The key to a great documentary is a great story. “If you have a film that’s all message and no heart, people don’t connect to it,” says Maryanne Culpepper, director of the D.C. Environmental Film Festival. “I’m focused on finding ways to connect with people on the subject, make them want to know the information because they care. And that means good characters and good stories.”
Organizers bill the festival, now in its 25th year, as the biggest environmental film event in the country. From March 14-26, it will feature panel discussions and screenings of films from around the world on diverse topics. “Everybody is an environmentalist … you have your backyard, front yard and [a] commute,” Culpepper says. “You live in an environment.”
The festival will have screenings at Mosaic’s Angelika Film Center, featuring A Plastic Ocean, a feature about aquatic pollutants, on March 21 and Water & Power: A California Heist, which lays bare the malfeasance surrounding the state’s water shortage, showing March 22.
Among the subjects addressed by the roughly 150 films are climate change, the Dakota Access oil pipeline, the fashion industry and endangered species. Naledi: A Baby Elephant’s Tale is a full-length film by Charlottesville resident and executive producer at National Geographic Television Geoff Luck, who went on location to Botswana with filmmaker Ben Bowie to capture the birth and early life of Naledi, whose fate is at risk when she loses her mother. Luck says the award-winning film is easily relatable: “I had no idea [of] the sentience of these animals. It made me re-evaluate the notion of us living on the top of [a] hierarchy of animals. I really don’t believe that anymore.”
Tidewater, the first production by environmental advocacy group American Resilience Project, showcases the Hampton Roads area and its continuing struggles with flooding. ARP Executive Director Roger Sorkin, who wrote, directed and produced Tidewater, says he views the issue not just as an environmental one but also one of national security.
Culpepper, a veteran filmmaker with credits at PBS and National Geographic, was drawn to lead DCEFF in part because of its wide appeal. “Thirty thousand people a year come to this festival,” Culpepper says. “It’s a community festival. Whereas many of them are for filmmakers, this one really is for the public.”
