The Eugene Environmental Film Festival was born in 2017 out of a desire to shed light on environmental issues through a lens of social welfare. “I was a social work student, and I started it with a professor named Michele Eggers. It was a way of merging social work and environmentalism,” Ana McAbee, co-founder and festival director of the EEFF, said.
The festival prides itself on its holistic perspective of environmentalism. The team behind it hopes to provide a well-rounded take on Earth’s issues, without brewing any nihilistic dread that environmentalist campaigns can brew up. “I’m hoping it provides tools and resources versus depression and anxiety,” McAbee said.
Forty-five films will be screened at this year’s festival. A handful of organizations dedicated to environmental protection and advocacy will also be hosting each day, each with its own focus. Some hosts include the nonprofits Elakha Alliance, Friends of Trees and Oregon Wild.
The films range in length, style, location and medium, each with its own message and call to action. Filmmakers and their stories come from all around the world and are meant to spark intersectional conversation regarding environmentalism and its social impact in different communities.
One of the films, “Women of the Stony Shore: Shinnecock Kelp Farmers,” directed by Nathaniel Cummings-Lambert, utilizes the perspective of Indigenous women and how their cultural knowledge mixes with the ecological process of kelp farming.
“We like to pick films that kind of have information that we don’t know. We already know plastic is bad. I didn’t know how important kelp was to our CO2,” McAbee said.
If you want a bit of an interactive aspect or hands-on learning, EEFF has that too. According to McAbee, the festival will also be hosting a handful of events for attendees. Some of these events include a wetlands walk, a song workshop and Q&As with filmmakers.
One of the films screened, “Beer Saves The World!,” created by Emmy-winner Kelly G Sallaway, will be followed by a panel on regenerative farming and beer-making. On the second day of the festival, Elakha Alliance will speak on their efforts on bringing sea otters back to the Oregon Coast. On Thursday, there will be a trip to a waste-sorting facility and a discussion on some Lane County-specific initiatives to combat waste.
Each day has its own theme: Indigenous Day, which will take place on the Indigenous Peoples’ holiday; Ocean Conservation Day; Connection between Nature, Healing and Spirituality; Rethinking Zero Waste; Forest Day; Wildland & Public Lands Conservation Day; and, finally, Youth and Wildlife Day.
The festival was brought to life with a clear purpose, and the art it highlights is guaranteed to speak to each viewer in a different way. McAbee hopes that attendees will use the festival as a way to step back from technology and learn to connect with nature. She understands the common anxieties surrounding global warming and wildlife endangerment, but hopes the EEFF will motivate instead of discourage environmental activism.
It’s easy to get discouraged when it comes to environmental issues, but McAbee looks at it from a different angle. “This is something that is an issue, but guess what? Here’s an organization that’s doing something about it, and you can be involved,” McAbee said. “What I hope to provide is a pipeline to action that incorporates addressing these issues as they come up, which leads to more empowerment and less anxiety.”
The EEFF will screen dozens of international and locally-made films raising awareness for environmental issues, as well as host a handful of interactive workshops and discussions. The first screening takes place on Oct. 13 at 6 p.m. in the Eugene Art House, and will take place from Oct. 13 to 19. Films will be presented online from Oct. 20 to Nov. 2 on the organization’s website.
Admission per day of the event is $12 per adult and $9 for students, seniors and children.
