Schedule of films + speakers

Join us for four days full of festival goodness. Check out which films & speakers are featured each day, browse the trailers, get your tickets and vote for your favorites!

SundayMay 291:00PM

With my own two wheels + Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000

43mins / 2010 / USA
Canadian Premiere

For many in America, the bicycle is a choice. An expensive toy. An eco-concious mode of transportation. For countless others across the globe, it is much more. For Fred, a health worker in Chongwe, Zambia, it is a means of reaching twice as many patients every week. For Bharati, a young woman in Sone Sangvi, India, it is a means not only to an education, but to a future that her mother’s generation could only dream of. For Mirriam, a disabled bike mechanic in Koforidua, Ghana, working on bicycles is a means of escaping the stigma attached to disabled people in Ghana. For Carlos, a farmer and engineer in San Andres Itzapa, Guatemala, pedal power is a means of helping fellow farmers reduce their impact on the environment. For Sharkey, a young man in Santa Barbara, California, the bicycle is a way out of the gang life that has swallowed up so many of his peers. With My Own Two Wheels weaves together the experiences of these five individuals into a single story about how the bicycle can change the world…one pedal stroke at a time.

 

Presented with Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000

30 mins / 2010 / USA
World Premiere

TRAILER

Work of 1000 is a documentary about the parallel journey of two characters, one a young woman discouraged at her future as a suburban housewife, the other a river – once beautiful and teeming with wildlife – now a hopeless, toxic sludge pit. Chronicling an important episode in U.S. environmental history, this inspirational story examines the human side of acclaimed environmental pioneer Marion Stoddart. Marion Stoddart proved that with vision and commitment, an “ordinary” person can accomplish extraordinary things. This film will reveal the secrets of her success and her methods for inspiring change.

In the 1960s, the Nashua River in New Hampshire and central Massachusetts was one of the 10 most polluted in the country, clogged with multicolored, toxic sludge from nearby paper mills.

Around that time, housewife Marion Stoddart moved to the area with her family, so close to the river they could smell its noxious fumes. At a low point in her life, she decided to fight her own emptiness by taking on the biggest challenge she could find—cleaning up the Nashua.

Her dramatic success in mobilizing the community showed people that change was possible, even though they’d lost hope.

Marion’s efforts helped get the Massachusetts Clean Rivers Act passed so that companies weren’t allowed to pollute rivers like the Nashua anymore.

In the process, she won a United Nations award, was profiled in National Geographic, and had a widely-read children’s book written about her. Her secret? An ordinary person can do extraordinary things when they refuse to give up.

Thanks to Marion, children in the Nashua River Watershed and around the world have come to understand that one person can make a difference, even when the odds seem impossible.

WEBSITE: www.workof1000.org

Speaker Panel

Double Bill! Each film will be followed by a brief discussion and Q&A.

With My Own Two Wheels
Speakers:
Co-director Isaac Seigel-Boettner
Ka-hay Law of Engineers Without Borders will talk about EWB's work supporting local leaders in Ghana and Zambia.
Michael Kollins, Chief Operating Officer - World Bicycle Relief

Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000
Speaker: Director Susan Edwards

From a young age, Isaac Seigel-Boettner has seen the world from the seat of the bicycle. While he spent most of his childhood days in California, every summer his family took him, his brother and groups of junior high kids on bike trips around the world — riding behind his parents’ bikes in a trailer on Ireland’s west coast, riding tandem in Canada’s Maritimes, finally, at the age of nine, touring on his own bike in the Austrian Alps. In his 13th summer, he found himself pedaling with friends 5,000 miles across America. Following his high school graduation, Isaac headed north to the Bay Area where he is currently attending UC Berkeley and will graduate with a Film Studies degree this spring. In 2008, he and his brother Jacob joined together for their first collaboration — Mzungus in the Mist, the story of a group of junior high students pedaling the red dirt roads of Rwanda. The film won the 2008 Michael Franti Power to the Peaceful Film Contest. With My Own Two Wheels is his most ambitious cinematic ride yet. Isaac presently works as a director and cinematographer for echolocale.com, a website that showcases video stories of artists making noise –and the unique places where they choose to make it. Isaac hopes to continue a career in filmmaking after graduation.

Ka-hay Law (EWB) will talk about EWB's work supporting local leaders in Ghana and Zambia. EWB, formed in 2000, is one of Canada’s most respected development agencies. Launched on university campuses, there are now 34 professional and university chapters with nearly 50,000 members across the country! EWB Vancouver was launched in September 2005 as one of the four original professional chapters.

EWB focuses on human development. Human development is about creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their needs and interests. In short, human development is about enlarging people’s choices.

World Bicycle Relief is dedicated to providing access to independence and livelihood through the power of bicycles. Founded by SRAM Corporation in 2005 and supported by leaders in the bicycle industry, WBR specializes in large-scale, comprehensive bicycle programs by providing supply chain management, technical knowledge and logistics expertise to poverty relief and disaster recovery initiatives. Since inception, WBR has distributed more than 80,000 bicycles and trained more than 750 bicycle field mechanics.

Michael Kollins is the Chief Operating Officer of World Bicycle Relief. He spent the last two years living in Kenya where he was primarily responsible for establishing WBR’s presence in East Africa. Prior to joining WBR, Mike was the Chief Operating Officer of Morgan Stanley Investment Management Asia based in Hong Kong with responsibility for operations in East and South Asia, Japan, and Australia.

Director/Producer, Susan Edwards, loves good stories. For her day job, she directs the creation of digital media and strategic outreach programs for public libraries and socially progressive organizations focused on women's health and education. Her work has garnered awards and recognition for her clients.

In 2007, Edwards launched The Work of 1000 Project, a civic engagement initiative based on the life and work of citizen leader and environmental activist, Marion Stoddart. The centerpiece of the project is a documentary created by Edwards. The Work of 1000 is garnering praise for more than its message of environmental activism. It is also being hailed for its motivational message that each person has it within their power to contribute to the local and global community.

Edwards' goal with the Work of 1000 Project is to provide a model for effective leadership and advocacy we can use to drive positive change in the world today.