Project Leaders’ Names:
Judy Li, April Jauhal
Danielle Nahal, Allie Loux
2.
Project Title
EcoMovie Nights
3.
Fiscal Sponsor and any Partnering Organizations
Fiscal Sponsor: Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley (ASUC)
Organization: ASUC Sustainability Team
4.
Project Summary
a.
Goals of the project- what did you set out to accomplish? What campus need were you
trying to fill?
The goal of the EcoMovie Nights project was to inform and inspire students about a wide
range of environmental issues through the screening of a series of engaging, relevant
documentaries. It was our intention to provide information to the campus community about
issues that are not only facing the world at large, but also are being dealt with on campus. This
includes the Zero Waste initiative, Greenhouse Gas reduction, and water reduction goals. These
issues affect the entire campus community, but it is clear that for people who are not engaged in
a field of study where they are discussed, there are few opportunities for the information to be
made available and analyzed in a community setting. EcoMovie Nights thusly sought to provide
a fun, routine event where students from outside the sustainability community would have the
opportunity to mingle with other students, learn about relevant issues, and bring their opinions
and questions to lend their perspectives to a discussion.
1.
Accomplishments and successes – what went well?
The first movie was The City Dark, a film shown during the San Francisco Green Film
Festival as their spotlight film. It was chosen because it addressed important issues regarding the
psychological and ecological impacts of light pollution, but was also very interesting due to its
directing style, soundtrack and use of supplementary animations. Overall, the film received a
positive reception by the audience, and was followed-up with a discussion after the film about
how light pollution and not being able to see the stars affected audience members personally. In
terms of the quality of experience of the movie-goers and the knowledge that they gained, this
movie was a success. The second movie was Terra Blight was shown in conjunction with
CACS. The discussion following the movie was great, largely because some people who
contributed to the making of the film were present. They helped facilitated a quality discussion
about electronic waste and the process of documentary filmmaking, and the reception was
positive. The third movie was Bidder 70. The catering for this film was provided by the Berkeley
Student Food Cooperative (BSFC), which supplied good food that the audience enjoyed. The
BSFC also helped to advertise for this event, brining in a much larger audience than the previous
two EcoMovies of the semester. Similar to how filmmakers from Terra Blight facilitated a rich
discussion, Matt Leonard, a friend of Tim de Christopher (whom Bidder 70 is about), facilitated
a great discussion by answering audience questions about the trial, and about environmental
activism in general.
The spring semester screenings went quite well. For CRUDE, screened in early April, we
were able to collaborate with a number of campus organizations to screen this film, as both a
source of information on where our oil comes from as well as an insight into the power behind
the industry. The Student Environmental Resource Center and the student organization Fossil
b.
Free Cal both gave support and advertisement for the screening. CRUDE was shown the week
before the ASUC Elections, as there was a referendum on the ballot getting student feedback
about the University of California divesting its holdings in the fossil fuel industry. The film was
presented in order to give the voting student body an additional perspective about the
implications of this proposition, and to create a space where we could be informed together and
raise questions about what we felt our role was in this industry. Cheeseboard pizza was provided
at no cost to attendees, who ranged from undergraduate and graduate students to community
members. All in all, attendance was about 45 individuals.
We screened Thin Ice: The Inside Story of Climate Science in late April as a part of Earth
Week at UC Berkeley. During Earth Week, the ASUC Sustainability Team hosted various
events, led discussions, and had activities for students to learn about sustainability and get
involved. The week led into the California Student Sustainability Coalition’s Spring
Convergence, which was hosted at UC Berkeley. Around 35 UC Berkeley students and Berkeley
community members attended the EcoMovie and following discussion. After the movie
screening, including complimentary Cheeseboard pizza, ASUC Sustainability Team members
led a discussion of climate change and the issues behind climate change denial. We then broke
into smaller groups to discuss prominent issues and consider tangible solutions we can
implement on campus and in the community, and opened back out to voice those solutions.
c.
Challenges and obstacles – what were the challenges/obstacles in this project and how
did you handle these? Did you have to make any changes from your original application
submission? Is there anything you wish you had known before you started the project? Is there
anything about the process you wish you could have changed or do over?
The most significant challenge to the project was the change in leadership and organizing
team over the duration of the grant. Due to personal circumstances, the original project leader
resigned from the position at the end of the Fall 2012 semester. Valuable experience gained from
the first two EcoMovies was mostly lost after the resignation and it was unclear how the
EcoMovie Nights program would continue. Because the EcoMovie Nights program is housed
within ASUC Sustainability Team (STeam), new leaders and organizing volunteers were found
from within STeam’s member base. These new leaders stepped up to maintain the program and
to plan the two Spring 2013 EcoMovies based on their previous event planning experience and
knowledge of the EcoMovie Nights program. Communication with Katherine Walsh, the TGIF
Program Coordinator, was also extremely helpful for the program.
The original grant application planned for screening an environmental documentary every
month, which rounds out to three per semester. The EcoMovie Nights program hosted. Even
though there were three screenings per semester, the EcoMovie Nights were not spaced out as
well as they should have been throughout the semesters. This was especially the case in the
spring semester when all three EcoMovie Nights took place in April. This change was largely
due to organizational logistics such as avoiding overlap with other environmental events, waiting
for screening rights, and difficulties with room reservations. Many of these logistical difficulties
could have been avoided if each semesters’ EcoMovie dates, times, and screening rights were
planned before the semester started. This important pre-semester planning stage will be
implemented for the 2013-2014 academic year EcoMovie Nights program.
