I just got slapped (maybe “love tapped” is a better phrase) for keeping my cell phone and BlackBerry chargers plugged into the wall while they’re not actually charging anything. On my way to work today, some stinging words bit me as I stepped out the door — something to think about the next time I decide to charge $50 a month on Starbucks lattes to my Visa, where the least I can do is drink them out of a reusable travel mug. These are the gentle reminders of my very environmentally friendly partner. I have to say, even though they can be downright annoying, they’ve rubbed off on me. I compost, recycle and even remember to unplug things once in a while. Since we’ve started dating, I’ve definitely changed and become more eco-conscious.
A tremor of a shift came after one date night last year, when I was taken to the Planet In Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival. Not my first choice for escapism through entertainment, but before I even had enough time to protest that I wasn’t watching fiction in a multiplex, I was swept away into the landscape of the two films we saw, one about the rapid destruction of rainforests to clear space for soybean harvests and another about a devastating period of drought in Africa. I haven’t forgotten either of these movies, and they’ve inspired me to think twice about consuming soy products and led me to take small steps to conserve water around the house.
When Planet in Focus started their mission to bring cultural and environmental revolution to Toronto audiences through film, it was 1999 and it wasn’t quite as hip to be eco-friendly as it is today, ten years later. But now, this film festival is more relevant than ever, with issues like organic food, sustainable farming, renewable energy and cultural modernization in non-urban pockets of the planet at the forefront of modern talk. This weekend, the Planet in Focus film festival is back (coinciding with national Waste Reduction Week), and there are a slew of films I’m trying to slate into my schedule.
Here’s a list of intriguing films at this year’s fest. Hopefully, they can point us in new directions of innovation as our planet continues to shift around us.
Bagyeli Pygmies at the Fringes of the World
A look at the struggle between tradition and modernization for the Bagyeli pygmies of South Cameroon as the World Bank and EXXON make contact. (Tonight at 9 p.m. at Innis College)
Over Land
The family farm in peril right here at home in Canada. Watch one family’s struggle with earning a living the old fashioned way and the role fair trade farming plays in our country’s food chain. (Saturday at 1 p.m. at the ROM)
Voices from El Sayed
The story of a Bedouin village in the Negev Desert which has the largest community of deaf people in the world. This is a tale of modern technology meeting a village living off the Israeli grid. (Saturday at 9 p.m. at the ROM)
Garden Under the Lines
Another Canadian look at the connection between people and land, particularly the first-generation immigrants who planted gardens underneath power lines in Montreal. They continue to tend their gardens today, highlighting their wistfulness for the old country and the slowly dying gardens of the new. (Sunday at 1 p.m. at Innis College)
Leanne is an associate at Heenan Blaikie LLP. She spends her free time indulging in art, film, music and literature and swears that culture tastes better than chocolate. Her column will appear every Friday here on lawandstyle.ca.
Image courtesy of the Planet in Focus Film Festival