Environmental Film Festival

On Saturday I volunteered with the Sierra Club for two hours at the Environmental Film Festival. I got to volunteer with Anne, and our responsibilities included giving people information about the festival and passing out fliers and raffle tickets. The entire experience had a relaxed atmosphere, all the customers were conscientious members of the public who were there to have a good time and learn something new about the environment. Many times customers had not planned on going to the film festival that day, but were just curious members of the public. The members of the Sierra Club who we chatted with were enjoying the result of their months of planning and organizing.
Our shift overlapped with the viewing of two films. The first, Veggication, was about the benefits of vegetarian and vegan diets. As the film let out I overheard snatches of meaningful conversations between patrons in the lobby. I heard friends discussing their own diets; one girl related her failed attempt at going vegan, and others discussing the morality of the meat industry. I feel that sparking this sort of dialogue is perhaps the most meaningful role that this events plays. They give people an introduction to a topic that they perhaps had not considered before and give them the tools to start a meaningful conversation about it.
The second film, The Atomic States of America, was about the nuclear power plants in the United States. I slipped into the back of the theater from time to time during this film to see what it was about. The nuclear power industry is a controversial topic. If handled properly, nuclear power can be a clean and efficient source of energy. However it also poses a large risk and, according to the film, the current regulations do not prevent cancer-causing materials from leaking into communities. I would like to see the rest of this film. From the glimpses I caught of it seemed to be a careful consideration of the issues involved. It caused a similar change in me as that which I saw in the views earlier, it introduced me to a new topic and gave me the tools to start an educated dialog about it.