Taos Environmental Film Festival
T E F F ~ 2 0 2 1
TAOS ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL
2021
TAOS AUGUST PEACE PILGRIMAGE
SUNDAY AUGUST 8, 2 to 9 pm
Films, Peace Forum, Candlelight Ceremony
At TAOS COMMUNITY AUDITORIUM – MASKS REQUIRED
IN REMEMBRANCE OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI – 1945
Films, Forum, Ceremony and Art to take place on SUNDAY, August 8TH at the Taos Community Auditorium from 2 to 9 pm. Four outstanding and illuminating films will be screened in support of global peace and the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons:
ANNOUNCEMENT –
Due to COVID-19 Masks are required. N95 Masks are highly recommended.
INFORMATIVE FILMS:
The FORGOTTEN BOMB – Bud Ryan and Stuart Overbey
HIBAKUSHA Our Life to Live – David Rothauser
VOW FROM HIROSHIMA – Susan C. Strickler
ASHES OF NAGASAKI – Emiko Omori
PEACE FORUM – What’s going on at LANL & What is to be done ?????
There will be a Peace Forum at 5:30 pm with six esteemed leadership panelists from New Mexico’s Peace and Justice community who will discuss the urgent need for the abolishment of nuclear weapons and the existential global threat of mass extinction they present.
PEACE FORUM PANELISTS:
BUD RYAN: MODERATOR, Film Maker
JONI ARENDS: Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety
SCOTT KOVAC: Nuclear Watch, New Mexico
ERICH KUERSCHNER: Taos Peace Activist
KEN MAYERS: Santa Fe Veterans for Peace
SERIT KOTOWSKI: Artist & Taos Peace Activist
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CANDLELIGHT CEREMONY , In Remembrance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – 1945
with Sensei Sean Murphy. Music by Jenny Bird
SIGNATORY
The Taos August Peace Pilgrimage is also signatory to a “Vigil in Remembrance: Hiroshima and Nagasaki-1945″
which will take place on SATURDAY, August 7th at Ashley Pond, Los Alamos, NM
from 1-3pm and sponsored by Coalition of Northern New Mexico Peace Activists.
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PROGRAM TIME SCHEUDLE from 2 to 9 pm, SUNDAY, August 8, 2021, Taos Community Auditorium *
2:00 to 3:35 pm: FILM – The Forgotten Bomb
4:00 to 5:15 pm: FILM – Hibakusha, Our Life to Live
5:30 to 6:30 pm: FORUM – “What’s going on at LANL & What is to be done ????”
6:45 to 7:40 pm: FILM – Vow from Hiroshima
7:45 to 8:00 pm: FILM – Ashes of Nagasaki
8:00 to 9:00 pm: EVENT – CANDLELIGHT CEREMONY – Sensei Sean Murphy, Music by Jenny Bird
* Due to Covid-19 there is limited seating in the TCA. Current limitation is 206 as of August 1st.
Peace Forum Panelists – Bio’s
Joni Arends serves as the Executive Director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS),which she co-founded in 1988 to address community concerns about the proposed transportation of radioactive, toxic and hazardous waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).
Scott Kovac is Operations and Research Director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico. NWNM, along with other watchdog groups, recently filed a lawsuit against the US government over its expanded production of plutonium cores for the U.S. nuclear weapons “modernization” plans.
Erich Kuerschner, Taos activist, was born in WWII Darmstadt, Germany, nine months before the bombing of Darmstadt in September of 1944. He earned a master’s degree in economics from UCLA and taught at Colorado State College while engaging in property rights research, before moving to Taos in 1984 where he worked as a carpenter. A life-long anti-war activist and resource planner, Erich has been involved in the Los Alamos Study Group for more than a decade.
Ken Mayers founded Santa Fe Veterans for Peace in 2002. In 2012, he was named a Santa Fe Living Treasure. Since he resigned his commission as a U.S. Marine Corp Captain in 1966 he has worked as a peace activist. Ken has promoted a variety of causes including a freeze and cutback of worldwide nuclear weapons. As a global peace promoter, Ken has been active overseas. His professional life focuses on administration, consulting, communications systems and helping large organizations function better.
