Find a viewing in your neck of the woods:

AMC Theatres Ahwatukee 24
4915 East Ray Road, Phoenix, AZ 85044
(888) 262-4386

Cinemark 16 – Mesa
1051 N. Dobson Road
Mesa, AZ 85201 (800) 326-3264

AMC Theatres Mesa Grand Twenty Four
1645 South Stapley
Mesa, AZ 85204 (888) 262-4386

AMC Westgate 20
9400 West Hanna Lane
Glendale, AZ 85305 (888)262-4386

AMC Theatres Desert Ridge 18
21001 N. Tatum
Phoenix, AZ 85050 (888) 262-4386

AMC Theatres Arrowhead 14
7700 W. Bell Road, Suite 1079
Glendale, AZ 85308  (888) 262-4386

Century Oro Valley Marketplace
12155 North Oracle Road
Tucson, AZ 8573

Century EL Con 20
EL Con Mall
Tucson, AZ 85716 (800)326-3264

Century 20 Park Place
5870 East Broadway Blvd
Tucson, AZ 85711 (800)326-3264
Directions

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Click here to find a showing at Harkins Camelview in Scottsdale.

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Don’t miss the opportunity to see a FREE showing of Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy and meet the film’s director!

ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability invites you to attend three public events, celebrating:

ASU’s Teach-In on Global Warming
Thursday, February 5, 2009

http://schoolofsustainability.asu.edu/teachin

Take Action. Change the world. It starts with one.

National Webcast: The First 100 Days
Time: 8:30 – 11 AM
Location: GIOS 102
Hosts/Sponsors: GIOS, SOS, Engrained, Whole Foods, Tempe

Continental breakfast and viewing of “The First 100 Days,” a discussion of what needs to happen early in the Obama administration featuring David Orr, Hunter Lovins, Ray Anderson, and an interview with youth climate leaders Billy Parish, Wahleah Johns, and their baby Tohanna. They talk about the importance of student activism in the first 100 days; the potential impact of green jobs; and challenges facing today’s students.

The webcast is 30-minutes long and will be replayed the whole morning.

A Student Action
Time: 8:30 – 11 AM
Location: GIOS front steps
Hosts: Students of AZ Network for Sustainability (SANS)

Petitioning the Arizona Corporation Commission to increase the renewable energy standard for Arizona’s utilities, an important step towards energy independence.

Students Act Now for Sustainability
Time: 11 AM – 2 PM
Location: ASU Student Services Lawn
Hosts/Sponsors: GIOS, SANS, Chipotle, ASU environmental groups

When it comes to activism, the students at ASU are it. Sustainability is it. And it IS our time for change. February 5th presents a time for people to come together. It also presents a choice. Come out and stand. For your future, for your values, for your sustainability beliefs, and everything that is to come. Included: free food, action opportunities, and a Swiss energy display! The “Climate Trail” display, on loan from the Swiss Consulate, is a walk-through exhibit that is premiering on the Student Services Lawn and will be traveling around the ASU Tempe Campus through February 13th.

Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy (part of ASU’s Darwinfest) (RSVP required)
Time: 5 – 5:30 PM: Reception sponsored by Wholefoods Tempe and Engrained Restaurant
5:30 – 7:30 PM: Showing of Sizzle with post-film panel discussion led by the Filmmaker!
Location: Murdock Hall 201, ASU’s Tempe Campus (map)

Hosts/Sponsors: School of Life Sciences, Center for Biology and Society, GIOS, Institute for Humanities Research,

School of Earth and Space Exploration, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Whole Foods Tempe, Engrained Restaurant

Meet the Filmmaker! Free, but you must RSVP at: sustainabilityevents@asu.edu. Even with a reservation, seating is not guaranteed but is first-come, first-served! Sizzle, a novel blend of three genres-mockumentary, documentary, and reality: Scientist-turned-filmmaker Dr. Randy Olson, is a fan of Al Gore’s global-warming movie, but asks, “Where are all the scientists?” Join Dr. Olson for a reception before the film showing, and he and a panel of ASU experts for discussion following the movie, moderated by John D’Anna of The Arizona Republic. Panelists: Susanne Neuer (Associate Professor, SoLS) and Daniel Bernardi (Director, Film and Media Studies)

RSVPs are required for the film at sustainabilityevents@asu.edu; Trailer

Lauren Kuby
Manager, Events and Community Engagement
Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University
PO Box 875402, Tempe AZ 85287-5402
http://sustainability.asu.edu

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And once again I’d recommend the docurama film: King Corn, which explores our current model of corn production and how it is causing a malnourished, unhealthy population.

