Join us for our week-long premiere environmental film festival, taking place from April 17 to April 23, coinciding with Earth Day. Experience five days of in-person screenings followed by two days of virtual viewings, offering a diverse array of films to inspire and educate.

Festival Schedule:

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

6 p.m: Opening Launch Party

Join us! One Earth launches its 13th festival season by sharing reel stories that speak to the real change we can make for our planet when we're united together.

Enjoy the beautiful, state-of-the art LEED Platinum Radio Flyer worldwide headquarters

Chance to watch the Emmy-winning short film "Taking Flight"

Enjoy a toast from the amazing filmmakers behind the 2024 One Earth Film Fest film lineup

See the Young Filmmakers Contest post-graduate winning film “My Brand New Car” as part of a short program beginning promptly at 7 p.m.

Enter the raffle to win a Radio Flyer Electric Bicycle and other terrific, sustainable prizes

Location: Radio Flyer, Chicago

Thursday, April 18, 2024

6 p.m: Upstream Downriver

Maggie Burnette Stogner/2023/30 min/Water, Conservation, Health

FILM DESCRIPTION: "Upstream, Downriver" takes viewers into the heart of the battle for water justice. Powerful stories with frontline community activists are interwoven with historical context about landmark regulations that significantly reduced water pollution in the U.S. but failed to serve disadvantaged communities that are hardest hit by today’s climate crisis.

Two short films will precede the feature film: “The Island” by Mahmut Ta? and “Submerged” by Neo Sky James. “Submerged” tied for the Animation Prize in the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest 2023.

Location: Epiphany Center, Chicago

Friday, April 19, 2024

6 p.m: Earthbound: Nzambi Matee + A Good Neighbor

Farhoud Meybodi/2023/48 min/Waste, Health, Justice

FILM DESCRIPTION: Amidst a catastrophic plastic waste crisis in her hometown of Nairobi, Nzambi Matee risks everything to pioneer technology that transforms plastic waste into sustainable paving bricks. A former engineer in the oil and gas industry, Nzambi walked away from a lucrative career after a trip to the coastal city of Mombasa, where she discovered a sea of plastic bags and bottles in the crystal blue waters of the Indian Ocean. This inspired Nzambi to create a possible solution to the country’s plastics problem by converting waste into sustainable materials.

Maggie Hart and Brittany Zampella/2023/19 min/Waste, Health, Justice

FILM DESCRIPTION: “A Good Neighbor” is a feature-length documentary about a Latina single mother’s fight against racism and climate change as she campaigns for city council in one of the nation’s most polluted zip codes.

The short film “The Speech of Txai Surui” by the students of Escola Parque (in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) will precede the feature film. This film won two awards in the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest 2023.

Locations:
Unity Temple, Oak Park
Kehrein Center, Chicago
Triton College, River Grove

Saturday, April 20, 2024

1:30 p.m: Young Filmmaker Voices (for Families with Kids Age 7 to 12+)

Young environmentalists, join us for 7 award-winning short films and discussion, where we'll get loud about our planet! We'll also settle in to contemplate and celebrate the power of creativity, art, and nature. Enjoy healthy snacks and activities.

Badlands Bloom
Atiyeh Hess and Honei Semsar/2017/4 min
This stop-motion film is about a grumpy loner living in a remote desert who gets an unwanted visitor that may have the answers he seeks. Hess and Semsar graduated from Laguna College of Art and Design in Laguna Beach, California.

Green Gone
Tess Moretti-Hill, Gabriel Jeffers, Mahea Dunn, Keanu Frith/2019/3 min
“Green Gone” is a parody of a typical commercial for weed killer and/or pesticide. With perky music in the background, the narrator explains that his product, Green Gone, kills all living things on contact: rodents, weeds, bugs, flowers, and trees. This film was a group project produced under the Maui Huliau Foundation in Maui, Hawaii.

Bad Bugs
Bryn Wright/2021/2 min
Wright’s 2-minute film “Bad Bugs” is a stop-motion claymation, delightful in its simplicity. She explains that we shouldn’t use pesticides because they kill the bad bugs and the good bugs too. Wright is from Carlsbad, California.

