Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.  Katherine Monk, Vancouver Sun film critic had this to say about the film: “A truly fascinating documentary that unravels the complex morality of taking on a cause, this movie is the perfect starting point for what we can only hope is a continuing discussion of how to care for the planet.”

The film debuted at Sundance in 2011, and won a Documentary Editing Award.  It is now nominated for Best Documentary at the 2012 Academy Awards coming up on Sunday, February 26. Join us in April at Projecting Change 2012 and click here to learn more about the film.

In particular, this year’s festival showcased three films that our panel of organizers felt had a significant impact on our audiences. As tradition calls for, we award three major awards at the end of each year’s festival, and this year’s candidates did not disappoint.

Home-grown The Clean Bin Project, a feature film about an everyday couple and their journey to answer the question “is it possible to live completely waste free?” picked up this year’s Best Canadian Documentary Award: “The film depicts a year’s journey as partners Jen and Grant go head-to-head in a competition to see who can swear off consumerism and produce the least landfill garbage in an entire year. This film presents the serious topic of waste reduction with optimism, humour, and inspiration for individual action.”

The award for Best Documentary went to Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson. This film was a crowd pleaser, igniting a sold-out house. It tells the story of a man on a mission to save the planet and its oceans: “The film follows “professional radical ecologist” Paul Watson as he repeatedly flouts the law so that he may apprehend what he sees as the more serious law-breakers: the illegal poachers of the world.”

The Projecting Change Award goes to the film that we feel truly encompasses the philosophy behind our festival. Director Susan Edwards’ Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000 was this year’s award recipient: “The film details 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. The basis of this documentary lies in the fact that acclaimed environmental pioneer Stoddart took on and singlehandedly accomplished a huge goal – cleaning up the Nasua River.”

To spice up this year’s festival we ran a contest through social media where we asked our friends and followers to submit a 60 second video documenting how they project change in their everyday lives. We received some inspiring entries – everything from locals creating international movements to one little boy who projects change through being a positive and loving human being in his daily life. The winner of our contest, who also received a $1000 cash prize and the premiere of their video at our closing gala film screening, was the brilliant and hilarious Fair Trade Gangsta Rap video created by the SFU chapter of Fair Trade Vancouver.

Congratulations to the minds behind all of these amazing films! To our audience, we hope you enjoyed each and every one, and if you haven’t gotten the chance to check them out, we highly encourage you to do so. Each film we handpicked for this year’s festival is a beacon for change and hope, and we hope it will inspire a passion within you to fulfill your own goals of projecting change in this world.

– Marisa Woodham (@MarisaWoodham)

Tom is a carbon finance and clean-tech IT entrepreneur. He works on emission reduction and renewable energy projects, recently founding Habitat Carbon Assets. In addition to his work with Habitat Carbon, Tom also works with Green Angel Energy. Hopefully I managed to ask the right questions to get us all informed on what clean tech is and how we can get involved – checkout the interview!
 

 

Q: Tell us about your work with Habitat Carbon?

Habitat Carbon has developed software that allows anyone who is installing clean technology – technology that reduces energy, reduces carbon, or produces renewable energy – to find out exactly what incentives they can get and to secure those incentives.

90% of clean technology installations rely heavily on incentives. 60% of people aren’t properly accessing the incentives – like solar or carbon credits – they are able to get. With the computing power and data mining available today, we think its a no brainer to use software to solve that problem.

Q: How does Habitat Carbon contribute to positive shift in Vancouver’s green initiatives?

Vancouver is doing a ton of positive things to reduce carbon and reduce energy usage in the city and is trying to become the greenest city in the world in a few years. That work is going to require the help of incentives like tax incentives, carbon offsets, and renewable energy credits. We aren’t working with the City yet, but its possible they could use our software to optimize their carbon and energy incentives to accelerate more of the carbon and energy reducing work they are already doing.

Q: How can an event like the Projecting Change Film Festival affect climate change?

