1. What is the QC Environmental Film Series through River Action? (Dennis)
For several years, the community organization has partnered with other groups, such as the Eagle View Sierra Club, Joyce and Tony Singh Family Foundation, and the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities to host regular environmental films, primarily at the Figge Art Museum. Very well attended, with engaging documentaries from around the world and local reflection speakers who tie the topics back to relevance in the QC. This year, River Action has made engaging younger generations a key focus of the film series, so they’ve partnered with several high schools and colleges to host the film series on their campuses. St. Ambrose and Green Life are the first campus host for this year for next Sunday, Jan 29 at 2 PM in Galvin Fine Arts Center.
2. “My Garden of a Thousand Bees” shown through Green Life, what is Green Life? (Hannah)
At St. Ambrose University, Green-Life is an environmental and sustainability club which primarily focuses on making the university more environmentally friendly and green. Green-life partners and works with other organizations, such as River-Action with the QC environmental film festival, to have sustainable and environmentally focused activities and events for the students at St. Ambrose. “My Garden of a Thousand Bees” will be a great film to show at Ambrose, not only due to our bee mascot “Barney”, but to bring attention to further environmental awareness on campus and an excitement for nature.
3. What is the showing going to be about? (Hannah)
“My Garden of a Thousand Bees” is an exciting film about a wildlife photographer Martin Dorhn filming bees found in his home garden in Bristol, England during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Without the ability to leave his home, Martin found a curiosity for the variety of bee species he noticed buzzing around his backyard garden. He took to identifying and filming all of the species from the smallest sweat bee to the largest bumble. It’s a great film and an easy watch as it’s only around 45 minutes in length. I am really looking forward to this being shown on our campus and I hope that this movie and others being shown for the film festival will bring a spark of excitement for nature to our community.
4. Why did you choose this film and topic for the showing? (Dennis)
The St. Ambrose Mascot is the Fighting Bees, and we are a certified Bee Campus USA, which involves developing and protecting habitat for bees on campus, as well as hosting educational opportunities about the importance of protecting pollinators. We even installed our own bee hives on campus last year! So it was only natural for us to find a documentary that aligned with these goals and values. This documentary really speaks to the power of one individual making a difference so we can all fight for the bees.
5. What are the goals for the event? (Hannah)
Our goals for this event are to first, on our own campus have a good turnout to support the QC film festival and Green Life, as well as support environmental activities and bring awareness to the campus and community. As a true “Bee Campus” where we are certified to protect bee species at St. Ambrose, so this movie will be a great correlation to that and I hope that those in the Quad City communities will have interest in our bee campus hosting a fantastic bee film.
6. How will this film series impact the QC community, college campus? (Dennis)
The film series is designed for the general public first of all to be able to view some top notch documentary films. Many of these films hone in on topics that are very relevant to the contemporary quad cities, from agricultural challenges to water quality concerns. Events happening in India or Israel really do have practical implications for our local communities as well. After each film, a reflection speaker discusses these applications to the Quad Cities and fields questions from the attendees, so that we can be a more-informed society. At St. Ambrose, this model of civic dialogue and engagement really emphasizes the University’s goal to be in, of and for the community. We’re very excited to see how this wonderful film series can help lay the foundation for the better Quad Cities region.
For more information about this spring 2023 film series, with showings most Sundays at 2 PM, go to riveraction.org/filmseries.