"The End of the Line" this Friday, Sept 7

Please join us again this Friday, September 7th at 6:30pm for The End of the Line. Before the film, we will have a short introduction to how fisheries are managed on Saipan from the Division of Fish and Wildlife's fisheries supervisor, Todd Miller.

The End of the Line, the first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. In the film we see first-hand the effects of our global love affair with fish as food. It examines the imminent extinction of Bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation. Filmed across the world – from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market – featuring top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials, The End of the Line is a wake-up call to the world.

If you fish, eat seafood, are interested in global environmental issues, or just want to watch a new film on a Friday night, you should definitely come and check this out! The film will be shown at the American Memorial Park indoor theater. As always, our film events are free and open to the public. First Friday Films is a partnership between the American Memorial Park, Division of Environmental Quality, Coastal Resources Management and the Humanities Council with support from other organizations. This particular film is sponsored by the Humanities Council.

PLAY AGAIN on August 3rd!

Please join us this Friday, August 3rd at 6:30pm at American Memorial Park visitor's center for PLAY AGAIN!

What they do not know, they will not protect, and what they do not protect, they will lose. At a time when children play more behind screens than outside, PLAY AGAIN explores the changing balance between the virtual and natural worlds. Is our connection to nature disappearing down the digital rabbit hole?
This documentary follows six teenagers who, like the “average American child,” spend five to fifteen hours a day behind screens. PLAY AGAIN unplugs these teens and takes them on their first wilderness adventure—no electricity, no cell phone coverage, no virtual reality. What are we missing when we are behind screens? How does this impact our children’s well being, our society and the very future of our planet?
PLAY AGAIN introduces new perspectives and encourages action for a sustainable future.

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. This particular film is provided by the Humanities Council. For planning purposes, the movie runs about 80 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public.

Friday, July 6th "Houston We Have a Problem"

Houston We Have a Problem

First Friday Films will be featuring a film entitled Houston We Have a Problem on July 6^th, 2012 at 6:30pm at the American Memorial Park Visitor’s Center as part of their ongoing monthly environmental film series.

Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of cheap energy. Step inside the energy capital of the world to hear the truth about oil, straight from the hearts of the Texas oilmen themselves. See decades of American presidents who have warned against the dependence on foreign oil and how the U.S. Energy Policy has always been a strategy of Defense, not Offense. Today, in the midst of Global Warming and Peak Oil, the world’s energy demand is skyrocketing. Aggressive strategies for securing Crude now go to the highest bidder or the biggest bully. Hear the confessions of oilmen who work in the trenches every day, scrambling to feed America’s ferocious appetite even while knowing that this addiction to cheap oil will be the nation’s downfall. Houston We Have a Problem makes it crystal clear that we must embrace all forms of alternative energy to save the planet and ourselves.

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. This particular film is provided by the Humanities Council. For planning purposes, the movie runs about 80 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public. 

Shark Sanctuary FIlm Showings this Friday and Saturday

There will be two showings this Friday (7pm at Hopwood Junior High School) and Saturday (7pm at American Memorial Park's Amphitheatre) of Sanctuary: The Last Stand for Sharks in Micronesia. This is the much-anticipated follow-up to Sharkwater featuring Micronesia's shark conservation efforts!

Although this is not on our regularly scheduled day, we hope to see you there! Stay tuned for news soon on the July First Friday Film that will be shown on July 6th.

Reminder: Ocean Frontiers and 2nd Anniversary Tomorrow!

Don't forget to come out to American Memorial Park tomorrow, June 1st for Ocean Frontiers and the 2-year Anniversary of the First Friday Films program. Thank you for all the support you have shown us over the years!

Celebrate Our 2nd Anniversary with "Ocean Frontiers"

Come help us celebrate our 2^nd anniversary and World Oceans Day!  First Friday Films is celebrating by showing the film Ocean Frontiers, sponsored by the Pacific Marine Resources Institute on June 1st, 2012 at 6:30pm at the American Memorial Park Visitors Center. Following the film, audience members will also be invited into the courtyard of the Visitor’s Center for a brief reception.

Ocean Frontiers takes us on an inspiring voyage to seaports and watersheds across the country—from the busy shipping lanes of Boston Harbor to a small fishing community in the Pacific Northwest; from America’s coral reefs in the Florida Keys to the nation’s premier seafood nursery in the Mississippi Delta. Here we meet a mixture of unlikely allies, of industrial shippers and whale biologists, pig farmers and wetland ecologists, sport and commercial fishermen, reef snorkelers and many more, all of them embarking on a new course of cooperation, in defense of the seas that sustain us.  Filmed in HD, Ocean Frontiers is a documentary and outreach campaign to inspire and mobilize audiences to better care for the ocean, for the good of all.

Exhibits by DEQ Marine Monitoring Team and Marianas Island Nature Alliance (MINA) will be on display in the lobby area of the American Visitors Center before and after the film. After the film and courtyard reception, movie-goers are invited to join the First Friday Films crew for dinner at Spicy Thai across from the Park to discuss the films they’ve viewed and the future of our film program.

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 Pacific Marine Resources Institute, 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.

HOMO TOXICUS to be shown Friday, May 4th

First Friday Films will be featuring Homo Toxicus on May 4^th, 2012, 6:30pm at American Memorial Park Visitors Center. 

Filmmaker Carole Poliquin investigates the remarkable amount of toxic chemicals that exist in our bodies with this documentary that will have viewers taking great caution while deciding what to put in their bodies. Every day, tons of chemicals are released into the environment, without ever knowing how toxic they are in the long term to the living organisms. Moreover: the majority of the 100,000 molecules developed since the World War II, which are used in daily products, have never been tested. Some of them found their way into our bodies and into fetuses. Up to 247 toxic substances have been found in new-borns. We are today bequeathing our toxic load to our children along with our DNA!

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 CNMI Coastal Resource Management Office with support from RC&D 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.