Eco-Films on Different Platforms: April, May, and June 2016 Screenings

April

Blockbuster: The Martian (dir. Ridley Scott, 2015)

Despite a narrative focused on bringing astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) home from Mars, The Martian places ecology at its center. As Watney explains in a video blog entry in the film, "In the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option: I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this." Because of this focus on scientific solutions, The Martian is the best example of ecocinema I've seen in the theatre this year. As an expert botanist, Watney draws on his knowledge of the natural world in order to survive on what seems like a lifeless planet. Watney even declares, "Mars will come to fear my botany powers." Watney recognizes the need to draw on nature rather than technology for survival and constructs a livable space using natural elements and bi-products instead of artificial (and perhaps toxic) chemicals.

Independent Documentary:  

The Garden (dir. Scott Hamilton Kennedy, 2008)

The contemporary South Central Los Angeles urban farm explored in Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s Oscar-nominated documentary The Garden (2008) encourages sustainable practices, but as scholars have lauded, the documentary also engages effective narrative strategies and presents powerful messages regarding environmental injustice and racism. With its condemnation of environmental racist attitudes of Los Angeles council members and activists, The Garden spends the time to document the history of the fourteen-acre urban farm and illustrate its benefits to South Central LA community members. The garden provides not only food and communal income. It also serves as a sacred space in which community members gain self-worth as they commune with the plants they grow 

May

Disney's Live Action Remake:  

The Jungle Book (dir. Jon Favreau, 2016)

In this reimagining of the classic collection of stories by Rudyard Kipling, director Jon Favreau uses visually stunning CGI to create the community of animals surrounding Mowgli (Neel Sethi), a human boy adopted by a pack of wolves. The appearance of a villainous tiger named Shere Khan (voiced byIdris Elba) forces Mowgli's guardian, the panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), to shepherd the child to safety in the "man village." Along the way, the boy meets an affable, lazy bear named Baloo (Bill Murray), as well as a snake with hypnotic powers (Scarlett Johansson) and an orangutan (Christopher Walken) who wants to harness the power of fire. Lupita Nyong'o, Giancarlo Esposito, and Garry Shandling also lend their voices to this adventure tale.

Critics Consensus from Rotten Tomatoes: As lovely to behold as it is engrossing to watch, The Jungle Book is the rare remake that actually improves upon its predecessors -- all while setting a new standard for CGI.

June

YouTube Sensation: Under the Dome (dir. Chai Jing, 2015)

Jing Chai’s Internet sensation Under the Dome is universally heralded by reviewers in the U.S. and Europe. Each reviewer first notes how the online sensational feature-length “Ted”-like talk drew more than 200 million views from Chinese audiences in the few days before being taken down by Chinese government censors. But as Steven Mufson of The Washington Post notes, the documentary also “alters the way we see the world around us.” As a high-tech Silent Spring, Under the Dome applies a rhetoric and structure similar to that of Davis Guggenheim and Al Gore’s an An Inconvenient Truth (2006) with one major difference, its exclusive focus on pollution in the cities of Mainland China.