The Garden Club of the Back Bay

The Coolidge Corner Theatre kicks off a new season of its popular Science on Screen series on Monday, October 3 with a special showing of B-movie maestro Roger Corman’s 1960 horticultural cult classic The Little Shop of Horrors paired with a pre-screening talk on carnivorous plants by Aaron Ellison, Senior Research Fellow in Ecology at Harvard Forest. The program begins at 7:00 pm.

The Little Shop of Horrors tells the tale of a hapless plant-shop clerk who breeds a new species of plant named Audrey Junior that not only talks, but also needs a special kind of food to survive: humans. Famous for having the shortest shooting schedule on record – two days and a night – this hilarious black comedy helped establish director Corman as an underground legend. Starring Jonathan Haze, Mel Welles, and Jackie Joseph, the film also features an iconic cameo by a young Jack Nicholson as a gleefully masochistic dental patient (possibly not a stretch theatrically.)

Unlike Audrey Junior, carnivorous plants in nature don’t actually devour people – or bellow “Feed Me!” But because these plants grow in habitats where soil nutrients are in short supply, they must rely on animal prey for sustenance. They catch their dinner using a variety of strategies, from snapping their leaves shut on unsuspecting insects to snagging snacks with sticky tentacles to sucking in their prey like a vacuum cleaner.

Before the film, Dr. Ellison sheds light on the curious world of carnivorous plants and on how these fabulously complex plants can further our understanding of how a complete, functioning natural ecosystem works.

At Harvard Forest, Harvard University’s 3,500-acre outdoor classroom and ecological research laboratory in Petersham, Mass., Dr. Ellison studies the evolutionary ecology of carnivorous plants, food web dynamics and community ecology of wetlands and forests, and other phenomena. He has received the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Faculty Fellow award for excellence in research and teaching.

Science on Screen is co-presented by The Museum of Science, Boston and made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Tickets are $9.75 general admission, $7.75 for students, seniors, and Museum of Science members, and free for Coolidge Corner Theatre members. For more information and to purchase tickets online, visit www.coolidge.org/science. Tickets are also available at the Coolidge Corner Theatre box office, located at 290 Harvard Street in Brookline. Phone: 617/734-2500.

Harvard’s Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge,  will screen Superbat on Wednesday, August 24 beginning at 6 pm. This 48-minute documentary explores the world of bats and the scientists who study them – including the late Donald Griffin, a Harvard zoologist who was the first to describe their echolocation ability in the 1940s. Using 3-D graphics to recreate the bats’ acoustic vision and shooting with infra-red and high-speed cameras, this film offers an exhilarating “bats-eye” journey into the night.

Screening to be followed by a discussion by Professor Thomas Kunz of Boston University, one of the world’s leading bat experts. Kunz will answer audience questions and discuss some of his current research on bat biology, aeroecology and behavior, including the latest on the White-Nose Fungal Disease that has devastated bat populations in the Northeast.  Part of Summer Nights at the Museum. Free with museum admission.  For more information log on to www.hmnh.harvard.edu, or call 617-495-3045.  Thank you Julie Newmar for the image below, which has nothing whatsoever to do with White-Nose Fungal Disease, but I’ll bet you read the post.

The film, Mother Nature’s Child, explores nature’s powerful role in children’s health and development through the experience of toddlers, children in middle childhood, and adolescents. Mother Nature’s Child asks the questions: Why do children need unstructured time outside? What is the place of risk-taking in healthy child development? How is play a form of learning? The June 27  Arnold Arboretum screening in the Hunnewell Building will be followed by an informal discussion. (The film runs 57 minutes.) To learn more about the film, visit www.mothernaturesmovie.com.  Free, but registration is encouraged at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

The Arnold Arboretum, in conjunction with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, will offer an evening of film and discussion on Thursday, May 12 in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, from 7 – 8:30 pm.  The documentary The Olmsted Legacy: America’s Urban Parks explores the formation of America’s great city parks, including Boston’s own Emerald Necklace, through the eyes of 19th Century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.   The film traces the life of Olmsted: his early struggles in school. his personal tragedies and his unorthodox career path.  Olmsted and his firm carried out more than 500 commissions, nearly 100 of which were public parks.  His work includes the linear park system that stretches from the Back Bay Fens to Franklin Park known as the Emerald Necklace.  A Q & A session will follow the screening.  For more information on the documentary, visit www.theolmstedlegacy.org.  The admission fee is $10, and you may sign up by logging in to www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.

