BREATHE LA Film Lovers ~ Sustainable LA / LA Film Fest August 17, 2008

Sustainable LA

12:00 pm, Sunday, Aug. 17th
4th and Grand

Free To The Public!

The 2008 Downtown Film Festival - Los Angeles concludes with an all-day and into-the-evening program, celebrating and exploring urban environmentalism.

During the day, from 12 noon to 6 pm, enjoy a farmer's market complete with food demonstrations and a beer-and wine garden; free screenings of a wide range of "green" documentary films, and an incredible line-up of panel discussions about next-generation urban parks, the evolving electric automobile, the fast-growing "slow food" movement, and the red-hot political topic of "green collar" jobs.

Later that evening, the festival concludes with the Los Angeles premiere screening of Flow, the hit documentary at this year's Sundance Film Festival, which will be screened outdoors, appropriately at the beautiful Water Court of California.

Trashed (2007, USA, 20 mins.)
A 20-minute road trip through the strange afterlife of your garbage.
Director: Derek Boonstra

BREATHE LA O24U Environmental Education Program empowers Los Angeles area students to become responsible stewards of their urban environments and teaches recycling and otherenvironmental concepts through fun, hands on activities. If you would like to volunteer to help with our O24U program or would like more information, contact us!

SUSTAINABLE LA
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE SUNDAY AUGUST 17, 2008

The 2008 Downtown Film Festival - Los Angeles (www.dffla.com) will devote an entire day celebrating and exploring urban environmentalism on Sunday, August 17th, 12 noon to 10 pm in a series of programs presented free to the public on and around Grand Avenue, between 2nd and 4th Streets, in the heart of the downtown L.A.'s Bunker Hill.

During the day, from 12 noon to 6 pm, enjoy a farmer's market complete with an organic food court, gardening and cooking demonstrations, and a beer-and-wine garden; free screenings of a wide range of "green" documentary films at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) auditorium, and an incredible line-up of panel discussions about next-generation urban parks, the evolving electric automobile, the fast-growing "slow food" movement, and the red-hot political topic of "green collar" jobs.

Later that evening, the festival concludes with an outdoor screening Los Angeles premiere screening of FLOW the hit documentary at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Program Highlights Include:

Farmers Market and Slow Food Court Grand Avenue between 2nd and 4th, 12 noon to 6 pm

Panel Discussions - Four panels will tackle topics on the minds of all environmentally-conscious Angelenos: "Electric Cars: Are They Ready For Their Close-up?"; "Green Collars Jobs - Building a Renewable Future"; "Think Slow, Eat Local - A New Way Of Thinking About Food," and "Pocket Parks: Grassroots Gardens in the Urban Landscape." Moderators include Anna Scott, Downtown News; Russ Parsons, food columnist for the LA Times, and the author of How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table; Ken Bensinger, automotive reporter, LA Times, and Jan Perry, Los Angeles City Councilperson, Council District 9

Documentary Film Screenings - Enjoy over 20 environmental-theme documentary short and feature films, including the Live Earth Shorts Program and ranging in topics from urban farms to alternative fuels and L.A.'s diverse bicycle culture. All screenings are free at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) theater, adjacent to California Plaza.

MOCA Theater screenings schedule:

12:00 pm – Live Earth short films

1:15 pm – Trashed/South Central Farm

2:30 pm – The Bike Land/The Los Angeles River

4:00 pm – Fields of Fuel

Live Entertainment – Grand Avenue

Circa 6:00 pm – “The History of Water,” presented by the 24^th Street Theater. This theatrical presentation explores the unique qualities and characteristics that make water so magical and inspirational in this musical tour throughout the world.

Circa 7:00 pm – The Gabe Dixon Band. The Closing Night festivities will begin with a live musical performance from the piano-driven trio Gabe Dixon Band (www.gabedixonband.com), whose new self-title album is about to be released by Fantasy Records. The band draws heavily from Seventies singer-songwriter crafted music and has been compared critically to early Elton John and Jackson Brown and contemporary Ben Folds.

Closing Night Screening – Grand Avenue

Los Angeles Premiere Screening of the New Environmental Documentary Film FLOW For Love Of Water (2008, USA, 93 mins.)

8:00 pm, Grand Avenue

Following a successful Sundance premiere Irena Salinas's film comes to LA with FLOW, a cautionary documentary detailing the precarious future faced by both rich and poor nations unless change is realized soon. Water is our most important natural resource, more crucial to our civilization than gold, iron, or even oil. Our water supplies are being stretched to the limit by population, social, and economic pressures.

