Ithaca College’s Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) and its partner Cinemapolis were recognized with a 2010 “Sign of Sustainability” from Sustainable Tompkins. Awarded annually to area individuals and organizations whose efforts have advanced community sustainability, the Sign of Sustainability recognizes FLEFF and Cinemapolis for hosting the world premiere of Canadian filmmaker Chanda Chevannes’s “Living Downstream
.” Based on the book of the same name by ecologist and Ithaca College scholar in residence Sandra Steingraber, Chevannes’s film documents Steingraber’s private battle with cancer and her public fight to bring attention to the urgent human rights issue of cancer prevention. Chevannes and Nathan Shields, both of the People’s Picture Company in Toronto, produced the film.
Founded in 2004, Sustainable Tompkins is a citizen-based organization whose mission is to promote the longterm well-being of area communities and the region by integrating social equity, economic vitality, ecological stewardship and personal and civic responsibility. Each year the organization bestows a “Sign of Sustainability” on new sustainable enterprises, new programs or nonprofit organizations that support an aspect of sustainable development, and a new sustainable program element rolled out by an existing business or nonprofit organization. In 2009, Sustainable Tompkins recognized over 140 Signs of Sustainability. This year, that number increased to nearly 200. Recipients were honored at a reception at the Women’s Community Building on Sunday, Dec. 5.
“Living Downstream” was screened at Cinemapolis last April as part of FLEFF 2010’s yearlong offering of blogs, juried competitions, screenings and other online, user-generated events rolled out under the program stream of “Open Space.” In addition to premiere screenings such as “Living Downstream,” FLEFF 2010 sponsored numerous discussion forums as well as the FLEFF Distinguished Writer in Residence, which brought Girish Karnad, one of India’s foremost playwrights, to Ithaca College.
FLEFF 2011 will be held at Ithaca College and Cinemapolis from April 11-17. Housed in the Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies, FLEFF is a link to intellectual inquiry and debate to larger global issues.
For more information on FLEFF, visit www.ithaca.edu/fleff or contact festival codirector Patricia Zimmermann at patty@ithaca.edu.
More information on Sustainable Tompkins is available at http://sustainabletompkins.org/.
Tags: Documentary, FLEFF, Living Downstream, sustainability
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