Celebrate the grand opening of the Emerald Necklace Visitor Center at 125 The Fenway, Boston, on Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1.  All events are free and open to the public.  At noon, Mayor Thomas M. Menino will cut the ribbon along with special guests.  From noon until 3:30, a very special Art in Bloom floral arrangement inspired by the Back Bay Fens will be on display, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  From 12:30 until 2, Gerry Wright will appear in his “other” persona, Frederick Law Olmsted, and the Park Rangers Mounted Unit “Adopt a Horse” program will be featured.  At 2, 2:30 and 3, there will be screenings of Stories from the Emerald Necklace, a documentary film depicting the variety of visitor stories found in the Necklace.  Also, between 12:30 and 1:15, artist Dustan Knight will talk about the creative process as Dustan works in watercolors to capture the special Art in Bloom floral arrangement on paper.

From 12:45 – 3 pm, you may meet the gardeners at the Fenway Victory Gardens and visit the newly renovated Special Needs Garden, as well as participate in hands-on workshops.  From 1 – 2:30, Alan Banks, Supervisory Park Ranger, will lead an interpretive walk through the Back Bay Fens beginning at the Visitor Center entitled “Garden in the Machine.”  For the athletes, join a fun run with 3, 5 and 7 mile options led by Mark Lowenstein, author of Great Runs in Boston, with a route starting at the Visitor Center, continuing along the Necklace out to Jamaica Pond, and returning to the Visitor Center, starting at 1:15 pm.

Over at the Wentworth Institute, Frederick Law Olmsted, a one-man play written by performed by Gerry Wright, will begin at 3 pm, followed by a short reception, and at 4:30, in the same venue, there will be a screening of The Olmsted Legacy: America’s Urban Parks documentary.  If you prefer, at 3 pm you may join Conservancy president Julie Crockford and City Councilor Mike Ross for a bike ride to Franklin park, and stay for the 4 pm Weeds as Feed walk led by a Franklin Park coalition naturalist.  For complete times and directions, log on to www.emeraldnecklace.org/visitorcentergrandopening/.

To kick-off the 6th annual Birds and Bards Festival, The Arnold Arboretum, the Boston Nature Center, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, and the Franklin Park Coalition will screen the movie Ghost Bird —a fascinating look at the controversial “rediscovery” of the extinct (or is it?) Ivory-billed woodpecker.

The screening will take place at 6:30pm on Thursday, April 28th at the Boston Nature Center, 500 Walk Hill Street, Mattapan, Massachusetts 02126.

In 2005, scientists announced that the Ivory-billed woodpecker, a species thought to be extinct for 60 years, had been found in the swamps of Eastern Arkansas. Other creatures have wrongly been presumed extinct, but the reappearance of the Ivory-bill was celebrated around the world as the rediscovery of a lifetime, prompting the largest recovery effort ever undertaken for a lost species. Millions of dollars poured in from the government while ornithologists and birders flooded the swamps to find the rare bird.

Down the road, the town of Brinkley, Arkansas – itself on the brink of extinction – was transformed by the hope, commerce and controversy surrounding their feathered friend. But continued sightings by expert birders only highlighted the mysterious absence of credible evidence. Now six years later, the woodpecker remains as elusive as ever. Ghost Bird brings the Ivory-bill’s blurry rediscovery into focus revealing our uneasy relationship with nature and the increasing uncertainty of our place within it.

Following the film, there will be a panel discussion about the state of conservation and endangered species in Massachusetts and around the world. Experts from three of the leading conservation organizations in MA will be available to answer questions:

Pearl Yusuf, Asst. Curator of the Hooves and Horns, Franklin Park Zoo

Joan Walsh, Director of Bird Monitoring, Mass Audubon

Wayne Klockner, Director of the Massachusetts Program of The Nature Conservancy

For more info visit

http://ghostbirdmovie.com/

http://arboretum.harvard.edu/news-events/birds-and-bards/

http://www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/Sanctuaries/Boston/news.php?id=1430&event=no

Contact: Marc Devokaitis 617.384.5209 marc_devokaitis@harvard.edu

Whole Foods sponsors the Do Something Reel Film Festival, and a screening of Bag It will take place at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street in Brookline on Tuesday, April 26 at 7:30 pm.  Ticket price is $9, and you may buy tickets on line at www.dosomethingreel.com, or at the theatre.  This highly entertaining and eye-opening film follows everyman Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic-reliant world.  Jeb is not a radical environmentalist, but an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics.  The filmmaker Suzan Beraza was born in Jamaica and raised in Puerto Rico and in the Dominican Republic.  Her thought provoking films challenge viewers to examine their lives and consider the impact of their choices.

