The California Film Institute Education program’s Fourth Annual Environmental Youth Forum will be on February 13 and 14 this year at CFI’s Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St. in San Rafael.

It’s a perfect time to send a Valentine to your Mother… Earth. Our theme this year is “Turning the “me” into “we”. Many of our environmental problems can be tracked to humans who are poor stewards of the real estate we call Earth. Humanity may be defined as “we” but in fact “we” is all living beings and ecosystems since we are so interdependent. For too long we have defined the world only in terms of ourselves – and often in narrow terms of a small population in a small geographical area.

This year the EYF is divided into two parts. Monday, February 13th is for grades 6-12 and Valentine’s Day- Tuesday, February 14th is for grades 2-5.

On the 13th we will present over 15 films, playing on all three of the Rafael Film center screens, plus Q&A’s with invited speakers, seminars and tabling with local environmental groups. The day will begin at 8:15am and end at 2:45 pm.

On the 14th we will feature the international feature documentary hit Turtle: The Incredible Odyssey, narrated by Miranda Richardson. The stunningly photographed Turtle follows a loggerhead turtle’s journey from a hatchling to a 25 year-old adult. Also playing on the 14th will be a shorts program of environmental films for grade schoolers. The day will begin at 9:00 am and be finished at 11:45.

A partial list of films on the 13th includes premieres of: Pipe Dreams (on the XL Pipeline), A Wild Idea (on Uruguay’s unique solution to carbon off-set), Urbanized (on city Planning), I Bought A Rainforest (on Amazon Basin Destruction), Severn: the Voice of Our Children (on environmentalist David Suzuki’s daughter Severn who addressed the United Nations when she was 12), Blue Gold, (on the next global resource war—over water) Burning In the Sun (on do-it-yourself solar panels) and Mother (on population); and recent films Journey of the Universe (about our relationship to the Earth and the Universe), With My Own Two Wheels (on the bicycle revolution), City Dark (on light pollution), Forks Over Knives (on environmentally sound eating), Revenge of the Electric Car (this revenge is sweet), Peak Oil and Transition (locally made), If A Tree Falls (on the Earth First! Movement). In addition we will have the Goldman Prize short films and a program of short films made by Bay Area youth.

Along with our keynote speaker, 2011 Brower Youth Award winner, Tania Pulido, who runs a community garden in Richmond, that’s more than just a place to grow food, speakers will include filmmakers Patsy Northcutt (Journey of the Universe), Jacob Seigel-Boettner (With My Own Two Wheels), the Mill Valley Film Group (Goldman Prize films), Veronica Muscoso (A Wild Idea), John Duvall (Peak Oil and Transition), and more as we refine the schedule. We are also privileged to have Dennis Cunningham who defended Earth First! activist Judi Bari in the ground-breaking case of Bari vs. the FBI in the 1990's. He will speak after If A Tree Falls.

On Tuesday, the 14th we are thrilled to welcome Christopher Pincetich, Ph.D., campaigner and marine biologist, Sea Turtle Restoration Project as our speaker after Turtle: The Incredible Odyssey.

An e-guide will be provided to all students with 100's of live links to related subjects and further research presented by the films. Each student will receive a lanyard with a plastic pocket attached to collect action item cards provided by each filmmaker or speaker.

We are asking all schools that participate in the EYF to give their students the opportunity to design A Valentine for Mother …Earth. We will have prizes in several categories! These will be displayed on the 13th and 14th at The Rafael Film Center.

The program is Free. We cannot reserve space for individual films. The reservation for the 13th is for the whole day. The day begins at 8:15 so please be prompt for the keynote address. A 30 minute lunch break is built into the day, but students can eat in the theaters during films if they choose. Please have students bring bag lunches. We cannot be responsible for students who leave the theater. They may not be allowed re-entry. On the 14th teachers can choose both the feature and the 40-minute shorts program or the feature alone or the shorts program alone.

We can only accommodate 500 students each day, so make your reservation soon.

For reservations please email education@cafilm.org with the following:

Name of school Teacher contact including a phone number and email Number of students AND chaperones (we need as close to exact numbers as possible). PLEASE be as accurate as possible.

Free bus requests will be filled as funding permits. Buses hold 60 people. Any additional students over multiples of 60 will be the responsibility of the attending school.


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