What Grows On in Rhode Island News

Wild & Scenic Film Festival ~ February 24-27, 2011

Better Bones & Gardens headlines the lineup of 10 independent films that will comprise Rhode Island’s third annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival to benefit Save The Bay. The Festival will be held in Stonington, Newport, and Providence on February 24-27.

Wild & Scenic is North America’s largest environmental film festival.  Participants are selected for their filmmaking, cinematography, and ability to inform, inspire and ignite solutions and possibilities to restore the earth while creating a positive future for the next generation. Festival-goers can expect to see Award-winning films about nature, community activism, adventure, conservation, water, energy and climate change, wildlife, environmental justice, agriculture, Native American and indigenous cultures. Three years ago, Save The Bay hosted the Wild & Scenic Film Festival tour for one night in Westerly.  Since that time, the event has expanded to three locations (Stonington, Providence and Newport) over three days. 

This year the Wild & Scenic Festival will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on:

• Thursday, February 24  at the La Grua Center, 2 Water Street, Stonington, CT, Phone: (860) 535-2400
• Friday, February 25 at the Jane Pickens Theater & Event Center ,49 Touro Street, Newport, Phone: (401) 846-5252
• Saturday, February 26 at the Save The Bay Center, 100 Save The Bay Drive, Providence, Phone: (401) 272-3540

Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased in advance (limited seating available) at savebay.org/wild. For the first year, a new children’s program has been added.  That event will take place on Sunday, February 27 at the Save The Bay Center in Providence from 1 to 2 p.m.  Tickets for the children’s program are $10 for children (ages 6-12) and $5 for adults.

  This year’s headline film will be Better Bones and Gardens.  In the film, Dan Phillips and Kipp Nash remake the common house and garden in wildly imaginative ways.   They use cattle bones, wine corks, DVDs and bottle caps as building materials, and lawns are transformed into lush, nutritious gardens.  This 25-minute movie shows how with a little strife and change in attitude can lead us all to better homes and gardens.

Other films that will be featured include:

• Animals Save The Planet – Energy Efficient Penguin
• The Story of Electronics
• Evolution & Extinction
• Animals Save The Planet – Hippo-Elephant Shower
• Trout on the Wind: The Hemlock Dam Removal Story
• The Majestic Plastic Bag
• A Mongolian Couch
• Animals Save The Planet – Polar Bear Insulation Overheat
• Go Green or Go Home

For more information about the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, go to savebay.org/wild.

About Save The Bay

Founded in 1970, Save The Bay is a non-profit organization working to protect, restore and explore Narragansett Bay and its watershed. Save The Bay believes the Bay’s future depends on tomorrow’s leaders understanding how important the Bay is to our economy, environment and quality of life. The organization offers education programs to schools, community groups and the general public; protects Narragansett Bay by advocating for Bay-friendly legislation, reviewing permits and raising public awareness; and restores the Bay to full health through its extensive habitat restoration program.

About SYRCL

SYRCL is a watershed advocacy group that was started in 1983 by a small group of concerned citizens who banded together to fight against several proposed dams. The festival’s namesake is in celebration of achieving Wild & Scenic status in 1999 for 39 miles of the South Yuba River. The Wild and Scenic Environmental festival celebrates its annual event each January in Nevada City, CA, and features over 125 award-winning films, plus speakers, celebrities, and activists who bring a human face to the environmental movement. SYRCL’s Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival is a call to action. At Wild & Scenic, filmgoers are transformed into a congregation of committed activists, dedicated to saving our increasingly threatened planet.  We show environmental and adventure films that illustrate the Earth’s beauty, the challenges facing our planet, and the work communities are doing to protect the environment. Through these films, Wild & Scenic both informs people about the state of the world and inspires them to take action.

See the Film Waste Land in Providence ~ December 2-9, 2010

The Cable Car in Providence is showing the film, WASTE LAND, for the coming week, and you should waste no time getting to the theater to see it!

I saw it tonight and I'd like to see it again. You can read reviews that describe this film -- about people who hand-pick recycleables out of the largest landfill in the world -- as "uplifting" ~ an unlikely adjective, you may think, until you see Waste Land for yourself.

I hope other Rhode Island theaters will show this film in the coming year. You will be glad you saw it.

 

Synopsis from the film's website:

"Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT, COUNTDOWN TO ZERO) has great access to the entire process and, in the end, offers stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit."

Jane Goodall at Roger Williams Park Zoo ~ May 1, 2010

Appearance & Book Signing by

Dr. Jane Goodall
Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace

Saturday, May 1, 2010

We're thrilled to announce that famed primatologist, conservationist and humanitarian Dr. Jane Goodall will visit the Zoo on Saturday, May 1, as part of a U.S. tour honoring the 50th anniversary of her pioneering chimpanzee research and inspiring vision for our future.