Visit the Arnold Arboretum, Boston Nature Center, Forest Hills Cemetery, Franklin Park Coalition and the Franklin Park Zoo,  Thursday, April 28 to Sunday, May 1 for Birds and Bards: A Festival Celebrating Birds, Poetry, and Nature. Spend the weekend exploring birds, poetry, and nature in over 1000 acres of green space along Boston’s Emerald Necklace. The festival includes activities for children and adults, most of which are free!

For complete event listings and information, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu/news-events/birds-and-bards.

A screening of Mother Nature’s Child: Growing Outdoors in the Media Age, will take place Friday, April 22 at 7:30 at the Cape Ann Community Cinema, 21 Main Street, 2nd floor, Gloucester, Massachusetts.  Wendy Conquest, the co-producer of this film about bridging the divide between children and nature, will join the audience for a Q & A after the show.  Proceeds benefit Kestrel Educational Adventures, a local non profit organization that is creating bridges between schools and nature for the children of Cape Ann.  For more information, log on to www.kestreleducation.org.

We’ve already mentioned the Insect Planet: Family Festival at Harvard Museum of Natural History, taking place this Saturday, March 5, from 9 – 5 at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History (see www.hmnh.harvard.edu for a complete run down of events), but we’ve just learned that a screening of the documentary Vanishing of the Bees, a documentary examining the mysterious disappearance of honeybees across the planet, has been added to the day’s activities.  Filmed spanning the US, in Europe, Australia and Asia, it examines the alarming phenomena known as Colony Collapse Disorder, and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and mother earth.  The film is narrated by Ellen Page and is for adults and children ages 12 and older.  See more information about the film at www.vanishingbees.com.  The screening is free with museum admission, and since admission to the museum is free all this coming weekend for Bank of America’s Museums on Us program – that means free to any Bank of America credit or debit card holder, about half of everyone in Massachusetts, this is a very sweet deal.  See more about the Bank of America program at http://museums.bankofamerica.com.

Filmmakers Michael Graziano and Ernie Park were originally inspired by the Organic School Project, a now-defunct school garden project in Chicago, and had intended to focus their  film Lunch Line on it. Once they started production, however, they realized that there was a much larger story to be told. The resulting film adopts a visually striking style as it portrays the surprisingly long and tortuous history of school food in this country. $5, co-sponsored by Slow Food Boston and The Museum of Science, at The Cahners Theater at The Museum of Science, 1 Science Park in Boston, at 2 pm on Sunday, March 20. To reserve, log on to www.slowfoodboston.com/reserve.cfm?eno=872.

Where did all the bees go? If you’ve been aware of the news in the past few years, we’re sure you’re familiar with CCD: Colony Collapse Disorder. Discovered first in late 2006, hordes of bees literally….disappeared. The worker bees leave for the day and never return, abandoning the queen, the young, the eggs. Everything. So maybe the darn queen was crackin’ the whip too hard. But maybe not — the theories abound. Was it a virus? Environmental changes? Malnutrition? An affect of pesticides?

Want to explore these questions? If so, come to the Small Metcalf Hall in Boston University’s GSU, 775 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, on Sunday, February 27th at 2:00PM for the film Vanishing of the Bees, which explores the issues in greater detail, outlining what led up to the problem and what can be done differently going forward in order to prevent it from happening again. We’re following the film with a panel of local beekeepers and honey makers (Golden Rule Honey, Allandale Honey Co & more!) discussing their work… And then we’ll get to taste their bounty! It’s your chance to learn the nuances of honey and talk to the folks that make it. And understand exactly why we need to be informed and make changes to prevent honeybees from disappearing again. This screening is generously co-sponsored by Slow Food Tufts and Slow Food BU. $5 fee. You may reserve a space on line at www.slowfoodboston.com/reserve.cfm?eno=873.

Diabetes. Heart Disease. Obesity. What is going on in our society? Why are we so sick? The next film in Slow Food’s 2011 Winter Film Series explores these issues, and even tries to make some recommendations for what we can do to stop sliding down this slippery slope of illness.

