Carbon Offsets and Free Transportation

This partnership between the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Centro Hispano was coordinated and designed by Ella Schwierske (B.A. student in Biological Aspects of Conservation and Political Science, Environmental Studies Certificate) and Jesse Mursky-Fuller (B.A. student in Biology) as part of a unique new course Community Engagement through Film.

COMMUNITY PARTNER:
Centro Hispano of Dane County is a Latino community center that provides cultural, education, and social services programs for adults as well as youths. In 2007, Centro Hispano served over 5000 individuals through its programs. Their main goal with this film festival is to engage Madison's growing Latino community with the films that portray the political and economic issues with which they cope in their everyday lives, such as immigration and labor.

PARTNERING FILMS:
The Sixth Section (Saturday, November 7, Noon, Fredric March Play Circle Theater)
Papapapa (Saturday, November 7, Noon, Fredric March Play Circle Theater)
Sleep Dealer (Saturday, November 7, 9 pm, Wisconsin Union Theater)

Trouble the Water, filmed in New Orleans, is a movie told through the eyes of a couple, who like thousands of others, were unable to leave the city during Hurricane Katrina. That got us thinking about the transportation availability to and from our festival. How was everyone we were inviting and hoping to come going to get there? We had a bit of a transportation revelation and narrowed our focus to providing free and accessible transportation to and from the festival. We then narrowed this further to providing transportation for the South Side of Madison, particularly for the Latin American community actively involved with one of our Community Partners, Centro Hispano. Our goal is to help those who they feel like they can't get in (to the University area of Madison) come to many films, including one about people who couldn't get out.

FILM-RELATED EVENTS:

Come One, Come All

We are coordinating free transportation on the Saturday of the festival (November 7, 2009) to and from TfPE theaters and Centro Hispano (810 W. Badger Road) for all of Alex Rivera's Films. Vans will depart Centro Hispano 45 minutes prior to the start of each film. For The Sixth Section and Papapapa (which start at noon), vans depart Centro Hispano at 11:15 am. For Sleep Dealer (which starts at 9 pm), vans will depart Centro Hispano at 8:15 pm. Information is available at Centro Hispano, no sign-up required.

Taking a Load Off . . . (Planet Earth)

With all the travel associated with the festival (filmmakers flying in, films being transported to Madison, and free van travel that we will be providing for underserved audiences), we will be releasing a lot of carbon (CO2) into the atmosphere. Since Tales from Planet Earth is a film festival focused on environmental justice, we decided we needed to make an effort to offset this carbon footprint (locally!!). We will be working to calculate the festival's footprint throughout the weekend and then trying to find socially responsible, local carbon offsets. Help support us by contributing to our offset goals!

WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO:
We are asking businesses to help us fund carbon offsets for the festival. We would like to then apply the raised offset money to upgrade four of our community partners to MG&E green energy for at least one year (Centro Hispano, Four Lakes Wildlife Center, Porchlight, and the First United Methodist Church Food Pantry). We want to increase the positive community impact these organizations have, while reducing their negative environmental impact. If you are interested in contributing to this cause, please contact us.

SOCIAL MEDIA @ WORK:
We're tweeting about these efforts at www.twitter.com/TFPE_DCPH_Ella.

CONTACTS:
Ella Schwierske, eschwierske@wisc.edu, 608-576-0897
Jesse Mursky-Fuller, murskyfuller@wisc.edu, 262-490-5208