I think the most important thing about projecting change is that it is really inspirational. For years I have been supporting the festival and bringing friends to it. Fighting climate change is hard – it is the biggest issue we face. Keeping the energy up of those fighting it, and keeping a community inspired is incredibly important. Projecting Change does that better than anything else in Vancouver in my opinion.

Q: GreenAngel Energy?

My work with GreenAngel Energy stems from my work with Habitat Carbon. Habitat is one of the six companies that Green Angel has invested in, I become a shareholder of Green Angel as part of that transaction. We are working with Green Angel to find promising companies in BC that are commercializing technology that reduces energy or carbon. Early stage, Angel style, investing in technology companies is key to new crazy ideas getting off the ground growing into the game changing solutions we need to combat climate change.

Q: What is the biggest challenge Vancouver faces in fighting climate change?

We’re in a fortunate position to act as a leader but being a leader is never easy. Vancouver must work hard to show the world what’s possible in terms of the technologies that we can commercialize to help fight climate change and reduce energy and carbon. This also means political commitment to policies to clean energy, cap and trade, and carbon taxation. Because Vancouver operates in the context of BC, it means the Premier must step up in the ways that Mayor Robinson is and Premier Campbell did. Our biggest challenge will be staying the course of commitment to being a leader, even though that might seem scary and hard to do.

Q: What action can individuals take to get involved with clean technology and organizations like Habitat Carbon?

The best ways to get involved are investing in clean tech start-ups, starting clean tech start-ups (or related impact focused ventures), or setting/supporting the right types of policy. Depending on who you are, pick one of these. If we want real results, we as individuals must commit our resources – time or money – to real change. Carrying cloth bags is good, but bigger commitment is being demanded of all of us by the planet at this point. Habitat is working with a number of local clean technology and a few clean tech investment funds to give them access to the maximum potential incentives they can get to make their work more profitable and more doable. GreenAngel allows anyone with $5000 they want to put into clean tech to invest in a basket of 6 promising clean tech start-ups that are all based in BC. This is huge, before GreenAngel, non-”accredited” investors, those with under a million in liquid capital or a very large annual income, could not invest directly in early stage clean tech companies.

Find out more about clean technology, GreenAngel Energy http://greenangelenergy.ca/, and Habitat Carbon Assets http://habitatcarbon.com/ and how to turn your carbon and energy reductions into revenue.

If you find clean tech and energy efficiency interesting you’ll want to be in attendance at the Projecting Change 2011 premier of Powerful: Energy For Everyone. http://projectingchange.ca/schedule/powerful-energy-for-everyone-2/ After the film Power Plant Vancouver http://www.powerplantvancouver.com/ will be hosting guest speakers and clean technology conversations.

Rebecca – @rebeccaapeel

Enter to win 2 free tickets to Powerful: Energy For Everyone by tweeting the following: 

I just entered to WIN 2 tickets to Powerful Energy For Everyone @pcffVancouver http://ow.ly/4WTyx ^A #pcff2011 RT to ENTER

Throughout Karen’s career as an avid planet fighter she has led projects related to northern B.C. pipelines, gas development and climate change policy. Karen moved to Ecojustice to use direct legal means to effect real and positive change.

Karen has a B.A. (with Distinction) from the University of Western Ontario, LL.B. from Dalhousie University in Halifax and an LL.M. (with Merit) from the University of London (England). I’m feeling pretty good about how she has chosen to apply her skills, check out our video interview for some inspiring stories.

Q: How is Ecojustice Projecting Change?

Ecojustice uses the law to protect and restore the environment. We hold people, corporations and governments accountable. We‘re a team of lawyers and scientists, not lobbyists, sustained by a staff seeking the long-term protection and health of our rich and diverse environment. Ecojustice also partners with other environmental NGOs in Canada and the United States. And we offer our legal services free of charge to citizens and community groups to ensure equal access to environmental justice. Our tactics are intended to set legal precedents and strengthen environmental laws. We provide the legal teeth to environmental ideals.

