I’ve had the pleasure of contributing to the making of an online film festival for the York University community. York University professor Dawn Bazely has organized her senior applied plant ecology class to create a film festival that will broadcast everything plants. From their importance, to the issues they’re facing, to their amazing capabilities, this film festival will captivate and inform the audience on all things plants and the natural world.
The film festival will be available online, with a mix of films from the Sound and Moving Image Library and online resources. And not to worry, it will include both fictional and factual films for those of you who aren’t completely sold on documentaries.
Myself, along with classmates, have all personally contributed to and voted on the final film selections that were nominated for the festival. The films I personally nominated were How To Grow a Planet: The Power of Plants and Honeyland. I even had the added pleasure of collaborating with Dr. Bazely in creating Google Forms for easy collection of individual inputs.
A little side note- Google Forms are awesome!
How To Grow a Planet: The Power of Plants is an insightful BBC television series that explains to its viewers the historical importance of plants. I nominated this film as I wanted to inform viewers that plants are not only important in the modern world, but they have long roots (pun intended) in the evolution of us. Plants jump started the evolution of many species, they carved the beautiful bountiful landscapes around the world, and they hold vital importance in the creation of a livable world.
Honeyland is an amazing film that follows a wild beekeeper and her journey to sustainable living. I thought it would be a great addition to festival as it changes the focus from plants to living sustainably, something we should all strive for, and it allows the viewer to use critical thinking to make connections between many environmental topics and plants. Although the film sounds like a movie about bees, Honeyland highlights climate change, biodiversity loss, and the exploitation of natural resources. This can branch into topics such as sustainable agriculture, invasive species and their risks to indigenous species, the extinction crisis, and so many more plant ecology issues.
The film festival will be available by the end of the winter 2020 term and I will update this blog with instructions on how to access it. I hope viewers leave feeling inspired, and learn some new amazing things about plants, ecological studies and making a difference in the world!
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 