As Earth Day approaches on April 22, the Princeton Public Library presents a hybrid rendition of one of its signature events, the Princeton Environmental Film Festival. Running from April 1 to 10, the festival features 14 films available for online viewing for the duration of the festival unless otherwise noted. Eight of those will also have in-person screenings in the library’s community room.
The schedule is as follows:
“Glory of the West: Saving Sage-Grouse in America the Beautiful” features the bird’s conservation needs and the voices of key stakeholders in the conservation challenge, including ranchers, oil and gas developers, indigenous people, conservation professionals, and government biologists. 32 minutes. Live screening Saturday, April 2, 11:30 a.m.
“American River” is a documentary about a four-day kayak journey down New Jersey’s Passaic River. The central character is Mary Bruno, who spent her childhood along one of the Passaic’s most polluted stretches and returns decades later to rediscover the river of her youth and tell its story. 86 minutes. Live screening Saturday, April 2, at 2 p.m. Online streaming available from Friday, April 8, at noon, to Sunday, April 10, at 9 p.m.
“Storm Lake” tells the story of an old-school journalist who has dedicated his life to his family’s bi-weekly newspaper in Storm Lake, Iowa. 85 minutes. Live screening Sunday, April 3, 1 p.m.
“WILD in the Garden State” is a story about connecting to the natural world in suburban New Jersey. Dave and Sarah are city transplants with no gardening experience who want a beautiful, ecological garden. 30 minutes. Live screening Saturday, April 9, 1 p.m.
“Pandemic Plastic” is about the effects of ocean pollution and how to save us all from being choked in trash. 6 minutes. Live screening Saturday, April 9, 2:30 p.m.
“Drift” is the story of Barnegat Bay, an estuary that is one of the most productive ecosystems in the country, and the past 50 years of human activity on the bay and the concerns engulfing the estuary. 78 minutes. Live screening Saturday, April 9, at 3 p.m.
“My Garden of a Thousand Bees” features filmmaker Martin Dohrn setting out to film more than 60 bee species in his small city garden with mind-blowing results. 52 minutes. Live screening Sunday, April 10, 1:30 p.m.
“Return Sasyk to the Sea” documents bizarre Soviet irrigation experiments in Southern Ukraine that created a slow eco-disaster. Sasyk Estuary, by the Black Sea, is ground zero for a battle between eco activists, poachers, bureaucrats, and corrupt officials. 60 minutes. Live screening Sunday, April 10, 3 p.m.
“Farm Free or Die” shows how transformative agricultural policies can improve farming livelihoods while addressing the climate crisis. The stories of farmers on the front lines of severe environmental and economic adversity will catalyze support for policies that stabilize rural communities, strengthen food security, and incentivize soil health and carbon removal. 30 minutes.
“Fire in the Wilderness” shows leading fire ecologists working to better understand wildfire and highlights the importance of fire as a fundamental natural process. 12 minutes.
“Food for the Rest of Us” examines how getting back to the land is tied to other movements such as Black Lives Matter, Idle No More, and Times Up. The film presents four stories of people living life on their own terms, serving as leaders and role models who are lending their voice to the underdog and leading a revolution to a better world. 83 minutes.
“The Humongous Fungus Among Us” tells the story of a quiet Upper Michigan town that becomes the center of an international media frenzy after three scientists discover a record-breaking “Humongous Fungus” living next door. 59 minutes.
“Into Dust” follows the journey of a woman who worked tirelessly to protect the water rights of Pakistan’s poor and ended up making the ultimate sacrifice. 40 minutes.
In “Nothing But the Sun,” Mateo Sobode Chiqueno has been recording stories, songs, and testimonies of his Ayoreo people since the 1960s in an attempt to preserve fragments of a disappearing culture. 75 minutes.
“The Rescue” chronicles the dramatic 2018 rescue of 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach, trapped deep inside a flooded cave. 107 minutes.
“Up on the Mountain” follows Southeast Asian refugees, Latino immigrants, and rural Americans on a year-round migration to harvest wild mushrooms in the American west. 100 minutes.
For more information visit www.princetonlibrary.org/peff
"American River" screens Saturday, April 2.,