Learn more about Ecojustice

Q:What role does a film festival like Projecting Change play?

Awareness before action. I was on the Projecting Change website and they said it best: “Watch, engage, act.” Action is sometimes limited until people see up close the bonds that link climate change and energy. Projecting Change Film Festival is an opportunity to flip the switch in someone’s head. Sometimes it takes a story that inspires. Inspiration has many forms — one is film.

Q: How does the film White Water, Black Gold relate to Ecojustice’s work?

Ecojustice has five key priorities: access to environmental justice, climate change and energy; environmental health; the marine environment; biodiversity and health. The filmmakers in White Water, Black Gold say they’re going to follow a drop of water from Mount Snow Dome at the border of British Columbia and Alberta to the tar sands near Lake Athabasca. It winds through all of our priorities along that journey.

Two issues, in particular, speak to Ecojustice’s past and present.

The film’s trailer shows an image of birds stuck in tailing ponds and talks about the irreparable damage to wildlife. On June 25, 2010, Syncrude was found guilty of failing to take adequate measures to prevent the death of more than 1,600 ducks that died after landing in a tailings pond north of Fort McMurray. Syncrude on Oct. 22, 2010, agreed to pay more than $3-million in fines, the largest in Canadian history for an environmental offence. That was a major victory for the environment and Ecojustice, which pursued the case until the government took over the prosecution. The victory confirmed the need to eliminate toxic tailing ponds and revealed the risks they pose.

More info about Syncrude victory

The film also examines the impact of oil pipelines on communities and the environment. One of our ongoing cases involves a plan to ask the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to scrap the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline. If completed, the pipeline will snake its way from the Alberta tar sands to the B.C. coast, pumping more than a half a million barrels of oil per day. It will affect everything and everyone, including Alberta and B.C. waterways, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and the territory of at least 40 First Nations and Aboriginal communities.

Recently, a pipeline in northern Alberta’s boreal forest spat 28,000 barrels of crude oil into a wetland near Peace River. It’s the worst spill in that province in 35 years. And it happened just miles from the nearest homes. Ecojustice is hoping to spare B.C.’s coastline, and any land and water the pipeline might traverse, a similar fate.

More info about Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline

Q: How is Ecojustice able to achieve its goals?

Our work is possible only with the support of our donors—concerned individuals and foundations. As an independent organization, we rely 100% on their funding. Remove their gifts and there are no Ecojustice victories for the environment, no outreach campaigns, no workshops and no investigations. To fulfil our role as stewards of the earth, preserving and safeguarding the environment, we need their help.

To learn more about the imperative work Ecojustice does please visit their website http://www.ecojustice.ca. Be sure to checkout their delightful and informative Stop Soot Campaign, including one of my personal favorite social media for social change tools – an auto-generated letter to Harper! I absolutely love organizations that make it easier to take action – Am I possibly a lazy activist (?).

If you are in the position to, support Ecojustice financially you can do so here. Sign up for the Ecojustice Newsletter to stay up to speed on the latest Ecojustice news.

Rebecca @rebeccaapeel

We’re kicking off the video interviews with a few words from Projecting Change Film Festival co-founder Lindsay Nahmiache (passion project junkie and social change enthusiast). Find out more about the history of Projecting Change as well as innovations for the future….

Our goal is to share innovative ideas and stories from around Vancouver to recognize all the small and big ways Vancouverites are working together to create change. For all the details on when and where we are filming checkout our facebook page

Do you have an innovative idea that needs sharing with Vancouver and the world? Film it in 60 seconds or less and tell us how you are projecting change! Share it on our facebook wall to have the chance to win $1000 cash and free tickets to the festival.

-Rebecca

PS – don’t forget to check us out on twitter for updates @PCFFVancouver