Plot Summary: “Furry Vengeance” is a live action family comedy in which an ambitious young real estate developer, Dan Sanders, faces off with a band of angry animals when his new housing subdivision pushes too far into a pristine part of the wilderness. Led by an incredibly clever raccoon, the animals stymie the development and teach our hero about the environmental consequences of man’s encroachment on nature.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The movie opens this week.

Here’s what I would have written for the logline: A skunk and a raccoon hot-wire a car in an attempt to stop Brendan Fraser from whatever in a movie that features Sr. Chang from “Community” as the bad guy. And a bear knocks over a portable toilet with Brendan Fraser in it.

Because those are obviously the highlights and because I kind of doubt the ability of the film to “teach our hero about the environmental consequences of man’s encroachment on nature.”

But hey! Maybe I’m wrong!

“Oceans” continues the Disneynature tradition started with “Earth” last year — a big-screen nature film opening on Earth Day.

If you’re so inclined, you can catch it in Boulder, Louisville or Longmont this Earth Day (Thursday, April 22). Here are your local “Oceans” showtimes for Thursday.

Alternatively, you can check out one of many nature films at the library, watch something at home or just, you know, skip the movie thing and hang out outside!

The dangers of gas drilling and the return of the wolves aren’t necessarily hot topics for big hollywood blockbusters, but they are real concerns for Westerners. Thanks to some recent independent films, High Country News says these Western issues are getting some national recognition.

Haynesville explores the effects of the largest natural gas field in America on the local communities of Louisiana and the potential impact of Haynesville’s vast reserves of natural gas on a clean energy future. Watch the trailer here.

The winner of the official selection at the 2009 American Conservation Film Festival, Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators, chronicles the major role of large predators in the management of our ecosystem. Watch the trailer here.

In Gasland (trailer at the top of this post), filmmaker Josh Fox documents the major effects of the arrival of gas drilling in the Catskills region of New York. The film won the 2010 Sundance Special Jury Prize for Documentary. Fox told Indiewire.com that he was inspired by his favorite films “Into the Wild” and “Koyaanisqatsi” because of their supreme respect for nature and their ability to bring awareness to issues that actually affect everyone.

What is so crazy is that with a 34 state drilling campaign, there are people all over the US that are affected directly by drilling in their backyards and millions more that are affected through the water contamination issue.  I am really hoping that the film can bring people new knowledge about the issue at the same time as they are thrilled by the roller coaster one man epic road movie aspect of the film.

–Lindsay Gulisano

In addition to the recent news development from the “Cove” team busting a restaurant serving illegal whale meat, here are some tidbits of “Cove” coverage from the aftermath of that film’s big Oscar win in the documentary category.

Plenty has been said about Ric O’Barry’s unfurling of a banner reading “TEXT DOLPHIN to 44144,” by folks like Mother Jones, Treehugger, the Huffington Post, Ellen DeGeneres, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (which gave the acceptance speech an award for “Fastest cutaway”), Louie Psihoyos:

Still, Mr. Psihoyos said, “it’s hard to get all huffy about that stuff. It’s like spilled milk.”

and O’Barry himself:

“I had butterflies in my stomach. I wanted to throw up on my shoes. But I knew that one billion people were watching, and I had to do it.”

Here’s what Psihoyos says he would have said, if not cut off:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The mayor of Taiji — the city that reluctantly starred in the film — responded to the film’s win by saying that “The Cove” was unreasonable:

In a statement reported by The Associated Press, the office of the mayor of Taiji defended the village’s practices and said “The Cove” contained statements that were not based on science. “There are different food traditions within Japan and around the world,” the statement said. “It is important to respect and understand regional food cultures, which are based on traditions with long histories.”

When asked about the win, the filmmakers have mostly sounded like this:

“The Cove’s” high-profile inclusion in the Academy Awards ceremony is important “because [the show is] the most watched program in Japanese television,” Psihoyos said.

There will also now be a “Cove”-inspired TV show on Animal Planet, tentatively called “Dolphin Warriors”:

The series picks up where the movie leaves off and, like the film, stars animal activist Ric O’Barry. Two episodes of the series — which is being executive produced by O’Barry’s son, Lincoln — have already been completed, although a premiere date has yet to be announced, Ric O’Barry said.

