, NJ
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Saturday, April 13
Hearts of Glass
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Hearts of Glass follows the tumultuous first 15 months of operation of Vertical Harvest (VH), a multi-story, state-of-the-art hydroponic greenhouse that grows crops while providing meaningful, competitively-paid jobs for people with disabilities. The film weaves the story of VH’s launch with the personal journeys of several employees with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). Innovation and inclusion create a fertile environment for people and plants to grow.
VH is a vertical farm on 1/10 of an acre at an elevation of 6,237 feet in Jackson, Wyoming, a mountain town with extreme seasonal fluctuations in weather, population, and demand for goods and services. The employees with disabilities, part of an underestimated, underemployed and vulnerable population, are a vital and visible part of this community-based business. Hearts of Glass is an intimate portrait of social entrepreneurship at the intersection of disability rights and sustainable, local food production. Film followed by a Q&A via Skype with director Jennifer Tennican. 9:30 a.m. in the Community Room, Princeton Public Library
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The Kingdom: How Fungi Made Our World
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You find fungi in Antarctica and in nuclear reactors. They live inside your lungs and your skin is covered with them. Fungi are the most under appreciated and unexplained organisms, yet they could cure you from smallpox and turn cardboard boxes into forests. There are vastly more fungi species than plants and each and every one of them play a crucial role in life’s support systems. The film is a journey into the mysterious world of Fungi to witness their beauty, unravel their mysteries and discover how this secret kingdom is essential to life on Earth, and may in fact hold the key to our future.
11:30 a.m. in the Community Room, Princeton Public Library
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Managed Retreat
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Managed Retreat is a short documentary portrait of three New York City neighborhoods that, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, were purchased by the NY State government, to be demolished and returned to nature as part of the city’s first ‘managed retreat’ from rising sea levels. This observational documentary follows the process of retreat over the course of five seasons, as homes are destroyed and wild animals begin to return.
Film followed by a Q&A with director Nathan Kensinger. 1 p.m. in the Community Room, Princeton Public Library
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Hope On The Hudson 2
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Three short films that explore the Hudson River/Valley.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Jon Bowermaster. 2 p.m. in the Community Room, Princeton Public Library
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Source to Sea
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In partnership with volunteer citizen samplers, Hudson Riverkeeper tests select tributaries of the Hudson for fecal-indicating bacteria and other water quality indicators. These samples are collected from the streambank by trained community scientists, and processed in our onboard lab, our lab in Kingston, or one of our partner labs. Communities up and down the Hudson River use this data to restore and protect their local waterways. |
Growing With The Grain
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Upstate New York used to be a breadbasket of grain growing. Westward expansion yielded more ideal climates for growing and production shifted to the midwest. Scientists, farmers, bakers and brewers take part in a grain trial test that hopes to produce a new generation of grain suited for the northeast, bringing sustainable and more localized grain production back to the region. |
Undamming The Hudson River
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Many fish use tributaries to the Hudson River as pathways to move between feeding, nursery, and spawning grounds. Unfortunately, thousands of dams, many built in the 19th and 20th Centuries are blocking those pathways and dramatically shrinking accessible habitat area, causing declines in fish and other wildlife. As the years have passed, these dams often no longer serve the purposes for which they were originally built and many have fallen into disrepair. |
Wyeth
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Wyeth tells the story of one of America’s most popular, but least understood, artists. While his exhibitions routinely broke attendance records, art world critics continually assaulted his work. Through unprecedented access to Wyeth family members, archival materials, and his work, Wyeth presents the most complete portrait of the artist ever – bearing witness to a legacy just at the moment it is evolving.
Film followed by a Q&A with director Glenn Holsten and producer Chayne Gregg. 3:30 p.m. in the Community Room, Princeton Public Library
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Ghost Fleet
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Ghost Fleet follows a small group of activists who risk their lives on remote Indonesian islands to find justice and freedom for the enslaved fishermen who feed the world’s insatiable appetite for seafood. Bangkok-based Patima Tungpuchayakul, a Thai abolitionist, has committed her life to helping these “lost” men return home. Facing illness, death threats, corruption, and complacency, Patima’s fearless determination for justice inspires her nation and the world.
Film followed by a Q&A with producer Jon Bowermaster. 7 p.m. at the Computer Science Building, Room 104, Princeton University
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Sunday, April 14
The Sourlands: A New Jersey Treasure
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This film is about the fragile ecology of the largest forest in Central New Jersey — its importance to amphibians, migrating birds and other endangered wildlife and plants — as well as the threats to the forest, which sits adjacent to one of the world’s most heavily developed corridors. The film also touches on the region and the importance of the forest to the people.
Film followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Cliff Wilson. 11:30 a.m. in the Community Room, Princeton Public Library
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Sunday Shorts —
That Beetle Down There
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That Beetle Down There is a portrait of the conflict surrounding the endangered American Burying Beetle in Osage County, Oklahoma. Not only is this one of the only places the beetle continues to survive in the wild, but it’s the original homeland of the Osage Indians, who purchased their reservation near the end of the 18th century and own the mineral rights below the surface. This story examines the moral grey area of conservation, where the protections for a fascinating but often-overlooked species are making trouble for a down-and-out culture trying to hold onto its traditions. |
The Elephant’s Song
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The Elephant’s Song tells the true and tragic tale of Old Bet, the first circus elephant in America, as recounted in song by her friend the old farm dog. Their story is portrayed in colorful, handcrafted animation, created frame by frame with clay-on-glass animation, where oil-based modeling clay is spread thinly on a glass sheet and moved frame-by-frame like a moving finger painting. |
Things Were Better Before
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Lost in the deep and polluted ocean, the captain of a submarine is trying to find a place for saving his friends and his little fish. “Tankus the Henge” and “Trukitrek Puppet Company” have dreamt up an animation that is both beautiful in it’s design and poignant in its message dealing as it does with environmental issues, specifically the death of our oceans. The film, made entirely using found or recycled materials, is a “Wake-up Machine” to those who view it, encouraging green and sustainable thinking. |
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1 p.m. in the Community Room, Princeton Public Library
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Inventing Tomorrow
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Inventing Tomorrow follows six young scientists from Indonesia, Hawaii, India and Mexico as they tackle some of the most complex environmental issues facing humanity today – right in their own backyards. Each student is preparing original scientific research that they will defend at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Framed against the backdrop of the severe environmental threats we now face, the film is an immersing global view of the planetary crisis, through the eyes of the generation that will be affected by it most.
2 p.m. in the Community Room, Princeton Public Library
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The River And The Wall
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The River and the Wall follows five friends on an adventure through the unknown wilds of the Texas borderlands as they travel from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico on horses, mountain bikes, and canoes.
Conservation filmmaker Ben Masters realizes the urgency of documenting the last remaining wilderness in Texas as the threat of new border wall construction looms ahead. Masters recruits NatGeo Explorer Filipe DeAndrade, ornithologist Heather Mackey, river guide Austin Alvarado, and conservationist Jay Kleberg to join him on the two-and-a-half-month journey down 1,200 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. They set out to document the borderlands and explore the potential impacts of a wall on the natural environment, but as the wilderness gives way to the more populated and heavily trafficked Lower Rio Grande Valley, they come face-to-face with the human side of the immigration debate and enter uncharted emotional waters. 4:30 p.m. in the Community Room, Princeton Public Library
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