“A Celebration of Conservation” Short Films

Screening time ~55 min. + post-film discussion

By some estimates as many 1 species per hour is now going extinct. Even at the low range of estimates, we are likely to lose 25% of all species on the planet in the next 75 years–qualifying as the sixth great wave of extinction of life in Earth’s history and the first one perpetuated by one species, humans, against all others. But humans don’t have to be the villain in this story–we can also be the heroes. And worldwide there are thousands of heroes working every day to save the species and the planet on which they live, dedicating their lives in service of other species.

In conjunction with the Center for Performing Arts’ staging of the Our Planet concert and film on Tuesday, April 11, this screening of short films celebrated those people who are coming together to build better bonds around conservation–developing novel community partnerships to restore and protect species and habitat and developing personal bonds with all sorts of non-human life. The films screened were:

• Magali (Nick Werber, 5 min.) — In the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, one woman, Magali Salinas, soldiers on in her quest to save and rehabilitate wildlife threatened by habitat destruction and illegal wildlife trade. Why does she do it? Because only if all of those she cares for are safe will she find peace.
• The Church Forests of Ethiopia (Jeremy Seifert, 9 min.) — In Ethiopian religious traditions, a church should be a haven for all life, a veritable Eden as much connected to the nature outside as the people inside. As a result, the pockets of forests surrounding Ethiopian churches now represent a critical fragment of habitat to sustain threatened species in the Ethiopian highlands.
• The Love Bugs (Allison Otto and Maria Clinton, 32 min.) — In this charming and moving film, married entomologists Charlie and Lois O’Brien, who have been working for over 60 years, share their reference collection of more than 1 million insects. Now in their 80s and 90s, the couple faces the challenge of reconciling their love of insects with a need to care for each other given the infirmities of age.
• Last of My Kind (Nicholas Brown, 9 min.) — A future with less habitat loss and the preservation of species and biological communities is possible, but only if we reckon with where we are now and with the emotions of grief and loss we too often suppress. For pastor Martin Palmer, that means hosting a service of remembrance and mourning for the 163 species confirmed lost in the last decade. Sometimes to move forward, we have to pause and reflect back.

Thank you for joining us for this moving and inspiring final screening of 2022-23! Following the shorts we featured a panel discussion with:

• Dr. Carter Hunt, Associate Professor of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management and Anthropology, Penn State
• Dr. Sara Mueller, Executive Director, Wildlife Leadership Academy
• Dr. Edwin Sabuhoro, Assistant Professor of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management and African Studies and Ann Atherton Hertzler Early Career Professor in Global Health

(Screening in partnership with the Center for Performing Arts)