Animal Planet says the series may premiere in the fall, after “The Cove” debuts on the channel this summer.

Ric O’Barry is planning on heading over to Japan again in spite of his unpopularity with fishermen:

“Officials in Japan are threatening repercussions against university and community groups that dare to show The Cove. Dolphin-killing fishermen’s unions are threatening lawsuits against theaters that show the film. There are even some signs that I could face arrest in Japan, even though I’ve broken no laws whatsoever.

“We wont give in to this pressure. Instead, I am making plans to spend months in Japan with our Save Japan Dolphins Team.

Variety says that underwater cameras in fake rocks were vital to the film’s success. They tell us about a LucasFilm (think “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones”) spinoff company called Kerner Optical, which put HD cameras in fake rocks for the “Cove” crew:

Once in place, the cameras ran continuously. Each night the pic sent a team to collect the cameras and replace the hard drives, but the rock cameras were so convincing that they were hard to locate.

"Sizzle" features... this?

Have you seen “Sizzle?” The film is about global warming, but it’s no “Inconvenient Truth” — it’s more of a this-global-thermometer-goes-up-to-11 type of flick.

A mockumentary about global warming. What do you think? Better or worse approach than the straight-ahead documentary (Oscar-winners notwithstanding)?

Via the Colorado Daily:

“The film is not being used as a scare tactic, as so many others have, but to make the issue something you can approach and confront, which leads to a better change for the environment,” Barreras said.

The motivation for his latest film stemmed from his desire to create awareness and interest in issues like global warming by presenting them in an entertaining way, according to the film’s Web site.

If you’re in the Boulder area, tomorrow night the International Film Series hosts “Sizzle” and its director, Randy Olson. Following a free 7 p.m. screening of his mockumentary, Olson will stick around for a question-and-answer session.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Governor Bill Ritter and the film’s director, Michael Nash, introduced the film to a full audience that included Alec Baldwin on Sunday afternoon at the Boulder International Film Festival.

“This film says that we need to stop the debate about climate change and puts a human element to the issue,” Ritter said.  “The face of climate change is the climate refugee.”

In an interview with the Camera before the screening, Nash said that “Climate Refugees” speaks to a climate problem that doesn’t get enough attention:

The human face of climate change really is an untold story and the very reason I felt the need to investigate. When I started this journey three years ago, there was very little data on climatic migration. There seemed to be a vast amount of spin on both sides of the climate change issue. I wanted to move beyond the politics and dig into the truth of whether our climate was really changing and if it was, how was it affecting humans? What I found was mass climatic migration. Victims forced to relocate, unable to live on the land, either from short-term or long-term climatic changes. Our changing climate seems to be all about water: too much in some areas and too little in others.

The screening at the Boulder Theatre was the film’s fifth showing.  It was screened at the Sundance Film Festival and at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.  A small crew and often, just Nash alone, traveled for 18 months filming in Bangladesh, the Tuvalu islands in the South Pacific, India, Texas, China, New Orleans, Sudan and Chad.

The film "Climate Refugees" was screened at BIFF on Sunday

There are about 25 million people considered to be “climate refugees,” – a number greater than both political and religious refugees­ – according to the UN.  These refugees are defined as climate refugees because they have had to leave their homelands due to a lack of natural resources.

Nash narrates the documentary beginning it with a question: How long is man going to survive on this planet?

Answering this question is the purpose to Nash’s journey to places facing resource related pressures and documenting why people must migrate to neighboring countries or larger cities to survive. The planting of 20,000 trees offset the carbon emission from all of the air travel required for filming.

The head of the IPCC, Dr. Pachauri, is among the many interviewees in the film that include Lester Brown, the author of “Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization” and President of the Earth Policy Institute; Ken Salazar, Secretary of Interior; Madeleen Helmer, director of Red Cross; and Newt Gingrich, R-Ga, former Speaker of the House.

“We are really one family,” Dr. Pachauri said in the film.  “Something that happens to someone else in our family is really a slap in our face.”

The next step for Nash and fellow producer Justin Hogan is to secure a distributor or financial backing to distribute the film themselves.

The idea for the documentary “Climate Refugees” was born in Colorado and primarily funded by Coloradoans.

Portraits of suffering people who shared their stories in the film fill the screen at the end, leaving an emotional stamp on the audience.

