R20 Goes to Turkey – October and November, 2016

Racing to Zero is going to Turkey! We have been accepted into two film festivals:

BIFED 2016 | Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentaries
Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary organized by Bozcaada Municipality and Bozcaada Tourism Operators Association

October 12 to October 16, 2016 | Bozcaada, Turkey
More information can be found here.

BIFED aims to bring together films featuring ecology (nature, society, worker’s health, immigration, culture, agriculture, local rights, seeds…) from all over the world, in Bozcada, to combine the areas of arts and ecology, and to reward the best documentaries.


Sustainable Living Festival
Istanbul, Turkey
November 18 to 22, 2016

Held in about 20 cities concurrently in collaboration with local activist groups. Founded by a collective of people who share a common goal of creating a sustainable future. The aim is to inspire and hold space for people to connect and collaborate. Diverse in its spread, and global in its reach.

Official Festival Website here.
An article about the festival can be found here.

SF Bay Area Theatrical Release – September 2016

The filmmakers of Racing to Zero are happy to announce a limited theatrical release in the San Francisco Bay Area in September 2016. All screenings will have a Q+A with the filmmakers after the film.

Limited Theatrical Release – September Screenings:

Roxie Theater
September 16-September 23rd
San Francisco, CA | Check website for showtimes

Q+A with Filmmakers after the screening on September 16th:

Diana Fuller, producer
James Kao, CEO Green Citizen
Kevin Drew, Senior Residential and Special Project Zero Waste Coordinator for the Dept. of the Environment
Maureen Gosling, editor

Rafael Theater
September 18th, 4pm | San Rafael, CA | More information can be found here.

Q+A with Filmmakers after the screening:

Diana Fuller, producer
James Kao, CEO Green Citizen
Kevin Drew, Senior Residential and Special Project Zero Waste Coordinator for the Dept. of the Environment

The New Parkway Theater
Oakland, CA | September 24th, 5pm | Check website for showtimes.

Q+A with Filmmakers after the screening.

Diana Fuller, Producer
Chris Beaver, Director and Cinematographer
James Kao, CEO Green Citizen
Kevin Drew, Senior Residential and Special Project Zero Waste Coordinator for the Dept. of the Environment
Maureen Gosling, editor



 

Racing to Zero – Update

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We wanted to update you with the latest news on Racing to Zero as it’s been an exceptional two years of promoting Zero Waste with the film. As of this moment, Racing To Zero has appeared in over 30 festivals that we have accepted, had 26 international invitational screenings, and has been released for viewing to over 75% of the USA through PBS. Additionally, through our distributor, Bullfrog, countless schools had screenings as well as semi-theatrical or community presentations. Chris and I were invited to screen and discuss the film in Hawaii, Russia, France, and India.

3. CB IntroducedChristopher is introduced to the opening night audience at EcoCup in Russia.

On Wednesday, June 1st, RTZ was honored by CinemAmbiente in Turin, as their annual selection for most preferred documentary and played to a full house. In October we have been invited to Bozcaada, a small island off the coast of Turkey. The festival is entitled BIFED, which aims to bring together films featuring ecology, from all over the world, to combine the areas of arts and ecology and to reward the best documentaries.

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Q+A In Mumbai

From the 18th to the 22nd of November, RTZ is the official selection for the Sustainable Living Film Festival in Istanbul, which will take place in 20 theaters around the country.

Thanks to Bullfrog, the film is now available through Greenpeace, to all parts of Russia, and APT Global is still working on other foreign rights. In September we will have a limited theatrical release in the Bay Area, opening at the Roxie on Friday, September 16th. Watch our website for screening details.

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A packed house in Paris, France for FIFE: the French International Festival of the Environment

We hope to arrange a final home streaming deal by the end of September when we can figure out how it all works. This is our last hurrah so lets use it!

And that is our two-year story. Efforts will continue, but we wanted you to know that your generosity and support were very well founded and that countless people around the world have now had an opportunity to view an alternative life style and see the need for change.

We, and all of the viewers and makers thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping to make this possible.

With our sincere thanks,

Christopher Beaver, Director
Diana Fuller, Producer

R20 Has Big Impact on Mumbai: Report from India, April 2016

Throughout April, Racing to Zero was screened four times as part of Earth Month celebrations in Mumbai, thanks to the US Consulate in Mumbai and particularly Brittany Stewart, Assistant Cultural Affairs director, who contributed to this report. The film was very well received and resonated with a varied audience including students, activists, governmental officials, housing societies, and businesses.

After each screening audience members requested the film be shared with more groups, and the consulate is now receiving multiple requests from within Mumbai and even outside Mumbai to do more!

See below for a synopsis of each screening:

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April 1, 2016  *Earth Month – Precursor* 

Mumbai PAS partnered with IVLP alumnus Jitendra Gavali, Director, Community Science Centre in Vadodara, Gujarat for a special screening of the American Documentary film “Racing to Zero” followed by a discussion led by the ACAO. The event received an overwhelming response of around 125 people, with many having to be turned away from the venue due to lack of space! The program had excellent focused questions, discussions, comments, and comparatives sighting challenges as well as possible solutions to try replicating the San Francisco’s initiative of attaining “Zero Waste” for Vadodara. The Centre would like to conduct more screenings for schools and community groups.