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This 2006 report titled, “Sustainability in the Motion Picture Industry” (PDF) was commissioned by the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) to review the movie and television industry and find some of the successful sustainability practices already in place. It is worth noting that although this is a public project funded for $170,000, the CIWMB claims full copyright of the report and does not allow reproduction of it in any form. The excerpts reproduced here are done so in Fair Use in order to comment on and review the report.

The Principle Investigators of this report are Dr. Charles J. Corbett, Professor in the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and Dr. Richard P. Turco, Professor in the UCLA Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

The authors used interviews and case studies to learn about “best practices” within the movie and television industry between Summer 2003 and Spring 2005. The goal was to present this information in a clear fashion that would make it easier for the industry to make these best practices more commonplace. The reason for studying the movie/TV industry is that it is highly decentralized. A studio decides to pay for a film or television show, but it is the production team that finds an assortment of other individuals and businesses to help put it together. The argument is that other industries are starting to outsource more and therefore they can learn a lot from the practices of this industry.

It becomes quickly apparent, however, that this industry does not want the attention of this type of study. The authors note that while getting interviews and talking to people on sets was relatively easy, there was very little interest in being outspoken or giving identifiable remarks. The industry does not want publicity that might lead the public to become concerned with its practices, as the authors mention in the following statment on numbered page 3 (overall page 8 within your PDF reader), “The public at large does not think of the motion picture industry as polluting or otherwise environmentally harmful, so any publicity related to environmental initiatives within the industry would, in that view, draw attention to the existence of environmental problems that apparently need solving.”

The following section includes a few highlights from the report, but there is a lot more in it that is not reviewed here.

Internal Coverage of Sustainability Issues: The report tallies the number of articles appearing in two movie/TV industry newspapers: Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter. Figure 1 of the report is a plot of the number of environment or sustainability articles appearing in these two papers versus time. It displays a rise in environmental coverage by showing that there were a total of 3 articles in 1997 compared to 13 in 2004. The researchers performed a careful study in which only true environmentally related articles were counted. From a statistics point of view this result does not seem to imply anything about a “recent increase in attention awarded to environmental issues in the motion picture industry” as the authors conclude. To compare, I conducted my own (decidedly non-scientific) study by using the search engine at Variety’s website. Here are some searches and the number of Variety articles they return:

“baby seals” – 3

“environmental impact” – 69

“sex scenes” – 1,757

“breasts” – 2,371

“jack nicholson” – 2,501

It seems as though environmental issues would get more coverage if either Jack Nicholson becomes a freegan or they start making breast implants out of recycled plastic bottles.

Environmental Impact on the Los Angeles Area: Employing so many people and working year-round, it is no surprise that the industry has a significant environmental impact on the LA area. In terms of conventional pollutants, energy usage, greenhouse gas emission, and lubricating oil and tire consumption, the industry is either the largest user or very near to it (Figs 1-3, 4-5). The fatalities section of page 15 (PDF 20) is interesting to read, but difficult to put in perspective.

One conclusion from the report is that the industry is contributing a lot of greenhouse gas and is not doing much to reduce its generation, as read on page 68 (PDF 73): “From the environmental impact estimates, greenhouse gas emissions are clearly an area where the motion picture industry can be considered a significant contributor. From the interviews, it is clear that very few people in the industry are actively engaged with greenhouse gas emission reduction, or even with discussions of the issue.”

