Over 100 attendees joined the Arts & Climate Collective (ACC) and SCA’s Division of Media Arts + Practice for an evening of film screenings, community building, celebration, and dining at the second-ever 2024 Eco-Film +Media Arts Festival!
We kicked off the festival with an impact-storytelling panel featuring Shawn Sweeney (podcast producer and Associate VP of Communications & Partnerships at the Jane Goodall Institute), Marlee Fox (recipient of the NRDC Climate Storytelling Fellowship and Development Assistant at Universal Television) and Paula Cizmar (Co-Director of the Institute for Theatre & Social Change and Professor of Theatre Practice in Dramatic Writing at USC). The panel, moderated by student Monty Hughes (Lead Festival Producer at the ACC), touched on the significance of hyper-local environmental storytelling, eco-storytelling ethics, best practices for impact-storytelling, and more.
Following our panel, we screened 10 student films – ranging from 1 to 20 minutes in length each – that explored a variety of environmental themes. Films showcased pressing climate issues such as invasive species and wildfires, as well as the ways in which people have developed innovative solutions and supported recovery for such crises in their communities. The ACC awarded Down the Road by Carin Dorghalli the Gold Award for Excellence in Long Form Environmental Filmmaking and Fastidiosa by Ming Leng the Silver Award for Excellence in Short Form Environmental Filmmaking. The creators won $500 and $250 awards, respectively.
Dorghalli’s Down the Road followed the inspiring efforts of James Faircloth and his 9-year-old daughter, Luna, as they drove RVs from across the United States to provide free, temporary shelter to Californians in need during the loss and destruction of the Camp Fire (2018) and Bear Fire (2020). The film also elevated inspiring accounts of heroism and recovery by other community members during the blazes. Succinctly, Dorghalli presented our audience with a touching story of community resilience and people devoting themselves to helping strangers during an environmental crisis. Powerful emotional reactions from festival-goers filled the air throughout the 20-minute film, which concluded with roaring applause from the audience.
Leng’s Fastidiosa shed light on Xylella Fastidiosa, a bacteria wreaking havoc on olive trees and the people who rely on them for their livelihoods in Italy. Through captivating computer graphics, photography, quotes from affected individuals, and facts about the crisis, Leng captivated the audience – many of whom had never heard of the bacteria.
We screened 8 other fantastic films and unique pieces of media art throughout the evening, which are all available to stream via the links at the bottom of this article. Another crowd favorite was Spear, Spatula, and Submarine – a tale of how a community is addressing the Lionfish invasion of South Florida’s reefs through weaponized submarines, spearguns, and exotic recipes.
“A captivating presentation of films… about environmental health and disparity: [the] Eco-Film fest was both a delight and humbling festival, presenting an array of potent genres. What’s more, it was a pleasure to hear from a panel of renowned speakers who added depth to conversations around the films, supplementing students’ visions through their learned experiences inside their respective industries and artwork. Nourishment for the cinephile’s soul.”
–Sol Vanhassel, recent Film, Television, and Media Graduate from the University of Michigan who traveled to attend the festival
We concluded the festival with a mixer, inviting the audience to have conversations with the filmmakers. The rest of the night was full of spirited discussion, community building, and mountains of empanadas, potato balls, and guava strudels. Attendees – including students, university staff, community members, and an entire visiting group of film students from the University of Michigan – had the opportunity to break bread with one another, connect with fellow creatives passionate about environmental storytelling, and share their reflections on festival programming. Energetic conversations about people’s favorite films and panel moments went on right up until the festival concluded.
Check out our amazing students films + media art below:
Shannon Morrall | Spear, Spatula, Submarine
Arian Tomar | The Youth Climate Corps. B.C.
Carin Dorghalli | Down the Road
Leng Ming | Fastidiosa
Savannah Masters and Nikhita Datar | Bekah, From Earth
Xiaoyuan Bao | Birds
Natalie Lopez | Breaking Point
Callianne Jones | Amnis
Tracy Wong | FIELD
Noelle Villasenor | Declining Trust in Institutions Concerning Environmental Justice
A few words from the Lead Student Producer, Monty Hughes:
Climate change has become the defining crisis of the 21st century, and its effects are inescapable and borderless. Wrapping our heads around the climate reality we’re facing is emotionally overwhelming, and storytelling is humankind’s best vehicle for sensemaking, and perhaps our greatest tool for fighting hopelessness, building sustainable communities, and achieving positive change.
Directing the Eco Film + Media Arts Fest has been my greatest achievement at USC. It has been so fulfilling to create a space to elevate amazing stories, celebrate our boundless student talent, and facilitate learning in impact storytelling. We live in an unprecedented era of democratized digital media and global storytelling, and there is a palpable demand for more events like this. It was an honor to play a role in meeting that demand here at USC!
But nobody was more important in making the festival a smash hit than our audience and the army of organizations and supporters that made everything possible: the Arts & Climate Collective, Arts in Action, the Annenberg Innovation Lab, The Fisher Museum, USC’s Office of Sustainability, and the legendary Michael Bodie of SCA’s Division of Media, Arts, and Practice, to name a few. Further, my diverse mentors and educators – such as Tomm Polos, Oliver Mayer, Thomas Gustafson, Cara Esposito and Amanda Pope, among so many others – expertly prepared me to take on the challenge of creating something like this.
The Arts & Climate Collective continues to be at the cutting edge of eco-storytelling, and it was a joy to help make the film festival a reality. As I inch closer to graduation, I’m looking forward to an entire career of empowering, elevating, and representing storytellers, creatives, and innovators – as well as telling stories myself – because of the exciting work I have been able to do at the ACC.
– Monty Hughes
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