The event also entails a regional celebration of Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots, the Jane Goodall Institute's global environmental and humanitarian youth program.  Roots & Shoots empowers young people of all ages to make positive change happen for our communities, animals and the environment we all share.

During her visit, Dr. Goodall will participate in a public speaking program and be available to sign copies of her books, including Hope for Animals and Their World, which features our American Burying Beetle Conservation Program.  Copies of Dr. Goodall's books and Jane Goodall Institute merchandise will also be available for purchase at the Zoo.

Both the speaking program and the book signing are open to the public.  However, space is limited so guests will be accommodated on a first-come, first-served basis.  The Zoo opens at 9 a.m.

More information at http://www.rwpzoo.org/calendar/goodall.cfm

 
Shareen Knowlton
Director of Education
Roger Williams Park Zoo
1000 Elmwood Avenue
Providence, RI 02907
(401) 785-3510 ext. 357
[email protected]
www.rogerwilliamsparkzoo.org

Go See Food, Inc. ~ July 21 - 23, 2009

The film, Food, Inc. will be shown at a special fundraiser for the RI Center for Agricultural Promotion and Education (RICAPE) of Food, Inc. at the Jane Pickens Theater Wednesday, July 22, followed by a panel discussion that includes:

• Ken Ayars, Chief, DEM RI Division of Agriculture
• Dorothy Brayley, Executive Director, Kids First
• Lee B. Kane, EcoCzar/Forager, Whole Foods Market, North Atlantic Region<
• Chef Casey Riley, Castle Hill Inn and the Newport Restaurant Group

If you can't make that showing, go to one of the others at Jane Pickens or the Avon in Providence where the film runs until Thursday, the 23rd.

And if you can't make any of these showings, at least go to the Food, Inc. website to read about it and to find out what you can do. I saw it last night ~ everyone who eats food should see this film.

All the showings are in What Grows On in RI Calendar, and I've added the Food, Inc. blog, Hungry for Change, to the RI Feeds website.

Drawing Plants: Flowers to Fungi ~ September 16 & 17, 2008

Drawing Plants: Flowers to Fungi

Roger Williams Park Botanical Center
September 16 and 17, 2008, 9AM – 1PM each day
Botanical Illustration with Visiting Instructor: Gretchen Halpert

For more information, call 401-785-9450 EXT: 250.

What better time to draw plants than in the fall when flowers are still blooming, seedpods are forming, and colors are shifting?

Spend two weekday mornings at the Botanical Center drawing and painting orchids, carnivorous plants, colorful tropical foliage or a variety of evergreen and deciduous shrubs with visiting instructor, Gretchen Halpert.

This workshop is appropriate for beginners as well as advanced artists.

Tuition covers entrance fee and allows you use of the gardens each day until 4PM.
This two-day workshop is designed to get you drawing and painting plant specimens including flowers, leaves, seedpods or fungi. Whether you are a beginner with a latent desire or an advanced student who hasn't found the time lately to draw, the plants in the Botanical Center’s tropical interior gardens and those in the new exterior gardens will inspire the artist within you (NOTE: outdoor venues available weather permitting). Topics will include: tools and techniques; field sketching and botany. Focus will also concentrate on plant form, plant detail, color and methods for observation. The class will be catered to the interests and backgrounds of participants and will provide individual attention and demonstration. A complete materials list will be sent upon receipt of registration.

Class size is limited so REGISTER EARLY!

Rhode Island Gardener's Companion Book Signing ~ February 27, 2008

From Barbara Gee:

I will be signing copies of my book at the Barnes & Noble in Middletown on Wednesday from 7-9. I’d love to see you and you can get good coffee there!

Barbara
___________________________

Barbara Gee ~~ Writer & Author
Titles published for Globe Pequot Press:

• The Rhode Island Gardener's Companion: An Insider's Guide to Gardening in the Ocean State
• The Massachusetts Gardener's Companion: An Insider's Guide to Gardening from the Berkshires to the Islands

Reminder ~ Environmental Book Club ~ February 19 & 20, 2008

From Audubon Society of Rhode Island:

Hi everyone, Happy President’s Day!

This month’s Environmental Book Club meetings are this week, on Tuesday (Bristol) and Wednesday (Smithfield). We will discuss a series of essays on forestry:
The story of Chipko, a movement in India that successfully challenged government forestry policy (and is the origin of the term “tree-hugger”): http://www.markshep.com/nonviolence/GT_Chipko.html   
Writings by Mitch Lansky, a Maine low-impact forester—available at http://www.lowimpactforestry.org/ (“Big Oaks, Little Acorns,” “Not Wilderness,” and “Old Growth: A New Paradigm….”)

