Dairy farmers and bird poachers and others

I met my friends Joel and Barbara at Sweet Green at 15th and P Street NW for lunch. We then went to the Carnegie Institution for Science across the street to see four shorts that were part of the annual Environmental Film Festival.

We saw the following four films:

HEART OF THE LAND 

A couple runs a small dairy farm in the heart of the Finnish countryside. The work of generations will soon come to its end, as their retirement is approaching and there’s no one left to continue the family tradition – love for the land, the richness of everyday life, and the sadness of letting go. 

LA PESCA 

Poetic and sensorial richness, the film captures the gestures of a family of fishermen in Colombia weave nets, cook, and play dominoes, all the while waiting for the fish to come so that they can recommence anew.

DIRECTOR: Pablo Alvarez-Mesa

(Canada/Colombia, 2017, 22 min.) DC Premiere

PLANTAE 

When cutting a big tree deep inside the Amazon jungle, a logger contemplates an unexpected reaction of nature. 

DIRECTOR: Guilherme G. Acuna Gehr 

(Brazil, 2017, 10 min.) US Premiere

YOCHI 

Yochi, a 9-year-old selectively mute Mayan boy, guards a nest of endangered 

Yellow-Headed Parrots in Belize’s pine savannah. When his beloved older brother, Itza, returns from the city, Yochi learns that he’s in debt and has turned to poaching – setting the brothers on a collision course. 

DIRECTOR: Ilana Lapid 

(USA, 2017, 25 min.) DC Premiere