Bud Ryan is a Peace & Justice Activist. He made an antinuclear documentary with Stuart Overbey called The Forgotten Bomb which won Best Documentary from the Irvine International Film Festival in California and is a featured film at The Taos August Peace Pilgrimage.
Serit Kotowski is a Peace Activist and Taos Artist whom describes herself as “a student, teacher, gardener, dancer, nurse, mother, sailor, creator and firebrand.” Serit is the founder of the Embudo Valley Environmental Monitoring Group, based in Dixon. EVEMG organized following the May 2000 Cerro Grande fire. EVEMG collected air samples every two weeks for years to protect the community from LANL emissions. She is well informed about emergency response at LANL, as well as using her art to express concerns about nuclear weapons.
For further information on the films to be screened and filmmakers visit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmikoOmori
http://www.hibakusha-ourlifetolive.org/about.html
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The Vision of the Taos Environmental Film Festival 2021
APRIL 22 TO 25, 2021
The Vision and hope of the Taos Environmental Film Festival 2021 is to Invite & Inform. The planet is undergoing great stress. Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and Spirit are all communicating to us. An informed public makes all the difference in the world as each individual wields real power in making their voice heard – in making significant changes towards the survival of the climate: it’s resources and biodiversity; it’s realm of species and peaceful undertakings. We invite you to see all of the films, hear the poet’s voices and engage with us in the presentations made by many environmental and peace scholars, educators, activists, and leaders during The Conference of Environmental and Peace Panelists.
The 2021 Taos Environmental Film Festival gives a big thank-you to all sponsors: Taos Ski Valley Foundation, Trieschmann Family Foundation, Questa Chevron Foundation (& Questa Super Fund Assistance), & the Taos Arts Council. Plus, the creative TEFF team of the “Earth, Wind, Fire, Water & Spirit” 2021: Festival Director, Jean E. Stevens, Assistant to the Director, Judith Rane. Plus, Conference Zoom Co-host Assistants: Nik Seet & Julia Ying for their zoom links & co hosting!! The editor of this short music video & merged NASA photos of this short film was Jean E Stevens with music by noted Taos musician, Omar Rane with film stills from various official selection films of the TEFF 2021.
Open Access Films
All films are free
& ongoing on the website.
Festival Screenings Begin
Apr 22.
Limited Access Films
“Need to Grow” & Bullfrog Films
Screenings Run
from Apr 22 thru Apr 25
Earth Day Poetry Event
Thursday night event
with SOMOS (POETS LAUREATES)
7:30 to 8:30
April 22.
Conference of Environmental & Peace Panelists
LIVE RECORDED
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
11:oo am to 1:00 pm
4/23 thru 4/25
FESTIVAL FILMS
Open Access Films Beginning April 22, 2021
IT’S ALL HOME WATER- A NORTHERN LIGHT
TRT: 12:37 min
Encompassing over 1,000,000 acres, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is in peril from a proposed toxic copper mine on the park’s boundary. Patagonia ambassador Nathaniel Riverhorse Nakadate paddles through the northern Minnesota wilderness to give voice to a silent, pristine place. A film by Riverhorse Nakadate and Tony Czech
PUBLIC TRUST- THE FIGHT FOR AMERICA’S PUBLIC LANDS
TRT: 1 hr 38 min
A feature-length documentary about America’s system of public lands and the fight to protect them.
FISHPEOPLE
TRT: 48:54 min
Fishpeople tells the stories of a unique cast of characters who have dedicated their lives to the sea. Featuring Kimi Werner, Eddie Donnellan, Dave Rastovich, Matahi Drollet, Ray Collins and Lynne Cox. Directed by Keith Malloy
ARTIFISHAL
2019, Patagonia, TRT: 1 hour 20min
Artifishal is a film about people, rivers, and the fight for the future of wild fish and the environment that supports them. It explores wild salmon’s slide toward extinction, threats posed by fish hatcheries and fish farms, and our continued loss of faith in nature
Climate Change and Peace
TRT: 4:56 min
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases, and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. This Movie was created to show how Nuclear War could affect the world and the celebration of the TPNW. Using Fashion as Activism to advocate and educate for Policy Change.
