2021 Earth Focus Environmental Film Festival: Tickets and Information
The third annual Earth Focus Environmental Film Festival is going virtual, April 12-23. The two-week event will address climate change realities impacting all living creatures and natural resources across the globe.
Each film featured in the festival will be followed by a panel discussion with notable guests, beginning Monday, April 12 with the West Coast premiere of "Playing With Sharks," and ending Friday, April 23 with "Citizen Nobel."
General admission tickets are now onsale. Ticket options include a $45 all-access pass to attend all nine of the virtual film screenings and post-screening discussions taking place on the Eventive platform (the Earth Day film will be available on-air and online). Alternatively, $10 tickets will be available for individual screenings.
The event complements PBS SoCal, Link TV and KCET’s entire slate of Earth Month programming, including the award-winning series "Earth Focus," the longest running investigative environmental news series on U.S. television — and Link TV’s curated environmental documentary program, "Earth Focus Presents."
Film Schedule
"Playing With Sharks"
Mon., April 12 at 7 p.m.
The extraordinary life story of pioneering scuba diver Valerie Taylor, a fearless marine maverick whose passion for sharks knows no bounds. Taylor has dedicated her life to exposing the myth surrounding the fear of sharks. Featuring Q&A guests: pioneering scuba diver Valerie Taylor; moderated by Pete Hammond, KCET "Must See Movies" host and Deadline chief film critic.
"Gather"
Tue. April 13 at 7 p.m.
An intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide. Featuring Q&A guests: Director Sanjay Rawal; Nephi Craig, founder of the Native American Culinary Association; moderated by DeLanna Studi, artistic director of Native Voices at the Autry, Autry Museum of the American West.
Learn more about Indigenous food sovereignty by watching "Cultivating Native Foodways with the Cultural Conservancy."
"2040 The Regeneration"
Wed., April 14 at 7 p.m.
Embark on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them rapidly into the mainstream. Structured as a visual letter to his 4-year-old daughter, the film blends traditional documentary with dramatized sequences and high-end visual effects to create a vision board of how solutions could regenerate the world for future generations. Featuring Q&A Guest: Award-winning director Damon Gameau, "That Sugar Film"; moderated by Michael Woo, Dean Emeritus of Cal Poly Pomona's College of Environmental Design and board member of the Save the Redwoods League and the California Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.
"Public Trust: The Fight for America’s Public Land"
Thu., April 15 at 7 p.m.
As America’s system of public lands face unprecedented threats, the film investigates three heated conflicts — a national monument in the Utah desert, a mine in the Boundary Waters and oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — and makes a case for their continued protection. Featuring Q&A guests: Director David Garrett Byars; producer Jeremy Rubingh; narrator and investigative journalist Hal Herring; Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, and a tribal member of the Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich’in Tribal Government in Fort Yukon, Alaska; moderated by Link TV’s Senior Programming Executive Kim Spencer. The film will also air locally as part of "Earth Focus Presents" on Wed., April 21 at 9 p.m. on Link TV and Sun., April 25 at 5 p.m. on KCET.
Learn more about the fight for public lands in "What’s at Stake in Our 'Public Lands'?"
"Okavango"
Fri., April 16 at 7 p.m.
F. Murray Abraham ("Amadeus," "The Grand Budapest Hotel," "Homeland") narrates the wild experience of the Okavango Delta, an unlikely oasis and lush paradise in Southern Africa that connects and supports a wide array of creatures. In episode one of this three-part series that premiered as episodes of "NOVA," viewers explore the landscape and wildlife of the Upper Okavango River. A lioness severely injured by a buffalo is left for dead by her pride. Now handicapped, she has to survive in the swamp alone, hunting to feed her cubs. Featuring Q&A guests: Directors Dereck and Beverly Joubert ("Eternal Enemies," "Eye of the Leopard," "Last Lions," "Reflections on Elephants"); moderated by journalist and PBS SoCal producer/host Maria Hall-Brown.
"Earth Focus: The New West and the Politics of the Environment"
Mon., April 19 at 7 p.m.
Iconic Nevada Senator Harry Reid set the foundations for a green new deal in the state using power in new ways to settle water wars with respect for Native Americans, protect endangered species and usher in a just transition to renewable energy. Reid forged allegiances between unlikely allies and crafted policy to grow the economy of his home state while protecting its wilderness and in the process, redefined the future of the West.
Get a visual of Reid's land conservation victories in "Mapping Power and Strategy for Conservation Victories: An Interview with Kai Anderson."
"The Human Element"
Tue., April 20 at 7 p.m.
Renowned environmental photographer James Balog explores wildfires, hurricanes, sea level rise, a struggling coal mining community and our changing air supply. The film highlights Americans on the front lines of climate change, inspiring us to re-evaluate our relationship with the natural world. Featuring Q&A Guest: Environmental photographer James Balog.
"YOUTH v GOV"
Wed., April 21 at 7 p.m.
Since 2015, 21 plaintiffs, now ages 13-24, have been suing the U.S. government for violating their constitutional rights to life, liberty, personal safety and property through their willful actions in creating the climate crisis they will inherit. Featuring Q&A guests: Filmmaker and scientist Christi Cooper, Co-Lead Counsel Phil Gregory, Alaskan federal plaintiff Nathan Baring.
"Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World"
Thu., April 22, 8 p.m. - 11 p.m. on PBS SoCal
Check local listings or stream on PBS.org and the free PBS App
Follow Greta Thunberg as she takes her fight to a global stage in this three-part, on-air event. In part one she sees the impact of climate change in melting glaciers and dying trees in Canada, fire devastation in California, and while across the ocean during life-threatening storms to get to a United Nations conference in Madrid. Part two follows Greta’s journey from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to Poland, where she speaks with miners who have lost their jobs. She also visits the U.K., where she meets with one of her inspirations — Sir David Attenborough. Part three takes Greta to Switzerland and Denmark to investigate potential solutions to limit climate change and looks for lessons from the world’s response to COVID-19.
"Citizen Nobel"
Fri., April 23 at 7 p.m.
When Jacques Dubochet receives the 2017 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, his life changes. Out of the shadows and into the light, he is suddenly contacted from all sides. What can he do with his voice, which is now heard by everyone? How should he, as a "noble citizen," fulfill his responsibility as a researcher and human being? A speech by Greta Thunberg turns everything upside down. Featuring Q&A guests: Director Stéphane Goël; Jacques Dubochet; moderated by Pete Hammond, KCET "Must See Movies" host and Deadline chief film critic.