BRISTOL
Tuesday, February 19 7-8:30 pm
Audubon’s Environmental Education Center
Directions: http://www.asrieec.org/directions.htm

SMITHFIELD
Wednesday, February 20, 7-8:30 pm
Audubon’s Powder Mill Ledges Refuge
Directions: http://www.asri.org/pml.htm

See you there!

July Lewis
Policy Assistant
Audubon Society of RI
401-949-5454 x3044

Fishes and Loaves: The Politics, Science, and Ethics of Food ~ February 13, 2008

From Brown's Sustainable Food Initiative:

February 13, 7:00-9:00pm (Smith-Buonanno Hall, Room 106)       

"Fishes and Loaves: The Politics, Science, and Ethics  of Food"

Come see provocative film clips about the politics, ethics, and science of food production and hear some of Brown's leading experts talk about them.

We will show excerpts from Darwin's Nightmare, Fishers of Dar, King Corn and Modern Times. The following Brown professors will comment on the films and how food issues relate to their own academic interests:

Keith Brown, Watson Institute
Nitsan Chorev, Sociology
Jon Witman, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Lina Fruzzetti, Anthropology
Mark Cladis,  Religious Studies
Peter Heywood, Molecular, Cellular Biology and Biochemistry
Susan Alcock, Classics

Check out our Facebook event: http://brown.facebook.com/event.php?eid=23292667104

Flower Show at Attleboro Arts Museum ~ February 27 - March 2, 2008

From Rosanne Sherry, URI Master Gardener Program Coordinator:

It's Flower Show time at the Attleboro Arts Museum again. One week after the Providence show, the museum show runs from Wednesday, February 27 to Sunday, March 2. Hours are 9:30 until 4:30. The exhibits may be on a smaller scale but they are beautiful and backed by art from the community. Parking is free, the hours are flexible and the environment is wonderful. Please contact Claire Golembewski at <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected] to participate.

[Ed. note: The URI Master Gardeners are planning to have an Ask a Master Gardener booth at this show.]

Audubon Environmental Book Club ~ February and March 2008

From Audubon Society of Rhode Island: 

We ... agreed that for the next book, we wanted something with a positive vision! So for March, we chose Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy for its vision of economic and ecological sustainability. [For notes about the January discussion of The World Without Us, see the comment on this previous post.

FEBRUARY READING:

A series of essays on forestry.

• Writings by Mitch Lansky, a Maine low-impact      forester—attached, and also available at http://www.lowimpactforestry.org/     
• The story of Chipko, a movement      in India      that successfully challenged government forestry policy (and is the origin      of the term “tree-hugger”): http://www.markshep.com/nonviolence/GT_Chipko.html  

BRISTOL

Tuesday, February 19 7-8:30 pm

Audubon’s Environmental Education Center

Directions: http://www.asrieec.org/directions.htm

 

SMITHFIELD

Wednesday, February 20, 7-8:30 pm

Audubon’s Powder Mill Ledges Refuge

Directions: http://www.asri.org/pml.htm

 

MARCH READING: Deep Economy by Bill McKibben. “Challenging the prevailing wisdom that the goal of economies should be unlimited growth, McKibben argues that the world doesn't have enough natural resources to sustain endless economic expansion…Drawing the phrase 'deep economy' from the expression 'deep ecology,' a term environmentalists use to signify new ways of thinking about the environment, he suggests we need to explore new economic ideas.”

Info: http://www.powells.com/biblio?show=HARDCOVER:NEW:9780805076264:25.00#synopses_and_reviews

 

BRISTOL

Tuesday, March 18, 7-8:30 pm

Audubon’s Environmental Education Center

Directions: http://www.asrieec.org/directions.htm

 

SMITHFIELD

Wednesday, March 19, 7-8:30 pm

Audubon’s Powder Mill Ledges Refuge

Directions: http://www.asri.org/pml.htm

Finally, we’d like to offer the opportunity for book club members to support Audubon with a couple of handy links. Audubon Society of RI is a charitable, donor-supported organization that conserves habitat, offers educational programs for young and old, and advocates for the environment. If you’d like to support the Environmental Book Club and our other programs, please take the time to make a donation—or if you haven’t yet, become a member!

DONATE: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=2288

BECOME A MEMBER: http://asri.org/join.htm

Thanks so much, and happy reading!

July Lewis & Eugenia Marks

Audubon Society of RI

401-949-5454