Talakhaya film to be show on channel 2 tonight!

A new documentary on Rota’s Talakhaya Revegetation Project will be featured tonight, Jan. 25, on Channel 2 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

The Talakhaya Revegetation Project was implemented in 2006, where community planting efforts were greatly increased to reduce impacts of decades of deforestation by illegal burning.

The 14 minute, locally shot and produced documentary highlights the challenges they face with burning and soil erosion, the revegetation efforts of the community, and the project's successes over the last 5 years to reduce sediment from running off of the land and polluting adjacent coral reef ecosystems.   The short film will air immediately following Channel 2’s evening news programs.

Funding for the film and the Rota DLNR headed revegetation program has come from the U.S. Coral Reef Initiative.

Don't Miss it!

There Once was an Island for February

First Friday Films will be featuring a powerful new film for the month of February, There Once Was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho by New Zealand director, Briar March. Showtime will be on February 3, 2012, 6:30pm at the American Memorial Parks Visitors Center.

This award winning, feature documentary is not to be missed. The film follows three people from Takuu atoll in the Solomon Islands as their community experiences the devastating effects of climate change firsthand. Will they decide to stay with their damaged and sinking island home or move to a new and unfamiliar land, leaving their culture and language behind forever? 

First Friday Films is a monthly film series brought to you through a partnership with the National Park Service and the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), with generous support from community groups and organizations such as the NMI Council For Hummanities which is sponsoring this film.

For planning purposes, the movie runs about 80 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public.

"Economics of Happiness" tomorrow!

We have a great film tomorrow (Friday) at American Memorial Park at 6:30pm.  We will be screening The Economics of Happiness, a film that looks into how globalization is affecting our communities and their well being (a full description of the film can be found in our previous post here).

We are incredibly excited to have Anthony Pellegrino speaking before the film and answering audience questions about localizing our economy here in the CNMI.

This event is the beginning of several sponsored by the CNMI Council for Humanities, and we can not thank them enough for their support of this project.

For planning purposes, the movie runs about 65 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public. 

See you tomorrow!

"Economics of Happiness" for January

First Friday Films will be featuring its first film of the year and you don’t want to miss it. The Economics of Happiness, a film by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steven Gorelick, & John Page, will be showing on January 6, 2012, 6:30pm at the American Memorial Parks Visitors Center. 

Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of business and banking. The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On one hand, the alliance between governments and big business continues to promote globalization and consolidation of corporate power. And on the other, people all over the world are resisting those policies. Communities are coming together to re-build more human-scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm – the economics of localization.  More information about the film can be found here.

Anthony Pellegrino, owner of Saipan Aquaculture Co. Inc. and Cargo Air Bridge, will be on hand to discuss his vision for a sustainable local economy in the NMI as well as to share how he believes the community can participate in building it.  Additionally, he will be answering audience questions following the film.

For planning purposes, the movie runs about 65 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public.

"Ocean of Islands" to be shown prior to this Friday's film

Tomorrow (Friday 12/2) we will be showing a second episode of the BBC South Pacific series entitled Fragile Paradise.  The film will start promptly at 6:30pm at the American Memorial Park visitor's center.  See the post below for more details.

Additionally, at 5:15pm we will be re-showing the episode from this series we screened last month, Ocean of Islands.  So if you missed this one, or would just like to see it again, come early tomorrow.

As with last month, we will be showing both of these beautiful films in Blu-Ray, which looks great up on the big screen.

For planning purposes, each episode will run 50min in length.  Seating is limited, so please arrive early to ensure admittance.

See you tomorrow!

Fragile Pacific for Dec 2nd

First Friday Films will be featuring another episode of BBC’s South Pacific, titled Fragile Paradise on December 2, 2011, 6:30pm at American Memorial Park Visitors Center.

The South Pacific is still relatively healthy and teeming with fish, but it is a fragile paradise. International fishing fleets are taking a serious toll on the sharks, albatross and tuna, and there are other insidious threats to these bountiful seas. Worst of all are ecological threats, notably global warming, which causes rising sea levels as well as climatic changes including storms and floods. This episode looks at the conservational measures, such as reserves and replanting coral reefs and what is being done to preserve the ocean and its wildlife.

For planning purposes, the movie runs about 50 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public.

"Ocean of Islands" Friday

First Friday Films will be featuring BBC’s Wild Pacific:  Ocean of Islands this Friday, November 4^th, 2011,  6:30pm at American Memorial Park Visitors Center.

BBC’s Wild Pacific: Ocean of Islands presents an overview of the natural history of the region. This landmark series explores the sheer scale and majesty of the largest ocean on Earth. The film will also detail the methods of formation of its islands, the diverse ecosystems, the extraordinary journeys wildlife and humans have gone through to reach these specks of land, and how both have adapted to life here. 

First Friday Films is a monthly film series brought to you through a partnership with the National Park Service and the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), with generous support from community groups such as the Mariana Islands Nature Alliance (MINA).

For planning purposes, the movie runs about 80 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public.  Seating is limited, please arrive early to ensure admittance.