On Sunday February 13th at 2:00PM come by the Museum of Science (co-sponsor of the event)  for a screening of Forks Over Knives, an amazing and eye-opening documentary about the connection between our diet and the diseases that are so prevalent in our society today.

Now, the health side of the eating equation isn’t our normal stomping ground, we know — but encouraging folks to eat more sustainably is. And we believe that eating more sustainability means eating closer to the source: locally grown fruits and vegetables, pasture-raised antibiotic & hormone free meats and dairy…. (You know the drill by now!) Eating sustainably also means cooking more, taking time to enjoy the process of preparing and eating your meals. And frankly, we believe that all of this dovetails nicely into the questions raised in the film. Because it is our oh-so-humble opinion that many of society’s health related ills could be solved by eating this way.

But enough of the soap box rant! Come check out the film for yourself, and learn more from the *special* speaker planned for afterward. We can guarantee you’ll walk away with your eyes opened wide and a few small changes ready in your toolbox! $5 fee.  Reserve now at    www.slowfoodboston.com/reserve.cfm?eno=851.

You are invited to the Cambridge Premiere of BUGGED, The Race to Eradicate the Asian Longhorned Beetle, Narrated by Emmy Award-Winning News Correspondent Pat Dawson, Produced/Directed by Emily Driscoll, on Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 5:15PM, at The Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge.

For more information, call 617.495.3045 or log on to www.hmnh.harvard.edu

Bugged is “…frankly one of the most comprehensive and best educational documentaries on the Asian longhorned beetle that has been made to date….Now, more than ever, the general public needs to remain observant and vigilant in case ALB shows up in your city or neighborhood. This short film will broaden one’s view of this most important and unwanted pest!”

-Richard Hoebeke, Taxonomic and Survey Entomologist, Cornell University

About the Documentary:
Alien invaders live hidden among us. The Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) is one of the world’s worst invasive species and could destroy one third of America’s trees. Now, for the first time, the ALB infests a city (Worcester) on the edge of a natural forested area. Follow the scientists, USDA officials and private citizens who are the front lines in the Asian longhorned beetle eradication war.

Bugged is the first documentary to present the national story of the ALB infestation in America and to explore the  science of eradication.

www.buggeddocumentary.com

Martin Luttrell of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette has posted the following announcement, which may be found in full at www.telegram.com:

Shortly after earning her economics degree at George Washington University, Fitchburg native Emily V. Driscoll set her sights on science journalism, getting a master’s degree and setting to work as a documentary film maker.  And after producing a number of short-form documentaries as a member of a production company, she returned to Central Massachusetts to document the efforts to eradicate the Asian longhorned beetle.

Bugged: The Race to Eradicate the Asian Longhorned Beetle, is the first science documentary Ms. Driscoll has directed. It will be shown in Worcester and Fitchburg next month.  Ms. Driscoll, 29, said she began interviewing sources for the project in September and finished editing the 24-minute piece in June.

“I want to spread awareness of the Asian longhorned beetle in America, and the extraordinary efforts at eradication,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in New York City. “I want people to understand the gravity of the situation, and the efforts that go into containing it.”

The Asian longhorned beetle destroys trees by boring holes through them, and some officials are concerned that they are endangering trees and forests throughout New England. The infestation area in and around Worcester now covers 74 square miles, where more than 25,600 trees have been cut down.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has put up $41.5 million to expand the eradication project this year, and officials with that government department have said they are optimistic that eradication should succeed over the next 10 years.

Ms. Driscoll, who moved from Fitchburg to New York City while in elementary school, received her economics degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 2002, and her master’s degree in science journalism from New York University in 2007. She is now working toward a master’s in science documentary production at the Gallatin School, a school of individual study within NYU.   The film will be shown at the Worcester Public Library at 2 and 6 p.m. Aug. 4. Ms. Driscoll will not be present for those screenings, but will be on Aug. 6 in Fitchburg. That screening will take place at Riverfront Park, at a time to be announced.

INGREDIENTS is a feature-length documentary illustrating how passionate individuals around the country are working to revitalize the local food movement. Narrated by Bebe Neuwirth, the film takes us across the U.S. from the diversified farms of the Hudson River and Willamette Valleys to the urban food deserts of Harlem and to the kitchens of celebrated chefs Alice Waters, Peter Hoffman and Greg Higgins. INGREDIENTS is a journey that reveals the people behind the movement to bring good food back to the table and health back to our communities. The film will be shown on Thursday, July 29, at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street in Brookline.For more information, please visit: http://coolidge.org/greenscreens .  The ticket price is $9.75.

