As EarthxFilm preps this year’s fest, Artistic Director David Holbrooke looks back on his favorite environmental films from last year
Next week, Dallas’ EarthxFilm festival, the celebrated environmentally-focused film festival that grew out of Dallas’ Earth Day event five years ago, will roll out the lineup of films for a planned hybrid presentation of drive-in and outdoor in-person screenings along with corresponding virtual presentations.
As we anticipate, what that announcement will reveal, EarthxFilm Artistic Director David Holbrooke looked back ever-so-briefly on the film watching year that was in our 2020 pandemic year. And now, in David’s own words…
In a strange cultural year in 2020, confined at home as never before, I watched a lot of movies looking for comfort and escape. Some of the best ones I saw were with my family as part of our project to try and watch all the AFI Top 100 Films. So far, I am at 82, picking up Cabaret (so timely), In the Heat of the Night (very 2020 as well) and Bringing Up Baby (painfully not of this time) amongst others.
There was also a lot of re-watching films I had seen previously seen that my kids hadn’t, which brought us Bridge on the River Kwai, It Happened One Night and Bonnie and Clyde, all of which were brilliant. The other old film I watched over and over was something the New York Times tipped me off to, which is an old film of a snowball fight in France, Bataille de boules de neige. It is simple and joyous and provided that escape we needed at that time.
Here are some of my favorite environmentally-focused films from last year:
My Octopus Teacher
Directors: James Reed, Pippa Ehrlich
The classic Octopus/Man buddy movie. Actually, a simple, moving and deeply profound story of how creatures of all kinds have deeper inner lives than we ever imagined. And, it just nabbed an Oscar nomination to boot.
The Great Green Wall
Director: Jared P. Scott
When you watch a lot of environmental documentaries as I do, the dismal – and accurate – stories offered by so many of the films can be soul-crushing. That’s why when you see a story like this of the ridiculously talented Malian singer Inna Modja trying to build a long line of trees across Africa to stop Saharan desertification, it needfully lifts the spirit.
The Love Bugs
Directors: Maria Clinton, Allison Otto
It’s a sweet, wonderfully-made short documentary about an entomologist couple who share a passion for each other – and for all kinds of wild insects, amassing a world-class collection through this endless interest.
The Cost of Silence
Director: Mark Manning
Again, telling a story over long periods of time is so challenging for any non-fiction filmmaker but that is exactly what director Mark Manning did in trying to expose what happened in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP Oil Spill left the front pages. It’s a brave, challenging and essential story for us to understand what has gone wrong down there in ways we never understood.
Affurmative Action
Director: Travis Wood
While this one wasn’t an environmentally-focused film, I still wanted to include it and call attention to it. This smart, funny, painfully incisive very short doc captures the film’s director Travis Wood’s efforts to find work at creative agencies. When he looks on the prospective employer’s Staff page, he finds that many of these groovy firms have photos of office dogs but no people of color on their employee roster. It’s a straightforward premise but trenchant in ways that stayed with me long after viewing.
The 2021 EarthxFilm festival will announce the lineup for next month’s edition of the film festival (April 16-25) on Monday, March 22.
