When Eric Desatnik founded the Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY) ten years ago, environmental documentary filmmakers still had to lay the groundwork for why the general public should care about broad issues like climate change and food sustainability.
One decade later, the genre has matured enough that filmmakers can dig into specific concerns like nuclear waste storage and GMOs, and craft stories that both engage general audiences and inspire practical solutions to the most pressing environmental problems of our time.
That’s the trajectory that Desatnik and current EFFY Executive Director Emma Crow-Willard see for environmental filmmaking as a whole as they embark on the 10th annual EFFY, a student-managed film festival that runs from Thursday to Sunday at various locations throughout Yale’s campus downtown.
This year’s festival includes five feature films, 10 short films, 11 student films, and a new episode from a National Geographic television series that cover topics ranging from the Standing Rock pipeline protests to the rapid disappearance of coral reefs to the question of how to communicate with future generations about the dangers of nuclear waste.
All of the screenings are free and open to the public. Read on at the New Haven Independent.