Greenbuild Film Festival

Each year the Greenbuild Film Festival is a place to rest your feet and soak in the latest films in the green building and environmental film industry. Make sure to stop by room 301 in the South Building on Wednesday and Thursday to see a film.

2012 Film Festival Schedule

Film Descriptions

Silent Snow
The white Arctic plains are an eminent example of nature’s untouched beauty: an endless nothing in which only few know how to survive. But a silent assassin is destroying the Inuit community in Greenland. Chemical residues from all over the world accumulate here invisibly, causing illnesses and premature death. Silent Snow follows a young Inuit on her journey to find the local causes of this contamination. Her journey takes her to Africa, India, and Costa Rica, where she is confronted with conflicting interests when it comes to short-term gains and healthy solutions for agriculture, industries and health care.

Rock the Boat
Rock the Boat is a fun, fast-paced documentary about the Los Angeles River and the challenges society faces in providing clean water to urban populations (think Huckleberry Finn meets Chinatown). When satirical writer and avid kayaker George Wolfe organizes a boating trip to demand public access to the river, he and his motley crew become entangled in a national controversy surrounding the river’s “navigability” and consequent eligibility for Clean Water Act protection. With breathtaking images of the LA River, insightful interviews and a soft spot for humor, the film is a bright alternative to the current spate of doomsday documentaries.

One Day
An inspiring documentary by an award-winning filmmaker that presents 10-year-olds in 6 cities around the world who draw the future and talk about their dreams. This beautiful film will inspire any audience to think and dialogue about the future and the legacy they envision for the next generation.

The Greenest Building
THE GREENEST BUILDING explores the myth that a “green building” is a new building and demonstrates how renovation and adaptive reuse of existing structures achieves ecological, social and economic balance. The film reveals: (a) how reuse and reinvestment in the existing built environment leads to stronger local economies that can compete on a global scale, (b) that sense of place and collective memory, while intangible, are critical components of sustainable communities, and (c) the direct correlation between reuse of existing buildings and a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, degradation of the natural environment and overuse of precious natural resources.

Sheltered: Underground and Off the Grid
"Sustainable Living" takes on a whole new meaning as this unique underground farm is constructed in Michigan. Watch as national award winning green builder Adam D. Bearup of Hybrid Homes, LLC leads the homeowner and her local crew in building the largest underground off-the-grid farm on the planet! This documentary was compiled from three years of filming during all stages of building