Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival 2020

Program 11 - PLASTIC PROBLEM

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Program sponsored by Jen & Greg Case


10-year-old Jaysa rallies the community with her speeches about how the local power plant causes asthma and other health problems. When they succeed in shutting down the plant, she concludes that “words have power.”



Director's Statement:

The Young Voices for the Planet films document youth solutions to the climate crisis -- young people changing laws, changing minds and changing their communities. Hope and success stories are uplifting and empowering whereas doom and gloom sends young people into despair. I made these films so youth could see their peers taking action and act as role models and catalysts for addressing climate change and other environmental issues as well as a way to demonstrate civic engagement and democracy.

  • Year
    2019
  • Runtime
    6 minutes
  • Language
    English
  • Country
    USA
  • Premiere
    July 16, 2019
  • Note
    Director Biography - Lynne Cherry: Lynne Cherry is the author and illustrator of over 30 award-winning children’s books including the rainforest classic, The Great Kapok Tree, the environmental history, A River Ran Wild and the first climate change children’s book How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming co-authored with the late photojournalist Gary Braasch in 2008. Lynne is also the producer and director of the Young Voices for the Planet films that champion youth solutions to the climate crisis, success stories are told by the youth themselves. Lynne has been outspoken about the importance of educating about climate change by beginning with solutions and success stories in order to prevent youth and adults alike from falling into a state of “motivated avoidance” which she wrote about in her NY Times guest blog in 2012 “On the Allure of Ostriches and New Paths in Climate Communication.” To this end, she has produced a series of 13 Young Voices for the Planet films documenting youth solutions to the climate crisis. Lynne’s NY Times guest blog describes the pedagogy of the films and the importance of teaching with solutions rather than gloom and doom as does her chapter in the book "Education in Times of Environmental Crises: Teaching Children to be Agents of Change.” (Routledge, 2016). Some of the short YVFP films have been distributed by American Public Television for broadcast on 60 Public Broadcasting stations and licensed by many partners including National Geographic, PBS LearningMedia, National Wildlife Federation and the United Nations Foundation. These short films inspire youth to take action. A science curriculum for the films is on PBS LearningMedia and a Civic Engagement and Democracy curriculum, on the YVFP website helps educators assist young people in creating their own ACTION plan to address climate change and other environmental problems. Lynne received her BA from Tyler School of Art, MA in history from Yale University. She has had residencies at Princeton, Cornell and Smithsonian. Her awards include the Metcalf Fellowship, the Brandwein Prize, the Lifetime Achievement award from Project Green Schools and the Presidents’ Award from the Pa. Council on the Social Studies. Lynne has also written chapters in the National Geographic anthology Written in Water and currently co-authored an article about the importance of teaching with hope rather than despair with Dr. Albert Bandura in the eminent journal American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychological Association.
  • Director
    Lynne Cherry
  • Producer
    Lynne Cherry
  • Cast
    Jaysa