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April 22, 2016  *Earth Day*

S. Consulate Mumbai screened the documentary ‘Racing to Zero – in Pursuit of Zero Waste’ by Christopher Beaver as a part of the Earth Day events on April 22, 2016, attended by over 50 people. The audience members consisted of Rotary Club members, environmentalists and professors and students of the environment domain. The screening was followed by a panel discussion on ‘Urban Waste Management: Challenges and Possible Solutions for Indian Metros’. Eminent subject experts such as: Prakash Dandekar, Environmentalist, Innovator and Authority on Vermicompost, Sharad Kale – Scientist at BARC (Bhabha Automatic Research Center), Vidyadhar Walavalkar – Member of Faculty at Thane College and Environment Activist served on the panel. The discussion was moderated by Dr Archana Bhatnagar – Head of Resource Management Department – SNDT University. The panelists talked about various ways in which the waste can not only be managed, but also turned into a resource. During the Q&A session after the panel discussion, the audience members expressed their concerns about the waste management situation in India and in Mumbai in particular and sought solutions that can be implemented at individual and organizational level. The program ended with attendees remarking that they were inspired to do their bit in reaching zero waste.

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April 23, 2016  *Earth Month – Continued*

PAS Mumbai collaborated with Rachna Sansad institute of Environmental Architecture to screen a documentary “Racing to Zero” directed by an American environmental documentary maker Christopher Beaver followed by a panel discussion on waste management. The film had a standing-room-only audience of 150 and a panel of heavy hitters, who discussed waste management issues in Mumbai, included E Ravindran, Municipal Commissioner of Kalyan Dombivili Municipal Corporation; Mr. Mandar Halbe, Corporator, Kalyan Dombivili Municipal Corporation, Civil Engineer of Mumbai Municipal Corporation; architect Milind Sambhare, Chairman, Indian Institute of Architects (IIA); and Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Scientist and Head, National Environmental, Engineering Research Institute. The movie led to a spirited discussion about the Deonar waste dump, how to manage solid waste in Mumbai, challenges facing municipal corporations, and the need for greater public awareness. The audience too contributed giving some excellent suggestions such as recognizing and giving financial incentives to housing societies and large housing complexes to manage waste and harvest water. Coming out of the event, there seemed to be a nascent initiative to coordinate between government, business, and civil society on waste.

What really made this event unique is that post screening PAS staff was mobbed by business and housing society reps to ask about screening the documentary. This included requests from Reliance Retail Limited, whose rep said he wanted to screen the film for the company’s employees, and the Good Governance India Foundation, a non-profit that works with Municipal Corporations, who asked to screen the film for an upcoming conference with CEOs, Municipal Commissioners, Assistant Municipal Commissioners.

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April 27, 2016  *Earth Month – Continued*

The American Library Mumbai in collaboration with the Acharya Marathe Junior college organized a screening of the documentary ‘Racing to Zero, in pursuit of zero waste’ that highlighted the importance of managing urban waste and conserving environment. Following the film screening, a young ‘ecopreneur’ led a discussion on ‘urban farming’ and how individuals can contribute to conserve the environment. A group of about 70 students and 5 faculty members participated in this lively discussion and learned ways and means to a healthy and clean environment.

Producer Diana Fuller takes R20 to Paris!

cinema_2Our experience as an invitee to FIFE, the French International Festival of the Environment, was a delightful one. Everything was arranged beautifully from the moment of arrival. The screenings were held in a charming little theater near the Place Clichy. Rebecca de Pas and Clement Pignon arranged our first Media conference the day after arrival, held in the bar/restaurant above the theaters. The questions were excellent and showed serious interest in the subject matter of the film.

The first screening on Saturday was to a sold out house and very well received—the Q + As went on for over an hour! Luckily drinks and snacks were always available for the filmmakers in the lobby, much needed after the long, intense presentations. The lobby was a great place to network with other international filmmakers and enthusiasts.cinema_1

Unfortunately, on the last day of the festival, I was laid up in bed with a knee spasm. Kindly, the FiFE team was able to arrange the Q+A for me via Skype, and I was able to answer questions and discuss the film from my residence near Place Clichy.
We opened the film with photographs depicting the river of garbage in and around Beirut, where the garbage had not been picked up for 8 months creating a major health issue for the residents of the city. We shared this atrocity with filmgoers to demonstrate the reality of pending disease and horror facing the people of Beirut, and the potential atrocities the world may face in the future if we don’t apply alternative solutions to dealing with “garbage”. This is a real crisis of Mad Max proportions, not just a fictional bad dream of the future, and the story is ongoing. For more information and news about this ongoing crisis, search “Beirut Garbage Crisis” in Google.

We would like acknowledge Myriam Gast Loup who organized the festival of 90 some films without a hitch with vital help from Emmanuel Otayek, who directed the coordination and programming for features outside of competition.  We would also like to thank Emilia Rodière and Juliette Naiditch for their help and direction during the Festival, and particularly Jean Francois.

