Los Angeles and San Francisco Proclaimed April 20th to be “Dirt Day”

The cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco issued proclamations yesterday naming April 20th to be “Dirt Day” in honor of Dirt! The Movie, the award-winning documentary previewed by Community Cinema in March. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry will sign the official Dirt! Day Proclamations in their respective cities today, to ignite the discussion about safeguarding soil and the billions of organisms it contains.

Dirt! The Movie tells the story of the underappreciated stuff beneath our feet. Narrated by award-winning actress, author and activist, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dirt!, tells the story of Earth’s most valuable and least valued source of fertility from its miraculous beginning to its current crippling degradation. Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, the film deftly combines science and humor as it digs into the history and current state of the living organic matter from which we all come and where we will all one-day return. An eclectic group of passionate dirt lovers appear in Dirt! – from world-class biologists to Rikers Island convicts, from community activists to Nobel Laureates – to offer viewers answers to problems while inspiring us to clean up the mess that we have created.

Don’t miss Dirt! The Movie on Independent Lens (check local listings).

Watch an interview with Jamie Lee Curtis, the narrator for Dirt! >>

Tags: dirt! the movie, earth day, eco, green, los angeles, San Francisco

San Francisco Learns About the Dirt Under Its Feet (Under the Concrete)

At the Community Cinema San Francisco screening earlier this week we welcomed over 130 audience members to the San Francisco Main Library to see Dirt! The Movie.

In the film everyone who was interviewed about dirt seemed so excited- thrilled to talk about the relationship they have with dirt. Fortunately for us, this excitement carried over into our discussion after the film.

We had a panel of extremely dedicated and informed professionals in the environmental world join us. We got a chance to partner with SF Department for the Environment for a second time this season, this time joined by Donnie Oliveira the Green Jobs Coordinator. We also had Kirsten Schwind, Program Director for Bay Localize and Suzi Palladino, Program Director from Garden for the Environment.

This video edits together clips from the entire event in just a few minutes. It’s worth a watch.

Audience members had a conversation with our panel about the possibilities of rooftop gardens, how our youth and young adults are helping our local environment as part of the City’s Urban Green Team and how we can all take small steps to be more involved in solutions for our environment.

Donnie suggests that we all try and plant one tree. However, his suggestion is not without a warning: once you plant one tree, you get ‘the itch’ to do more. You get invested- his statement is supported by a friend in the audience from SF Environment, a Green Warrior.

Suzi recommends that we all try to compost. Apparently there are several ways to get started- and you can even compost indoors. For people like me, who would like to try and compost but have no idea how, there are free classes every Saturday at Garden for the Environment.

As is often the case with Community Cinema events, I am completely surprised by something I learn from the panel- this screening was no different. Being a ‘city girl’ I was completely unaware that it’s legal in San Francisco for me to have a dairy cow, a pig and a goat in my backyard… who knew?!

There was a fair amount of talk about accessibility to food in this country and more specifically, access to healthy organic produce. Which companies get subsidies and what struggles do small farmers face?

Audience members also had knowledge to share with one another: which Farmers Markets are great in San Francisco, and farmers who will provide you will fresh, organic produce in exchange for your work.

Dirt! The Movie is definitely the kind of film that energizes people to do something- whether it’s to plant a tree in your yard (or a neighbor’s), to finally figure out what goes in that green bin that’s been empty in your kitchen for months, or a Saturday workshop on composting- it seems there is room for all of us to get a little dirty.

Tags: dirt! the movie, ecology, garden, local produce, organic, San Francisco

Environmentalists Talk Trash in Oakland and San Francisco

On Wednesday, January 27, Garbage Dreams was screened at Oakland’s Asian Cultural Center. The screening was packed by audience members from every demographic and every age group, including an entire fifth grade class from the Lighthouse Community Charter School. Audience members were struck by the degree to which the Zaballeen managed to find a use for everything. Many attendees were inspired to integrate this consideration into their own lives and think more about the value of the things they view as trash. The screening was followed by an exciting discussion featuring panelists, Monica Wilson, International Co-coordinator at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), Aaron Ableman, Co-Founder of Communitree, and Ambessa Cantave, Co-Founder of Grind for the Green and Oakland Climate Justice Activist. Following is a video including interviews with panelist, Ambessa Cantave and a few of the audience members. A week before this screening, on Tuesday, January 19th, the San Francisco Main Library also hosted a screening of Garbage Dreams.

This screening was also followed by a very interesting discussion. Panelists, Kevin Drew, Residential Zero Waste Coordinator at the San Francisco Department of the Environment, Neil Tangri, Climate Change Campaign Director at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), and Bradley Angel, Executive Director at GreenAction, had some very eye-opening things to say about recycling:

“When you burn this stuff (trash), no matter how state-of-the-art, no matter how conscientious the company, you are getting emissions of the most toxic substances known to science- that are having a profound effect on our population worldwide.”
-Neil Tangri, Climate Change Campaign Director, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)

“The fact of the matter is, companies are producing stuff for which there is no solution and they take no responsibility. And it’s left in the hands of Kevin (San Francisco Department of the Environment) and your tax dollars to solve that problem…If you can’t recycle it, if you don’t have a plan for it, you shouldn’t be producing it in the first place.”
-Bradley Angel, Executive Director, GreenAction

“We really shouldn’t be shipping things a long way away, we should be trying to live locally to the extent that we shouldn’t expect to get avocados year-round or other things, until very recently, we didn’t get year-round. Living within our means from a local ecosystem sense is where you’re going to find the right answer.”
-Kevin Drew, Residential Zero Waste Coordinator, San Francisco Department of the Environment

“If the waste pickers in Cairo can do eighty percent, I think San Francisco can do eighty percent as well.”
-Neil Tangri

Tags: garbage, garbage dreams, Oakland, recycling, San Francisco, trash

San Francisco: 11th Annual Power to the Peaceful Concert and Global Action Forum & Celebration

Looking for something to do this weekend in San Francisco?

Join ITVS and CARE at the 11th Annual Power to the Peaceful Concert and Global Action Forum & Celebration. For the past 10 years Michael Franti, singer/activist and ambassador for the global humanitarian organization CARE, has hosted the free event. This year, more than 70,000 attendees are expected to turn out for a day of music and inspiration to serve the people and the planet.

On Saturday, September 12, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM, come out to the free concert and visit the ITVS booth at Golden Gate Park, Speedway Meadow, to learn more about the free documentary screenings from the upcoming season of Community Cinema. Free resources will also be available to educators.

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Tags: Care, itvs, Power to the Peaceful Concert, San Francisco