By Kit Freeman
As Earth Day reminds all about awareness around conservation, climate change, the overall health and love for the planet, EarthxFilm has taken another route to advocate for advocacy: film. For Earth Day 2021, EarthxFilm’s annual film festival is returning to Dallas April 16–25 with online and in-person viewings. Emerging media and films will explore the thematic presence of the Earth, conservation, and climate change, as well as global issues that aid Earth Day’s ambitions to shed light on living ‘green’.
A diverse and young film festival, EarthxFilm looks to bring together a legion of people who are passionate about the fundamentality of clean, running water, and clear air. The festival invites a variety of filmmakers and directors to present their works and media for the Dallas audience and virtual viewers.
A part of the festival are directors Sally Aitken, Damon Gameau, and Clark Johnson. The festival offers a space for artists and creators to examine the world through their lenses. For Aitken, her movie, originally presented at Sundance, explores the life of Australian marine conservationist Valerie Taylor in her film Playing With Sharks. Also, local environmental change will be included in this year’s lineup of films with Texas-based films American Ocelot, directed by Ben Masters, and Nicol Ragland’s Trans Pecos. American Ocelot is a visionary letter to the well-being and life of endangered wild cats.
For the director, Sally Aitken, her film means more than just directing a film. It is experience. “The dialogue around conservation requires so much more than statistics or knowledge, it requires love,” she says. Saying it is an honor to depict Taylor’s life is an understatement, as the film documents both importance and passion. “Valerie’s passion and determination are the story for our time. The growing appreciation for the value of all life before it’s too late. Her incredible experiences up close and personal with some of the oceans most feared creatures, we are witness to both a remarkable life, and to our own humanity.”
Continuing to be an advocate for both Taylor and the planet, Aitken shares how she hopes her film transforms the conception of conservation. “Starting out as a champion spear-fisher, Valerie’s remarkable journey of transformation from hunter to ardent shark protector is a rare arc of first hand understanding. She’s an incredible, unlikely, conservationist who has seen the ocean change utterly from when she first donned a face mask back in the 1950s,” Aitken continues. “The movie features jaw-dropping moments of her fearlessness, hand feeding a great white shark, swimming cageless with hundreds of oceanic white tip sharks and turning herself into shark bait for blue sharks.”
The festival will begin with Aitken’s film, an opening number that commends the work of those who believe Earth is a valuable planet worth saving. Capturing a passion not many have, Aitken’s film depicts how Taylor survives and connects with the vast and intimidating lives of the ocean. It’s an honor according to Aitken that her film is a part of EarthXFilm. “For any filmmaker, film festivals are special events, so to be opening this year’s EarthX, where lovers of film meet protectors of our planet, is fantastic,” Aitken says.
Also included is the world premiere of Clark Johnson’s Percy vs. Goliath, a featured film that relives the events of a 1988 lawsuit between farmer Percy Schmeiser and a large conglomerate, whose genetically modified canola is found in Schmeiser’s crops. The film speaks to how farmers need to be represented in the media as corporate greed runs throughout the country like a wildfire.
David Holbrooke, EarthxFilm’s artistic director, shares his reasoning as to why the film festival sheds light on Earth Day and advocacy for many. “We want to celebrate the people—the activists, scientists, artists, and others—who are putting themselves on the line to change the world.” By creating a space where media can address global discussions, Holbrook hopes the aligning of Earth Day and EarthxFilm offers filmmakers a chance to show their work. “We want to make sure to support environmental filmmakers who are working in a particularly challenging space. It is not easy to fund these films or find an audience, so we hope to be helpful in both those efforts,” he adds.
In continuing EarthxFilm’s initiatives, cofounder and president Michael Cain carries out a vision that was inspired by the founder of EarthX, Trammell S. Crow. The conversation sparked to life when Cain sat on the founding board for Earth Day Dallas in 2011. Crow and Cain’s relationship grew as the Dallas Film Festival came to life, and throughout advocating for the City of Dallas, the pair cofounded EarthxFilm. “I saw his vision and I was proud to support him since he had been there for me with The Deep Ellum Film Festival and the launch of the Dallas Film Society, and Dallas International Film Festival. I helped him participate in an amazing film Louie Psihoyos’ Racing Extinction and I think its success opened the door for us to co-found EarthxFilm,” Cain says.
Further, the festival carries an initiative for both their values and the artists involved. EarthxFilm, in inviting diverse artists and awarding prizes for winning films. “We’re providing $25,000 again this year in cash awards to help films achieve their mission and assist the causes that they support. Last year’s EarthxFilm Grand Jury Prize went to My Octopus Teacher which is up for the Academy Award right now,” Cain details on this year’s prizes. As an advocate for the next generation’s storytellers, he also elaborates on the EarthxPlanet911 Youth Film Competition, a contest that encourages young creators to share their work in a way that activates discussion around the planet and the future.
With the aim of advocacy and awareness into tangible action, EarthxFilm hopes to inspire creators and viewers to be activists for the planet through education and art. The hybrid celebration of film and environmental science will produce an experience for every kind of film lover with action, documentary, and thoughtfully think pieces on the Earth.