United Nations World Oceans Day
Two short films: TRT 4:26 and 4:56
In a world that is surrounded by the seas, It is our responsibility to take care of it. A video on my process as a designer to combat water wastage and pollution using the ancient craft of water painting and sea weed
The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons
This 56-minute documentary film takes the viewer through a brief history of the bomb and the anti-nuclear activism that has pushed to eliminate them ever since their invention. It moves into a consideration of the humanitarian initiative that successfully challenged the dominant security narrative and the historic steps taken since 2010 to turn the treaty from a dream into a reality. Finally, the film shows what can be done by anyone to help bring the treaty into force and to stigmatize nuclear weapons until they are finally eradicated.
The Man Who Saved the World
TRT: 1 hour 45 min
Language Advisory: “13 & over”.
The Man Who Saved the World is a 2013 feature-length Danish documentary film by film maker Peter Anthony about Stanislav Petrov, a former lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defense Forces and his role in preventing the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident from leading to nuclear holocaust
Down to Earth
TRT: 94 min
Leaving behind their cosmopolitan life, a couple and their three young children travel the world searching for a new perspective on life. During their five-year journey they live with some of the oldest indigenous communities on the planet. They record their encounters with the elders tribal sages never filmed or interviewed before. Without a crew or schedule, just one backpack and one camera each and the curiosity to listen
Dalai Lama- China- Mount Kailash-Happiness
TRT: 56:46 min
The new documentary focuses on three subjects: China’s impact on the preservation of Tibetan culture, Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash and how we can all best cultivate happiness in our lives.
‘Hawaiiana’: By the Woman Who Gave Meaning to the Word
TRT: 57 minutes
The new documentary “Hawaiiana,” pays homage to revered Hawaiian treasure Aunty Nona Beamer. Directed by Maui-based filmmaker Tom Vendetti, the documentary employs rare footage and vintage interview material to paint a moving portrait of a remarkable woman who dedicated her life to perpetuating Hawaiian culture.
Mourning Armageddon
TRT: 6:26 min
The Garden Island LIHUE — Singer-songwriter Makana wasn’t planning on recording “Mourning Armageddon” in decommissioned Russian bunker 703.
He didn’t have a note written down when he ventured deep under Moscow, in the now-deserted nuclear bomb shelter, formerly a repository for the Soviet Foreign Ministry’s archives and disguised as a chocolate factory during the Cold War.
Stories of Wolves
TRT: 44:52
“Stories of Wolves” is about the recovery efforts for our Mexican Gray Wolves, the most endangered land mammal in all of North America. There only remain about 180 wolves in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico.
RIO GRANDE SERENADE
3 Episodes TRT: 14:48, 9:12, 15:08 mins
“In the high desert Southwest, where myth and reality intersect, there exists a legendary river, a revered and beloved water-source that goes by the name Rio Grande.” As written by John Biscello and narrated by Robert Mirabal in Rio Grande Serenade.
Ethyl the Whale
TRT: 15:15 (5:59 + 9:16)
The 82-foot-long blue whale sculpture is made from hand-recycled plastic trash and is also internally lit to glow each evening. Ethyl’s dramatic size and name, help bring awareness to our planet’s massive issue with plastic pollution. The blue whale is the largest creature that has ever lived on Earth, weighing about 300,000 pounds – sadly, this is equivalent to the approximate weight of plastic that ends up in the ocean every nine minutes.
BON AND THE WEST
TRT: 90 min
Thousands of years ago in ancient Tibet, there existed a vast kingdom known as Zhang Zhung, whose religion Bon has continued throughout history. Today at Menri Monastery in Northern India and Triten Norbutse in Kathmandu Nepal, young monks and nuns carry on the Bon teachings and lineage, not only in the lands of the Himalayas, but also to countries around the world, where Western students now embrace Bon methods and practices for finding compassion and joy, amidst the technological and often chaotic world.
The Need to Grow
TRT: (Trailer: 2:39 min; Feature 1 hr 35 min)
“The Need to GROW” delivers alarming evidence on the importance of healthy soil — revealing not only the potential of localized food production working with nature, but our opportunity as individuals to help regenerate our planet’s dying soils and participate in the restoration of the Earth
Our Sponsors
Questa Environmental Management Foundation & Questa Mine
Taos Ski Valley Foundation
Taos Arts Council
Bullfrog Films
