Last year, four of the 10 most successful documentaries at the box office had environmental themes, and got their initial boost at the Sundance Festival.
This year’s festival, which is running January 19-29 in Utah, is showcasing some highly anticipated green-oriented documentaries.
The most buzz is around Chasing Ice, this year’s top film on climate change. Other important documentaries include A
Fierce Green Fire, The Atomic States of America, and The
Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (already in the Oscar running).
A Sundance winner from last year, If A Tree Falls, is also Oscar-nominated.
Chasing Ice
This sold-out screening follows National Geographic photographer James Balog on his 5-year quest to document ice loss due to climate change in the Arctic.
Knowing that "seeing is believing," Balog shows breathtaking sequences of the retreat of some of the world’s most remote glaciers and ice fields. He built his own time- lapse cameras which, while running on solar, withstood 200 mph winds and minus-40 degree temperatures.
After making the film, Balog moved those cameras to Mount Everest and high in the Bolivian Andes to document the ice loss there. And one of his next projects will document climate change by capturing the loss of Colorado’s mountain pine forests to epidemic insect infestations, which are caused by warming.
A Fierce Green Fire
This film is a history of the environmental movement. It brings privotal moments in the history of environmental activism across the past five decades to life. Read about the making of this film.
The Atomic States of America
Based on Kelly McMasters’s memoir about growing up in a nuclear-reactor community, this film illustrates the dire health consequences for many residents in Shirley, New York – her Long Island hometown.
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
Survivors in the areas hardest hit by Japan’s recent tsunami find the courage to revive and rebuild as cherry blossom season begins.
More on Sundance:
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