We’ll watch a film in class on Wednesday about climate change.
There are many more films relevant to some of the topics that we’ve discussed in class than can possibly be shown in a quarter. But I do want to encourage you to broaden what you know, and film is a convenient medium for doing that.
I’ve given extra credit to various people for critiquing talks that they saw on campus or for taking extra steps to judge some of what we’ve read about, e.g. by extending the work we did on carbon footprints. There is a 5 point limit on extra credit, so it’s possible to do more than one small activity.
One option is to watch a film and write a short critique. The more you write, and the higher the quality, the more credit you receive. This would be an even more valuable activity (and therefore worth more credit), if you watched a film with friends and discussed it afterward.
Here is a list of documentary films on various environmental themes. Ethics is amenable to learning through the film medium because learning to think philosophically is not just about amassing knowledge but about identifying and thinking through problems and observing how others frame ethical problems. There are no doubt more films that I haven’t thought of. I’d love to hear your additional suggestions!
About our energy economy:
Who Killed the Electric Car?
About climate change:
An Inconvenient Truth
About food:
The Future of Food
Super Size Me
King Corn
About industrialization and natural environments:
Manufactured Landscapes
Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi
About the connection between natural and social environments:
Darwin’s Nightmare
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October 26, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Lynne Adams
Does the library have any of these films?
October 27, 2009 at 11:02 am
ebrister
Sure, the library has some of them.
An Inconvenient Truth, Super Size Me, and King Corn are in the leisure video collection and can be checked out for 3 days at a time.
Manufactured Landscapes, the Qaatsi films, and Darwin’s Nightmare are all on reserve at the circulation desk (not for my class), so they should be available but I don’t know how long you can keep them.
The 11th Hour and The Future of Food are in the ETC media collection in the basement of the library where they can be watched in the viewing room.
Although the library doesn’t have Food, Inc. or Who Killed the Electric Car? they were released in theaters and so are available through Netflix, Blockbuster, etc. etc.