A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet. Film screening and discussion with Kristen Van Hooreweghe. Kellas 106, Friday 4:00 – 6:30 pm
A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet by Rachel Grefke
If you abuse it, you lose it; that is the famous saying that many of us have been taught throughout our lives. If you neglect or disrespect something, you lose the privileges of it. These words of wisdom fit a lot of different circumstances. But what doesn’t cross most peoples’ minds is that this saying relates to the way we treat our source of life: our planet.
At the Making the Future Academic Festival, A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet is a film that will be shown. This film shows first-hand examples of the destruction that we have inflicted on our Earth. This film is a form of art, sculpted to show the world the destruction that we have caused to our planet. This film is also about the many people and groups that have taken action to try to stop or reduce negative human impact on the Earth (afiercegreenfire).
The film describes different situations where humans have been negatively impacting our planet and natural resources which in result have caused a direct negative effect on us. For example, in the beginning of the trailer a woman is talking about giving birth to a stillborn baby. The believed cause to the baby’s death was chemicals in the environment (afiercegreenfire). This environmental movie shows many different situations like this one where helpless citizens have had to suffer due to the carelessness of others.
This film exposes us to the shocking truth but is overall an exciting dramatic film to watch. It forces its viewers to sit on the edge of their chairs as it combines real life film footage of environmental issues with the thrilling scenes of citizens and environmental movement leaders attempting to halt them. This is not your average environmental film where you watch butterflies land on flowers; I’m an environmentalist and movies like that put even me to sleep. This is a hard-hitting environmental film that shows people driving boats in front of whaling ships to stop them from slaughtering whales, lying in streets being carried off the pavement by cops, marching down streets to assure that the harm being done to this planet does not continue (afiercegreenfire).
Education is the key to the future: the key to mankind’s future is educating ourselves on our environment and its issues. Everyone should view this film because it relates to all mankind that lives on this Earth. We need to educate ourselves on these environmental issues past and present so that they will not repeat or continue in the future. Also, the film allows everyone to see that you don’t have to have a lot of money or be known by a lot of people to make a change. You just have to want something bad enough to change it. Seeing this film might motivate you to join a protest, march, or movement to help this planet. But it may not; it might just help you decided to make small but important changes to your life to better suit the environment.
Behind every great piece of art is an artist who shapes their work into a message meant to be shared with the world. Mark Kitchell, the director behind this movie, did exactly that when creating this film. Kitchell has produced many big-screen gems and has captured his audience for every single one. It has become apparent when it comes to A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet, Mark Kitchell does more than get his point across. In this film Kitchell is able to grab our attention with all the shocking truths he exposes us to. This film shows the first hand effects of the damage we have done and he allows your mind to wander and question your own actions. Mark Kitchell, was nominated for an Oscar for his ability to capture this environmental history. Kitchell was also nominated for an Oscar for his movie Berkeley in the Sixties (“Director Mark Kitchell's”).
When a film leaves an impact on its audience like A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet does, it will be chosen and nominated at some of the biggest film festivals in American. These film festivals that have selected this film include the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Film Festival takes place each year in Utah and had over 46,700 people in attendance in the year 2012 (“Sundance Film Festival”). Another festival where this film was screened was the 2012 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital which is one of the nation’s largest environmental festivals (Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital). Other festivals that selected this film to be screened are the 2012 Sheffield Doc/Fest, and the 2013 Wild and Scenic film festival (A Fierce Green Fire). The fact that this film was selected to be screened at these festivals shows us that this is a well-made film that has an important message meant to be shared with the world.
Throughout the time that mankind has been present on Earth we have been abusing it and all its natural resources. We have been harming our planet through such things as air pollution, water pollution, deforestation, consumption of natural resources with failure to re-supply, and much more. If these actions continue at the current rate, we could lose everything that supports us on this planet and eventually even lose our lives. It’s important that we all realize these evident truths so that we can modify our lifestyles to better suit everything and everyone’s future. People who view A Fierce Green Fire: A Battle for a Living Planet can learn about the dangers that come with these selfish abusive actions and start to make changes to better suit everyone.
This planet has given mankind so much throughout time. But as it continues to give and we continue to keep taking, we fail to take care and replenish the natural resources which are provided for us. A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet is a film that clearly shows this one way relationship between mankind and Earth. It’s important that we all view this film to become educated on what we have done and what we are doing to our planet. We can also learn about the memorable people that have protested to better our home and set examples to future environmental movement leaders. We have to be the change we want to see in the world, and viewing this film could be our first step to save our future.
Works Cited
afiercegreenfire. “A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet - Official Trailer. Online video clip. (2013) [HD]. Dir. Mark Kitchell. YouTube. YouTube, 07 Jan. 2013. Web.
A Fierce Green Fire. Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
"Director Mark Kitchell's Mind Bombs - March/April 2013 Sierra Magazine - Sierra Club. N.p., n.d. Web.
Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital. N.p., 2013. Web.
"Sundance Film Festival." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 Feb. 2013. Web.
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