“Dream” is a clever animated video promoting the annual Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in New York City. The festival is more than films, with workshops on wildlife topics and a goal to connect average people with filmmakers, conservationists, researchers and media outlets.
One of my personal goals for the coming year is to see more of the wonderful films being produced about conservation concerns, environmental issues and wildlife preservation.
Among the films being released next year are “A Plastic Ocean,” a feature-length documentary that explores the problem of plastic pollution in 20 locations around the world, including the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific Gyre, 1,500 miles off the West Coast. The film also discusses practical and technological approaches to solving the plastic problem.
The release date in Jan. 20, and the film is picking up engagements at various film festivals and independent theaters. To host a screening, visit the “Plastic Oceans” website.
Another film I’m looking forward to seeing is called “Dream Big.” It’s about the human endeavor of creating useful things, a quest called engineering that has taken mankind to the ocean’s depths and to the outer planets while making our lives more enjoyable.
“Upon first consideration, it might not seem the stuff of grand cinematic adventure,” states a promotional blurb for the film. “But could engineering secretly be an exciting, creative, heroic realm where the optimists of today are creating the life-saving, world-altering marvels that will make for a safer, more connected, more equal and even more awe-inspiring tomorrow?”
In answering the question in the affirmative, the film takes the viewer to some of engineering’s greatest wonders, both ancient and modern, with a underlying sense that human ingenuity is needed today more than ever.
The film is being released across the country on Feb. 17 with showings scheduled that day at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, as shown in the schedule on the “Dream Big” website.
If anyone is aware of a wonderful environmental film coming out next year or one released in the past year or so, please let me know.
