Documentary Film Screening in Blacksburg: Between Earth and Sky
March 31, 2017
Documentary Film Screening in Blacksburg: Between Earth and Sky
BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY: Climate Change on the Last Frontier
Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.
The Lyric Theatre
Admission is free
Free popcorn to the first 150 attendees!
The Global Change Center at Virginia Tech is proud to sponsor a public screening of the new documentary film, “Between Earth and Sky: Climate Change on the Last Frontier. The film’s Executive Producer, Dr. David Weindorf, will be on hand to introduce the movie to a Blacksburg audience at the Lyric Theatre on April 12th. The pubic is invited and admission is free. Among the many scientists interviewed in the documentary is Virginia Tech’s Dr. John Galbraith, in the Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences.
Synopsis: Alaska has been the source of myth and legend in the imagination of Americans for centuries, and what was once the last frontier of American expansion, has become the first frontier in climate change. Between Earth and Sky examines climate change through the lens of impacts to native Alaskans, receding glaciers, and arctic soil. The island of Shishmaref has been home to the Inupiaq people for thousands of years. As sea ice retreats and coastal storms increase the people of Shishmaref are faced with a disappearing island and a 200 million dollar price tag to move their people with an untold cost on their culture and history.
Permafrost (permanently frozen ground) in northern upland landscapes sequesters 40% of the earth’s carbon. Alaska has experienced the largest regional warming of any state in the U.S. increasing 3.4 degrees F since 1949. This warming has created a feedback loop of carbon to the atmosphere and the thawing of permafrost impacting the daily life of Alaskans.
Mixing interviews with some of the world’s leading scientists in climate change and arctic soils, with the day to day struggle of native Alaskans living on the front lines of global warming, Between Earth and Sky shows the calamity of climate change that has started in Alaska but is already engulfing the globe.
FILMMAKERS
Director: Paul Allen Hunton is a three time Emmy winning nonfiction filmmaker. He is the creator of 24 Frames, a documentary program highlighting music, art, and culture in the southwest which airs regionally on PBS stations. Paul is the co-creator of the PBS Digital series, Global Weirding with Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, and the Executive Producer of Through the Repellent Fence a documentary film about land art in the American Southwest which screened at the NYC Museum of Modern Art’s Documentary Fortnight and SXSW in Austin. Hunton is the General Manager of Texas Tech Public Media and teaches Documentary filmmaking in the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech. Paul was named Broadcaster of the Year by the Texas Association of Broadcast Educators for 2017.
Executive Producer: Dr. David C. Weindorf currently serves as Associate Dean for Research for the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and BL Allen Endowed Chair of Pedology in the Department of Plant and Soil Science. Dr. Weindorf holds a B.S. in Range Management, M.S. in Soil Science (geochemistry minor), and Ph.D. in Agronomy from Texas Tech. Dr. Weindorf is a 20+ year member the Soil Science Society of America, past chair (2016) of the Pedology section (S-5), and a licensed Texas Professional Geoscientist. He was formerly editor of the journal Soil Horizons (2011-2013), and currently serves on the editorial boards of Pedosphere and SOIL. Previously, he served on the editorial board of Louisiana Agriculture. Dr. Weindorf also currently serves on the board of trustees for the Composting Council Research and Education Foundation (2013-present) and has served as the past president and board member of the Professional Soil Scientists Association of Texas; as well as past president and board member of the Texas Section of the American Society of Agronomy.
FILM FESTIVALS/AWARDS
Invited by the US State Department to be shown at COP 22, the United Nation’s global climate conference, in Marrakesh Morocco, 2016.
Official Selection Colorado Environmental Film Festival 2017
Official Selection Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital, 2017
ONLINE
Film length: 68 minutes