Sporktagion
Students of Heritage Middle School (Berwyn, Illinois)/2013/8 min
After an invasion by disposable sporks, students are infected with a virus that makes them throw almost anything in the trash. Sporktagion, also known as Sporkitis, has a simple solution: wash silverware instead of using disposable sporks.

Submerged
Neo Sky James/2023/4 min
A teenage boy has two contrasting dreams: one is a beautiful blue aquarium filled with exotic fish, sea turtles, and jelly fish, and another is a colorless, polluted body of water, filled with plastic bags, cans, straws, and debris. James is a student at DePaul University in Chicago.

No Time to Waste
Students of Dryden Elementary School (Arlington Hts., Illinois)/2019/3 min
Students demonstrate abundant ways to make a small impact, from repurposing old crayons to tossing lunch scraps into a compost barrel. On a green screen behind, vibrant digital drawings illustrate the message while paper cut-out drawings reinforce the message to recycle, reuse, compost, walk and bike.

My Brand New Car
Paulina Verdalet/2023/3 min
A grandfather gives his grandson toy cars of all colors and varieties. The boy loves adding to his collection and racing the vehicles until they begin to fill the house with fumes and smoke. Paulina Verdalet is a graduate of the National School of Cinematic Arts in Mexico City, Mexico.

Location: Veterans’ Room, Oak Park Public Library

Sunday, April 21, 2024

1:30 p.m: Common Ground

Rebecca Tickell and Josh Tickell/2023/105 min/Climate, Food & Agriculture, Conservation

FILM DESCRIPTION: From the filmmakers of “Kiss the Ground” (Netflix) comes the follow-up documentary “Common Ground,” winner of the Tribeca Film Festival. “Common Ground” is an important new documentary film featuring Laura Dern, Jason Momoa, Woody Harrelson, Ian Somerhalder, Donald Glover, Rosario Dawson, Mark Hyman, Gabe Brown, and many others. This film provides hope for future generations with concrete ways to fix a broken planetary system. “Common Ground” explores how regenerative agriculture can help heal the soil, our health and the planet.

The short film “Hope” by Jodi Wu will precede the feature film. “Hope” tied for the Animation Prize in the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest 2023.

Location: Chicago Cultural Center

Monday, April 22, 2024

6 p.m: Patrol

Camilo de Castro, Brad Allgood/2023/80 min/Conservation, Climate, Advocacy

FILM DESCRIPTION: Nicaragua is facing an escalating crisis. Illegal cattle ranchers and miners are decimating the Indio-Maiz Biological Reserve — one of the last remaining rainforests in Central America. Climate change and deforestation are leading to destruction of biodiversity and traditional ways of life. Commodities produced on illegally converted lands are finding their way to unsuspecting consumers in the US and other major markets. The indigenous and Afro-descendent peoples are addressing the threat head on—fighting back to protect their territory and way of life.

Location: Virtual

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

6 p.m: Carbon: The Unauthorized Biography

Daniella Ortega and Niobe Thompson/2022/86 min/Climate, Conservation, Energy

FILM DESCRIPTION: With Carbon in the news every day, you might think you know everything about her. But you’d be wrong. This spectacular and surprisingly unorthodox documentary reveals the paradoxical story of the element that builds all life, and yet may end it all. Narrated in first person by?Sarah Snook (Succession),?“Carbon”?tells of her birth in the violent core of an exploding star and of turbulent sagas?through the fabric of our evolving Earth. Accompanied by celebrated scientists, unique animations and a stunning orchestral score, “Carbon” reminds us of our humble participation in the most extraordinary story in the universe.

Location: Virtual

Fest Date: April 17 - 23, 2024

Locations:
Radio Flyer, 6515 West Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL 60707
Unity Temple, 875 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL 60301
Triton College, 2000 Fifth Avenue, River Grove, IL 60171
Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL 60301
Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street, Chicago, IL 60601
Epiphany Center for the Arts, 201 S Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL 60607
The Kehrein Center For The Arts, 5628 W Washington Blvd, Chicago, IL 60644

Click here for more information.