“It was moving.  It shows you the humanity and not just the argument,” said Kimberly Baldwin, a Boulder resident who was at the screening.  “It shows that we have to do something.”

—Sarah Horn

Click here to view the embedded video.

The film follows a team of photographers and videographers bent on documenting a massive dolphin kill in Japan. Psihoyos says that while some progress has been made, the kill continues.

Other nominees in the category are “Food, Inc.,” “The Most Dangerous Man in America,” and “Which Way Home.”

Blythe Danner, center, won the 2002 Ongoing Commitment Award at the Environmental Media Awards.

The latest Boulder International Film Fest announcement has a green tinge to it:

The Festival kicks off Thursday, Feb. 11 at 6:30 p.m. with an Opening Night Red-Carpet Gala and screening of “The Lightkeepers,” starring Richard Dreyfuss, Blythe Danner, Bruce Dern, Tom Wisdom and Mamie Gummer. “The Lightkeepers” tells the story of Seth Atkins, the lightkeeper for Eastham Light, a lighthouse on a deserted beach in Cape Cod in the year 1912. A mysterious man takes the position of assistant lightkeeper, and the two men swear an oath to never get involved with women. However, they soon find themselves contending with two female summer visitors. Movie Pictures Magazine says, “Blythe Danner’s Oscar-worthy performance makes the battling of wits into an art form.” Following the screening of the film, Danner, writer and director Daniel Adams, and producer Straw Weisman will participate in a live question and answer session with the audience.

Blythe Danner won a 2002 Environmental Media Award — the Directors Ongoing Commitment Award.

Here’s what the EMA’s Web site has to say about why she won:

For over three decades, Blythe has been an active advocate for the environment. She has encouraged recycling from as far back as the 70′s and was one of the first drivers of an electric vehicle. Blythe believes in living her convictions in a solar powered home and driving to and from the set in her new all electric Toyota Rav4. She has been consistently devout in her beliefs to preserve our planet and understands the power of role modeling to get the message to the public.

And, back to BIFF’s press release, a little more on Danner’s career:

Danner’s films include “The Great Santini,” co-starring Robert Duvall, “Meet the Parents” and “Meet the Fockers,” co-starring Robert DeNiro, “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge,” co-starring Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman; “The Prince of Tides,” co-starring Barbra Streisand; as well as three Woody Allen films. She also appeared in “Sylvia,” with her daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow. Danner has won a Tony and two Emmy awards, and has been involved with environmental issues for over 35 years. She is currently filming “Little Fockers.”

Here’s the theatrical trailer for “The Lightkeepers”:

Click here to view the embedded video.

From left, Carson McDonough, Patrick McGlynn and Matthew McAllister produced films as part of their "climate change and video production" class at the University of Colorado | DailyCamera.com

Students from the University of Colorado who participated in a class on film and climate change will screen their own global warming flicks tonight on campus.

From the Daily Camera:

Matthew McAllister flips off the lights when he leaves his dorm room. He refills his water bottle instead of buying plastic ones, and he rations himself one paper towel when he dries his hands.

But a single flight to Washington, D.C., that he took this semester for a political science course canceled out his efforts, the University of Colorado student says.

He calculates that he would need to recycle 708 aluminum cans to offset his portion of the carbon dioxide emitted by the plane.

“While I would like to think these small, conscious efforts make a difference, the truth is I know they don’t,” McAllister says.

For a course on film and climate change, McAllister produced a short video about the challenges he has with his carbon footprint, as well as environmental equality. (His portion of CO2 for the plane trip was about the same amount that an average person in Tanzania uses all year).

Read the full story at DailyCamera.com.

That’s the question asked by “The Age of Stupid,” a film about a man living in 2055, looking back at history — now — and wondering why we didn’t do anything about climate change when we could have.

The film premieres tomorrow (Monday), and is playing for one night only in the following nearby locations:

Century Boulder
Westminster 24
Pavilions 15 (Denver)
Fort Collins Cinemark 15

Here’s a list of more “The Age of Stupid” screenings in Colorado and elsewhere. Anybody want to review it for us?

Resources:

“The Age of Stupid” [Wikipedia]

More entertainment on BigGreenBoulder:

“Bananas!” — pesticides, health risks and lawsuits
“The Cove” — dolphins, mercury and guerrilla filmmaking