Also Myriam kindly let us know that Racing To Zero was FIFE’s choice to be sent to WE LOVE GREEN, a French environmental festival focusing on music and art, held this June 4th and 5th in Paris, France.

Christopher Beaver Brings Racing to Zero to Russia

Racing to Zero and the film’s director, Christopher Beaver, completed a three-city tour of the Russian Federation from February 24 through March 2: Moscow, Saratov, and St Petersburg. Here’s his report:

1. St Basil's Moscow

Yes, Racing to Zero really did go to Russia. Here’s a view of St Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow on Christopher’s first night in Russia.

Among many successful screenings, an important meeting took place in Moscow with Alexey Kiselev, zero waste specialist for Greenpeace Russia. Based on early announcements about Racing to Zero in Russia, Alexey said he had already received requests for screenings across the Federation from as far away as Murmansk. We are currently making arrangements with Bullfrog films to make the film available at little or no cost throughout Russia.

5. Greenpeace Russia

Alexey Kiselev, zero waste specialist with Greenpeace Russia in the office kitchen next to written instructions on how to recycle.

 

Anastasia Laukkanen, Director of the EcoCup Environmental Film Festival in Moscow supervised the beautiful Cyrillic subtitled version of the film. Laukkanen also pursued contacts at the American Embassy in Moscow who arranged expenses and support for my visit.

4. Reception Eco-Cup

 

Christopher and Anastasia Laukkanen, executive director of the EcoCup Environmental Film Festival, at an informal gathering of filmmakers and activists. On the right side of the picture, Brad Allgood, director of Landfill Harmonic can be glimpsed in the background.

The film was met everywhere with enthusiasm and appreciation. Even though Russian environmental activists have worked for years toward a zero waste policy, they characterized the Russian zero waste movement as in its beginning stages. I was told for example that glass and newspapers could be recycled in Moscow at only one location on one afternoon per month.

The second city I visited was Saratov south of Moscow on the Volga River. The Volga is an immense body of water, reminiscent in history, culture, and commerce of our Mississippi River.

My host in Saratov was Sergey Ulyanov a Russian entrepreneur with a deep concern for the environment as a reflection of Russian culture and best business practices. Sergey drove me to see an amazing private enterprise facility in Saratov that has begun recycling. Although there is little separation of materials in Saratov, the company perseveres by collecting waste otherwise destined for landfill, then separates and recycles this material.

7. Sergey and CB

Christopher and Sergey standing on the frozen Volga River. Beyond the line of trees behind us and some distance away is Saratov’s first recycling plant.

From the visit I carried away many thoughts but two stand out in terms of the zero waste effort.

First, the grassroots of Russia is becoming increasingly active in terms of pursuing zero waste. However, the movement is far from new. In an atmosphere that is not always encouraging.

Second, Racing to Zero, can serve as an important model for some of the forms a zero waste effort can take. We have the opportunity to have a true nationwide impact in the Russian Federation. Our film can help in a major, major manner. We have the ability to set more zero wheels in motion.

And actually there would be a third impression. The US and Russia have been engaged in various forms of a Cold War during my entire lifetime. As I commented when I screened the film at the American embassy in St Petersburg: first there was an arms race and wasn’t that a lot of fun—and then there was a race to the moon— and now hopefully we could join forces in a race to achieve zero waste.

I experienced first-hand that a global environmental movement keeps the lines of person-to-person contact alive and builds bridges between our two nations rather than walls.

3. CB Introduced

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christopher is introduced to the opening night audience at EcoCup.

Edward Humes, author of “Garbology” releases new book!

From Edward Humes’ newsletter:

Take a Ride With Me
Announcing Door to Door

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I used to brag about having the shortest commute in town: downstairs for coffee, back up to my office to write. How wrong I was. My daily commute is really more like 3 million miles—without leaving the house. And so is yours.

From field to broker to port to factory to store to me, my morning java travels enough to circle the globe—and that’s just the beans. Add milk, water, coffeemaker, electricity and package and my cup of joe has gone ’round the world multiple times. My smartphone is even more traveled and my car’s 30,000 parts have enough miles to reach the moon. Fantastic distances and a cast of thousands are embedded in every trip we take and every click we make.

​I spent the past year peeking under the hood of this have-it-now, same-day-delivery economy. I wanted to know how our lattes, pizzas and sodas move so seamlessly door to door—even as we live with soul-killing traffic, a death every 15 minutes and a trip to the ER every 13 seconds.

Come take this ride with me in Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation. My new books comes out April 12 from Harper Books. Learn more at Edward Humes.com.

Trash Crisis in Lebanon “Solved” by Creation of New Landfills

The possibility of a Mad Max scenario inspired us while making Racing to Zero. We thought of the future!!! The future is now and the reality; we must share with you…

“After drowning in piles of trash for more than eight months, Lebanon is implementing a landfill plan rejected by civil movements amid concerns of the environmental, health and economic damages ensuing from this crisis.”
— Author Esperance Ghanem | March 21, 2016

More about this evolving story can be found by searching for “Lebanon Trash Crisis”
 
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