Published!

http://www.thehour.com/story/481068

Some questions and some answers...

and some of my random mumblings.....

Norwalk Seaport gets 'wild' with film festival

By A.J. O'CONNELL

Hour Staff Writer Posted on 01/24/2010

It is the second year the Norwalk Seaport Association has hosted The Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival, a traveling event which is based in California.

"Last year, we were granted funds through Patagonia [clothing store] to host the event, and we did, and it was a phenomenal success," said Susan Snider, executive director of the Norwalk Seaport Association. Snider said that 200 people came to the Dolce Center for last year's event. She expects to sell out this year.

Susie Sutphin, manager of the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival On Tour says the six-year-old festival has 90 tour locations across the United States.

The Norwalk event will feature 10 short films, selected by the Seaport Association from a catalogue, and a children's festival.

"Maybe," a two-minute animated film by director Sam Chou of Toronto, Canada, is one of the features. The film asks fundamental questions about human nature and humans' relationship to the environment. Chou says the work was inspired by a frustrating conversation he'd had with a friend.

"My friend didn't really believe anything was happening to the earth, or better yet, what we were doing to it. His view was 'What we take out of the earth, ultimately had no affect on us,'" said Chou. "But it got me thinking... There must be thousands of people that still think like that. Heck, our Prime Minister still hasn't admitted there's a problem."

He hopes his film will inspire people to think about how their choices impact the planet. "Maybe" urges audience members to examine their habits: What do they eat, drive and buy?

"Everything is connected and intertwined, all to condition us to be the ultimate consumers, and that's not healthy for us, our minds, the earth... etc.," said Chou.

The film is narrated by a young voice, Chou's niece, Makayla McLeod, then 10 years old.

"She had never done anything like this before so it was really interesting for her," he said "We rigged up a mic, and just sat at the kitchen table and talked. Sometimes a car would go by while we were recording, so there was a lot of sound editing I had to do."