Budget Limitations on Sustainability: Page 23 (PDF 28) spells out that roughly 50% of a 50-million dollar budget will be used for the cast (but dominated by the A-list star), director, and producer. These three people possibly collect more than half of the budget and the many, many other people involved in production split the remainder. This makes movies (though the television side is somewhat similar) expensive and leaves little room for costs incurred through environmentally sound practices. So, if you are happy to see your favorite actor in a movie, be aware that hiring this actor might have come at the expense of various, higher price, sustainable practices on set.

Recycling: Recycling is very good because in order to comply with City regulations the studios banded together to accomplish compliance efficiently. Even in this case, however, it is difficult to recycle sets and will often be cheaper to throw them away.

Ultimate Challenge to Maintaining Sustainable Practices: The ultimate challenge facing the industry is that no long-term planning is possible. A project is not worked on until the money is finally approved, and then it is done as quickly as possible because delays lead to less profitability and might result in cancellation. Sustainability is all about planning ahead developing practices that can be repeatedly applied. The movie/TV industry, on the other hand, is built around being nimble and capitalizing on spur of the moment pop-culture phenomena to produce content that will attract the largest possible audience. This leads to a mentality in which no expense (no resource) will be spared in the production of such content.

Case Studies: The report includes a few case studies that display successful practices in sustainable productions. You can read about the movie, “The Day After Tomorrow” being carbon-neutral, though this was achieved by paying for carbon offsets to The CarbonNeutral Company and that money came from the director, Roland Emmerich, personally. Whether studios are willing to start paying this on a regular basis remains to be seen.

“Film X” is an example of a production that wanted to remain anonymous, but the production team provided many interviews. The theme of profitability being the most important aspect of movies came up repeatedly (even though this was “a two-hour, dramatic film based on a popular
bestselling novel and comprised of a large cast of A-list actors,”). Commercial success was deemed even more important than creativity and artistry. This gets back to the difficulty involved in applying sustainable practices while keeping costs down.

The Matrix 2 and 3 are an example of a successful set recycling program. The production worked with The ReUse People and were able to recycle 97.5% of the set material.

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Man is the only creature that produces landfills. Natural resources are being depleted on a rapid scale while production and consumption are rising in na­tions like China and India. The waste production world wide is enormous and if we do not do anything we will soon have turned all our resources into one big messy landfill. But there is hope. The German chemist, Michael Braungart, and the American designer-architect William McDonough are fundamentally changing the way we produce and build. If waste would become food for the biosphere or the technosphere (all the technical products we make), produc­tion and consumption could become beneficial for the planet.

http://www.vpro.nl/

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Watch it Online

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Earth Hour

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Filmgoers will catch screenings of critically-acclaimed environmental films produced around the country and get information about local issues, such as protection of Fossil Creek as a Wild and Scenic River here in Arizona.

Fossil Creek is a remarkable success story, but there are many other watersheds—such as the Verde River—that are endangered by groundwater pumping for development in the Chino Valley. The Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival will inspire and motivate you to go out and make a difference for Arizona’s endangered waterways.

It’s a festival for activists, by activists. The event is organized and hosted by the Arizona Wilderness Coalition and is sponsored by Patagonia™.

Proceeds benefit the Arizona Wilderness Coalition and will be used to protect wilderness lands and waters across Arizona.

Tempe
WHERE: Harkins Valley Art Theater, 509 South Mill Ave, Tempe

WHEN: Thursday, February 21

DOORS OPEN: 6:15 pm

SHOW STARTS: 6:45 pm

COST: $10 advance, or $12 at the door

RAFFLE TICKETS (great prizes!) $5 each or 4 for $15

Sedona

WHERE: Sedona Dream Theater, in the Village of Oak Creek Prime Outlet Mall, 6615 Hwy 179, Sedona. (The theater was previously known as the Super-Vue.) 928-284-0005

WHEN: Saturday, April 5th

DOORS OPEN: 4:00 pm

SHOW STARTS: 5:45 pm

COST: $10 advance, or $12 at the door

RAFFLE TICKETS (great prizes!) $5 each or 4 for $15

http://www.azwild.org/

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