After the End Credits, One Earth Film Festival Wants Audiences to Take Action

One Earth Film Festival organizer and ICA colleague Dick Alton emphasizes the power of focused conversations.

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“One Earth Film Festival organizers expect audiences to leave screenings being more enlightened and aware of environmental issues. Organizers also want audiences to be ready to take action for the planet when they leave a screening. To get audiences to that point, they need to digest a film’s information, then connect it to everyday life. That’s where trained facilitators come in. Facilitators are key pieces of the festival, helping attendees develop a more meaningful understanding of the many important topics covered during a screening,” writes Shelby Best in a recent story from One Earth Film Festival (OEFF), the Midwest’s premier environmental film festival.

OEFF volunteers spent the majority of Friday, January 31 with ICA Program Managers Caitlin Sarro and Samantha Sainsbury, who trained them in the focused conversation, the foundational method of the Technology of Participation (ToP) facilitation method. 

“A [One Earth] facilitator is responsible for gently moving the group from surface level observations to attaching meaning and significance to the topic and their lives, followed by a tangible action plan of next steps,” Shelby explains. Facilitators will help take audiences beyond the end credits at more than 40 screenings of 26 films throughout the Chicagoland area that make up the 2020 festival. 

This participatory approach is deeply aligned with our mission, and we have been proud to partner with OEFF for the past eight years. In addition to training facilitators, we’re also co-hosting a screening of Hike the Divide with Truman College in Uptown. Samantha Sainsbury will once again facilitate the post-film conversation.

Members and partners of our Chicago Sustainability Leaders Network (CSLN) are also involved in many of this year's screenings, including:

• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Mar 8 at St. Benedict the African Parish, facilitated by Toni Anderson

• Cooked: Survival by Zip Code: Mar 8 at Windsor Park Evangelical Lutheran Church, with Alvyn Walker
• Epic Yellowstone: Return of the Predators: Mar 8 at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
• Eating Up Easter: Mar 14 at Plant Chicago
• Monty and Rose: Mar 14 at Thatcher Woods Pavilion