The Center for Environmental Filmmaking at American University in Washington, D.C., holds an annual “Eco-Comedy Video Competition,” based on a different environmental theme each year. This year’s theme to challenge student creativity was “Clean water, clean air.”
The winner of the Grand Prize and Viewers’ Choice awards this year was a video called “Dude, or the Blissful Ignorance of Progress” (shown in video player).
Other finalists:
- “Water Pressure” by Alex Miller,
- “Water in the Wild” by Kimberly Kagan, and
- “Mother Nature” by Julia Marie Myers and Day Al-Mohamed.
More than 60 videos were entered in the contest. I was able to find only about a dozen or so on the web, but I found a couple other amusing entries worthy of note:
- “Good Cop, Crab Cop” by Pennyweight Productions and
- “Drops of Hope” by Humor Experience.
The Center for Environmental Filmmaking was founded on the belief that films are vitally important educational and political tools in the struggle to protect the environment, according to Professor Chris Palmer, who started the center. The goal is to train filmmakers to create films and new media that promote conservation in ways that are ethically sound, entertaining and educational.
All the contest entries can be found in the comments section of the YouTube webpage about the contest.
I found another video on the center’s website that was not involved in this particular contest but was both educational and amusing. It was a public service announcement called “Tap Water.”