Other significant challenges also included getting publicity to reach the most people and
generate a large audience, and a rich discussion that empowered the audience to do something
about the issue that the EcoMovie brought up. The EcoMovie Nights website created for
advertising the three fall semester EcoMovies was useful, but it, along with circulating a
facebook event, was not enough to generate the degree of publicity necessary, as seen by the
small audience turnout for the first two EcoMovies of the fall. Fliers, email and facebook
publicity were used for the spring EcoMovie Nights that resulted in higher audience turnout, but
there may have been potential to increase publicity by utilizing the fall EcoMovie Nights website
for spring EcoMovie Nights. Another way of increasing publicity would be to ask environmental
and environment-related courses’ instructors to circulate publicity blurbs and fliers to their
students, and possibly offer extra credit for attending.
d.
Feedback to TGIF – Is there anything that TGIF could have done to better advise or help
your project?
TGIF did a great job checking in with the new EcoMovie Nights program leaders as they
were transitioning into their roles. The project leaders were aware of resources and expectations
of the grant.
e.
Actual Timeline of the project from start to completion
Fall 2012: Film Screenings:
The City Dark: September 24th, 2012
Terra Blight: October 6th, 2012
Bidder 70: November 1st, 2012
Spring 2013 Film Screenings:
CRUDE: The Real Price of Oil: April 3, 2013
Do the Math: April 21st, 2013
Thin Ice: The Inside Story of Climate Science: April 23, 2013
5.
Sustainability Impact
a.
What quantitative and/or qualitative sustainability impacts/metrics did your project have?
Attendees
The City Dark: 6
Terra Blight: 8
Bidder 70: 26
CRUDE: 45
Do the Math: 30
Thin Ice: 35
The main environmental advertisements at the CRUDE EcoMovie were the Fossil Fuel
Divestment Referendum, Fossil Free Cal, and Nolan Pack for ASUC Executive Vice President
with a very impressive sustainability platform. Both the divestment referendum and Nolan
Pack’s candidacy were to appear on the ballot presented to the student body in the next week.
The ballot referendum and Nolan Pack did very well in the elections, and the referendum passed
with over 73% of student voters in favor of fossil fuel divestment. These turnouts are not
completely due to the ECO Movie Nights program, but the screening of CRUDE helped get
more people interested in the fossil fuel divestment campaign, Fossil Free Cal, and Nolan Pack’s
sustainability platforms.
Thin Ice was a successful screening because it provided background behind climate
science and what climate scientists do daily while also challenging those who deny that climate
change is an issue. It was highly educational and the discussion gave attendees a space to voice
opinions on the subject and consider solutions. We discussed ways in which individuals and
groups can spread awareness of these issues and implore others to do the same. The screening
also heightened awareness of the ASUC Sustainability Team on campus, the California Student
Sustainability Coalition, the Fossil Free movement, and promoted attendance to other Earth
Week events.
b.
Do you expect on-going benefits (annual cost savings)? Please include estimates of these
impacts.
The expected on-going benefits of these impacts are the successive increase in campus
community discourse about topics such as fossil fuel divestment, climate change, and urban
sustainability over the next couple of semesters. This increase in awareness will be beneficial for
campaigns and action events for which a more aware student community will be more engaged
in. Also at EcoMovie Nights, interested students have the opportunity to make connections with
other environmental student leaders and groups that they can join. This benefits the
environmental organization and the larger environmental community at UC Berkeley as new
members develop leadership skills and become the next generation of environmental student
leaders.
6.
Visibility / Outreach (examples include building renovations, signs, a garden, etc.)
a.
Please include any examples of publicity with your final report (in possible, please send
original files with your final report)
EcoMovie website to promote Fall 2012 EcoMovies: http://ecomovie.wordpress.com/
CRUDE quarter sheet flier
Thin Ice quarter sheet flier
b.
Photographs of your project (if possible, please send original .jpg or other photo files
with your final report)
Thin Ice screening
7.
Conclusions and next steps – will your project continue on into the future, and if yes,
who will be carrying on the project? What are the next steps for this project? Will it need
continual financial or staffing support and who will be meeting those needs?
The project will continue in the future with new leadership within the ASUC
Sustainability Team and three or four new volunteers to help coordinate the movie nights. We
will seek funding from various other sources including the ASUC Senate, Academic Opportunity
Fund, and the remaining $1,220.77 from the original EcoMovie Nights TGIF Grant. We also
plan to apply to use the Late-night, Alcohol-free Welcome Week programming fund for our first
EcoMovie of the Fall 2013 semester.
We have a number of new ideas to promote our events and increase awareness about
issues in sustainability on and off campus. For instance, we plan to compile the list of
EcoMovies and to reserve rooms before the semester starts to simplify organization and
advertising for each event. This will allow for more focus and time to publicize before each
EcoMovie. We plan to use the Student Environmental Resources Center to assure that we
include all environmental groups in our advertising and plan to reach out to all members of the
UC Berkeley student body and to surrounding Berkeley community members. We also plan to
contact professors of large introductory-level or related courses at least two weeks before the
start of the semester with a list of the movies we plan to show to ask for possible extra credit for
students who attend the movie nights. There will be a group of 3-4 EcoMovie planning
committee members who will oversee the planning and publicity for each upcoming EcoMovie.
8.
Budget Summary – include an official copy of a ledger with all expenses listed
The budget summary is included as an attachment.