On Saturday afternoon Natalie and I went down the Byrd Theater to volunteer at the Environmental Film Festival with the Sierra Club. We were mainly in charge of greeting people as they came into the theater and explain to them the different films that would be playing at the festival. We also encouraged people to sign up for a free raffle. The raffle gave people the chance to win pieces of gear donated to the Sierra Club by REI, which at the same time allowed the Sierra Club to gather contact information of the people who attended the festival. In addition to the contribution made by REI many other companies donated to making the film festival free: Whole Foods and Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens even donated films, which they owned the rights to, to be shown at the festival.
I got a wonderful chance while I was at the film festival to talk to many local members of the Sierra Club. Many of them told me about home initiatives that they were doing, like vegitable garden, composting, and vegan diets. Others explained about a leadership class that some of the Sierra Club members were taking to help the local chapter be most efficient. One women I was talking to explained that the numbers at this years film festival were significantly higher than the year before and she attributed this to all of the company sponsorships that allowed them to open up the festival to the public for free. I think that the fact that the films were available for anyone was a really great opportunity for the Sierra Club because the films being shown covered a wide variety of environmental topics and likely brought in people who were interested in different aspects of the environment. Also, the order of the films mixed the topics up very well. For instance, when I arrived the film Vegucated was playing and was followed by Atomic States of America. Many people who came to see the film about living a healthy and sustainable diet ended up staying to watch a film about energy issues. I hope that the films shown this weekend not only captivated the audiences, but also encouraged them to alter their lifestyles and become active in many aspects of environmentalism.