The Baltimore Environmental Film Series at Loyola University Maryland was inspired by the great environmentally themed film festivals in the mid-Atlantic including Environmental Film Fest in the Nation’s Capital and The Environmental Film Fest at Yale. As a Jesuit Catholic Institution environmental sustainability is important to the mission and values of Loyola University Maryland. This film series merges the art of film with education and advocacy for those affected by the major environmental issues of the time. The film series is one of many events publicizing the interdisciplinary minor in Environmental Studies. The series is supported by many programs and offices across campus and supported by funding from the Loyola College Dean's Office & other sources as noted on the events.
The film events are open to the public and free unless otherwise stated. The majority of the events consist of a feature followed by a discussion of the film with the audience. For events on Loyola's campus free parking on campus in the Butler/Hammerman Lot after 4 PM. Street parking is also available along Coldspring Lane after 6 PM. For events in the Loyola Notre Dame Library, parking is available at the library located at 200 Winston Avenue.
The Environmental Film Series is sponsored by Environmental Studies and the Dean of Loyola College.
Spring 2023 Film Series Line Up
Kiss the Ground (Tickell & Tickell, 2020)
with short film
Compost Fever (Moss, 2023)
March 23, 6 PM - Loyola Notre Dame Library Auditorium
Dr. Bernadette Roche, Associate Professor of Biology and Sylvia Lei (Biology, class of 2023) will lead a discussion with panelists Julie Dougherty (Oxbow Farm), Marvin Hayes (Baltimore Compost Collective), and Kenneth Moss (www.kennycaptures.site) and the audience.
COMPOST FEVER (15 minutes) is a short film by Kenneth Moss, a Baltimore Compost Collective youth compost leader. Find out more about his work by following him @kenny.captures or check out this article: Fighting Asthma with Compost
KISS THE GROUND (45 minutes) reveals that, by regenerating the world’s soils, we can completely and rapidly stabilize Earth’s climate, restore lost ecosystems and create abundant food supplies. Using compelling graphics and visuals, along with striking NASA and NOAA footage, the film artfully illustrates how, by drawing down atmospheric carbon, soil is the missing piece of the climate puzzle. This movie is positioned to catalyze a movement to accomplish the impossible – to solve humanity’s greatest challenge, to balance the climate and secure our species future.
April 18, 7 PM at the Senator Theatre
Free and open to the public. Tickets are required. A ticket link will be available at least 2 weeks before the event.
This event features a panel conversation with the film makers.
THANK YOU TO OUR EVENT SPONSORS: Messina at Loyola, Department of Communication, Department of Management & Organizations, Global Sustainable Business Club
DISRUPTION: BALTIMORE'S HIGHWAY TO NOWHERE It’s a legendary story in Baltimore, one that launched the career of the U.S. Senate’s longest serving woman lawmaker: Barbara Mikulski stopped the highway that would have divided Baltimore. And surely, the feisty activist deserves credit for saving Federal Hill, Fells Point and Leakin Park from the bulldozers. But Mikulski couldn’t prevent what happened first; that the city destroyed a middle-class Black neighborhood on the West Side with a highway that literally went nowhere. Supposed to be a conduit to connect Interstate 70 with the city, engineers designed a sunken, 1.39 mile highway with overpasses that seem to connect nothing. The city abandoned the road project, but not before destroying 971 homes and uprooting thousands of lives, leaving them with increased pollution, a lack of green space, and blight all around. Now, the federal government is providing money to right the wrongs of the Highway to Nowhere. Can it be done in a way that repairs what the residents lost?
SMITHVILLE Luther Cornish is 91, and he is one of three remaining residents of Smithville. A marsh is encroaching on the cemetery where his family members are buried, and he is worried that the graves will soon be inundated with saltwater. What’s the hope for communities like Smithville, and how many more might there be?
ERODING HISTORY Black communities in the United States got the lowest land on which to build their communities, and they are going to be the most vulnerable when the floods come. It’s happening already. Laws, customs and practices continue to discriminate against Black Marylanders, and that’s causing a major erosion not just of land but of tight-know communities that date back to after the Civil War. What will become of them?
Mossville: When Great Trees Fall (Glustrom, 2019)
with Short: e-Wasteland (Fedele, 2012)
February 9, 6 PM - Loyola Notre Dame Library Auditorium
Free and open to the public. Register for free tickets here: https://cglink.me/2hL/r2015222
CO-HOSTED with the African and African American Studies Program and the Sustainability Program Office.
e-WASTELAND (20 minutes)
MOSSVILLE: WHEN GREAT TREES FALL (55 minutes) follows the struggles of the residents of Mossville, Louisiana who are forced to let go of their ancestral home. This is a community rich in history, founded by formerly enslaved people and free people of color — where neighbors lived in harmony. Today, 14 petrochemical plants surround Mossville, and it is the future site of a new plant being built by the chemical company Sasol. Stacey Ryan, who has lost much of his family to cancer and has seen the neighborhood he grew up in demolished to make way for Sasol’s new multi-billion dollar project. He views these changes from his parent’s home, smack in the middle of where the new facility is being built — and he refuses to leave. He struggles as his power, water, and sewage are all cut off, and his health continues to decline from ongoing chemical exposure. As Sasol encroaches on citizens’ property with buyout offers, Stacey and other community members have to decide whether to exist in a chemical war zone or abandon land that has been in their families for generations.
Following the films Elizabeth Kennedy, Professor of Law and Social Responsibility and Danny Esposito, sustainability coordinator, will lead a discussion with the audience.
Fall 2022 Film Series Line Up
The Territory (Pritz, 2022)
November 9, 7 PM at the Senator Theatre
Presented in collaboration with the Messina program at Loyola
THE TERRITORY provides an immersive on-the-ground look at the tireless fight of the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people against the encroaching deforestation brought by farmers and illegal settlers in the Brazilian Amazon. The film takes audiences deep into the Uru-eu-wau-wau community and provides unprecedented access to the farmers and settlers illegally burning and clearing the protected Indigenous land. Partially shot by the Uru-eu-wau-wau people, the film relies on vérité footage captured over three years as the community risks their lives to set up their own news media team in the hopes of exposing the truth.
Shuttle service provided from the Loyola Notre Dame Library running in a continuous loop from 5 pm until 7 pm and then after the film starting at 8:30 pm.