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Editor’s note: This is the last in a four part series of film reviews for the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival.
“So Right So Smart” should be required viewing for every executive and every employee in every corporation with more than 50 people. It’s great to have environmental films that are positive with practical traction, but to have films be about positive, practical, and proven examples in the world of big business is vital.
Ray Anderson built his corporation, Interface, into a billion dollar a year enterprise with 5000 employees. He would tell you that an environmentalist or professor talking to a businessman about going green can’t breathe life into the message the way a profitable businessman can.
Anderson would also tell you that his carpet company’s first wave of success came before he knew what an environmentalist was. After his epiphany that he was nothing but a legally sanctioned plunderer, stealing from everyone’s grandchildren, he imbued his workforce toward a second wave of success. The ways his employees continually reduce operating costs while reducing their carbon footprint and toxic impact inspires Anderson to spread the word.
While the core attention of “So Right So Smart” is Anderson’s no-nonsense, grandfatherly presence, the film highlights other successful manufacturers. He makes carpet. They make clothing and toilet paper and yogurt and beer.
An engaging environmental film need not mire itself in the gloomy “can’t” when so much of what can be done is already being done.
There are more than 100 films big and small flickering around Nevada City’s Environmental Film Festival. It’s another diverse crop of topical and stylistic expressions. Here’s a reviewer’s blitz through sixteen films, each doing its festival thing in five minutes or less:
“Attack of the Sea Slugs” (gorgeous photography of ooky—read: creepy—creatures); Climber (stylish animated vertigo); “Good Life Parable” (familiar realization, crisply told); “I Met the Walrus” (animated doodling inspired by John Lennon); “Papiroplexia” (origami flowering the world); “Sand Dancer” (artistic nod to the temporary); plus four five-minute Global Focus winners (dedicated accomplishments happen); plus six five-minute Brower Youth Awards (starting practical leadership early).
“So Right So Smart” should be required viewing for every executive and every employee in every corporation with more than 50 people. It’s great to have environmental films that are positive with practical traction, but to have films be about positive, practical, and proven examples in the world of big business is vital.
Ray Anderson built his corporation, Interface, into a billion dollar a year enterprise with 5000 employees. He would tell you that an environmentalist or professor talking to a businessman about going green can’t breathe life into the message the way a profitable businessman can.
Anderson would also tell you that his carpet company’s first wave of success came before he knew what an environmentalist was. After his epiphany that he was nothing but a legally sanctioned plunderer, stealing from everyone’s grandchildren, he imbued his workforce toward a second wave of success. The ways his employees continually reduce operating costs while reducing their carbon footprint and toxic impact inspires Anderson to spread the word.
While the core attention of “So Right So Smart” is Anderson’s no-nonsense, grandfatherly presence, the film highlights other successful manufacturers. He makes carpet. They make clothing and toilet paper and yogurt and beer.
An engaging environmental film need not mire itself in the gloomy “can’t” when so much of what can be done is already being done.
There are more than 100 films big and small flickering around Nevada City’s Environmental Film Festival. It’s another diverse crop of topical and stylistic expressions. Here’s a reviewer’s blitz through sixteen films, each doing its festival thing in five minutes or less:
“Attack of the Sea Slugs” (gorgeous photography of ooky—read: creepy—creatures); Climber (stylish animated vertigo); “Good Life Parable” (familiar realization, crisply told); “I Met the Walrus” (animated doodling inspired by John Lennon); “Papiroplexia” (origami flowering the world); “Sand Dancer” (artistic nod to the temporary); plus four five-minute Global Focus winners (dedicated accomplishments happen); plus six five-minute Brower Youth Awards (starting practical leadership early).
Chuck Jaffee of Nevada City likes to plug people into the spirit of independent filmmakers. Find links to his festival and other film reviews for The Union at www.startlets.com. Check out the Film Festival site at www.wseff.org. For more about this film and the film festival in general go online at www.theunion.com/blogs/jaffee.