Bascom Lodge, on Mt. Greylock, Massachusetts (below), will hold a Talk and Dine Series Event on Wednesday, July 21, beginning at 6 pm.  Producer/Director Sharon Wyrrick will speak about Community Supported Agriculture, its beginnings in the United States and in the Berkshires, and its importance and promise for revitalizing local food systems and economies.  She will show footage from her documentary movie Food Matters: From the Ground Up, focusing on some of the rock stars of the North Berkshire food system – the farmers.  For more information, log on to http://bascomlodge.net/Events.html.  The talk is free, and there is a dinner to follow for which reservations (413-743-1591) are required.

From the Mass Turnpike, take Exit 2 in Lee, and follow Rt. 20 to Rt. 7 North.  Continue North to Lanesboro, watch for Mt. Greylock Reservation and Visitor Center signs on the right.  Turn right onto  North Main Street and follow Mt. Greylock and Bascom Lodge signs 9 miles to the summit.

Come to Boston University’s Sargent College, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 101, on Wednesday, June 16, beginning at 6:30 pm, for a provoking panel discussion in the Farm to Fork series. How do we get the food we eat? At the grocery store? From the deli? Out of a backyard? This panel of specialists is excited about local food, but beyond passion, they are ready to share with you how they farm, how they buy, and how they serve with intention. You’ll walk away inspired by what’s possible! Meet the panelists: John Lee of Allandale Farms, chef JJ Gonson, Jeff Morin, Manager of City Feed and Willow Blish, volunteer co-leader of the Boston chapter of Slow Food. The evening will be moderated by Drew Love, FRESH’s Event Coordinator for Boston and Intern for the Real Food Challenge. Tickets: $10.   At this event, you will receive a free voucher to see FRESH at the Brattle Theatre June 18-23. More information: http://action.freshthemovie.com/p/d/freshthemovie/event/display-theater-event.sjs?event_KEY=21814#freshweek3

Whole Foods again will sponsor a movie screening as part of its Let’s Retake Our Plates film series, this time on Thursday, April 29, at 6:00 pm at the Showcase Cinema de Lux Legacy Place, 950 Providence Highway in Dedham.  The film, What’s On Your Plate?, sees our food supply through the eyes of two 11-year-old city kids on a mission to discover where their meals really come from.  The budding food activists explore New York City, from farmers’ markets to school lunchrooms, and provide a fresh look at how a younger generation can influence what and  how we eat.  $10.  For more information, log on to www.letsretakeourplates.com.

Whole Foods sponsors “Let’s Retake Our Plates” film series at the Boston Public Library, Tuesday, April 27, from 7 – 9 pm. When bulldozers threaten a 14 acre community garden in South Central Los Angeles, concerned citizens unite and fight for the country’s largest urban farm.  This 2008 film takes an unflinching look at the struggle between urban farmers and the city, and powerful developers.

The Garden centers around a community’s struggle to hold onto a fourteen-acre garden in South Central Los Angeles. The community’s struggle received widespread attention in 2004-2006, when the farmers were fighting the city of Los Angeles and developer Ralph Horowitz to maintain control of the garden, ultimately working to raise funds to buy the land. The community garden was established on government property following the 1992 riots and was the largest of its kind in the U.S.

The details of the story provide great footage: a wealthy developer engages in a shady real-estate deal with the city of Los Angeles to acquire the property, a city council member helps push through the secret deal, tensions between the Black and Latino communities complicate matters, while the impoverished Latino farmers at the heart of the story struggle not just for land but their livelihoods.

The fourteen-acre garden was originally owned by developer Horowitz but the city acquired it under eminent domain, paying him $5 million. He sued the city unsuccessfully but ultimately struck a back-room deal to buy it back for $5 million, despite property values having skyrocketed in the intervening years. When the farmers are forced to consider buying the garden, Horowitz raises the price tag to $16.2 million.

The film is moving and expertly captures the intricacies of the farmers’ struggle. Where another documentary filmmaker might have shied away from some of the nuance such as divisions between communities of color, filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy delves into the tough subjects, highlighting complex racial and political dynamics. Free admission.