Panel discussions – Grand Avenue

"Urban Parks in L.A.: Rethinking the Formula" panel

Date/Time: Sunday, August 17th, 1:00 - 2:00 pm

Location: Grand Avenue between 2nd and 4th on Bunker Hill

This panel will explore how public funds in Los Angeles might be better used to create parks in more intimate spaces and with faster turnaround time than the traditional "master plan" approach.

Moderator: Anna Scott, Staff Writer, Downtown News, where she often writes about land use and development-related issues. Anna recently penned an article on "Downtown Stakeholders Weigh in on the Area's Lack of Green."

Panelists:

Amanada Covarrubias – Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times. A journalist for 26 years, Amanda came to The Times from the Associated Press, where she was correspondent in charge in San Diego and a reporter in the LA bureau. Amanda has worked as an assistant city editor in the Valley edition and as a reporter in Ventura County and the Valley, playing important roles in some of its biggest breaking-news stories, including the 2004 firestorms, the fatal avalanche at Mammoth Mountain in 2006 and, just recently, the fire at Universal Studios.

Ron Crockett - Skid Row community activist and sports coach, leading a neighborhood parks effort in Skid Row with an emphasis on play space

Vaughan Davies – Principal and Director or Urban Design, an architect and urban designer waterfront, whose mixed-use developments and transit centers emphasize the creation of pedestrian-focused, urban neighborhoods. in cities large and small, nationwide and abroad. Vaughan led the design efforts for many of Los Angeles’ precedent setting projects, including the ‘Bridge to Breakwater Master Development Plan’ in San Pedro for the Port of Los Angeles, Paseo Colorado, Union Station, Hollywood & Highland, and Rainbow Harbor. Most recently, he led the visioning for EDAW’s ‘PARK 101’ - a proposal to deck the trench in Downtown L.A. with a hillside park and urban campus.

Mark B. Haefele – KPCC-FM reporter, who has been living in and writing about Los Angeles for 27 years. Mark’s writing appears regularly in the Los Angeles Times opinion section. During his long stint at LA Weekly, he won a "best column" award from the Greater Los Angeles Press Club. In the early 2000’s, he hosted the morning drive time segment on KPFK.

Mia Lehrer - landscape architect who has worked closely with the City of Los
Angeles in developing several neighborhood park master plans. Mia Lehrer is the founding principal of the Los Angeles firm, Mia Lehrer + Associates. Born in San Salvador, El Salvador, Ms. Lehrer received her Masters of Landscape Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. She is internationally recognized for her progressive landscape designs, unique amalgamations of graphic configurations, working with natural landmarks such as parks, lakes, and rivers, and her advocacy for sustainable and people-friendly public space.

Lili Singer - Special Projects Coordinator for the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants, California's only nonprofit native plant nursery, seed source, bookstore and education center. Lili is a horticulturist, educator, garden consultant and garden writer. She has published and edited two award-winning periodicals, The Southern California Gardener and The Gardener’s Companion. For more than a decade, she hosted “The Garden Show,” a live call-in radio program on KCRW. Lili was named 1997 Horticulturist of the Year by the Southern California Horticultural Society.

Michael Woo - member of the L.A. City Planning Commission.  Michael teaches urban planning at USC and is a consultant to ClimatePlan, a statewide coalition advocating compact  land use and reduced driving to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. He was the first trained urban planner and the first Asian- American elected to the Los Angeles City Council.  Last year, he authored a proposal to Farmlab for converting the Cornfield near Downtown L.A. into an environmentally and economically sustainable urban farm.  

“Buy Local, Eat Slow: A New Way of Thinking About Food” - Panel

Date/Time: Sunday, August 17^th, 2:30 – 3:30 pm

Location: Grand Avenue between 2nd and 4th on Bunker Hill

Slow Food is a system based on the principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability, and social justice – in short, a food system that is Good Clean and Fair. The Slow Food movement is about shortening the distance, literally and figuratively that our food travels to us.

Moderator: Russ Parsons, food columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and the author of How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table. Parsons has won almost every major American food writing award, including the Association of Food Journalists, the James Beard Foundation, the International Association of Culinary Professionals' Bert Greene Award and the University of Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Award for consumer writing.

Panelists:

Jules Dervaes – founder, Path to Freedom, a grassroots, family-operated urban homestead project established to promote a simpler and more fulfilling lifestyle. Mr. Dervaes and his three adult children have a one-fifth acre lot in Pasadena, where the family grows around 400 varieties of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers, totaling over 6,000 pounds a year. Their award winning “green” business, Dervaes Gardens, sells fresh organic produce to local restaurants and caterers.

Gypsy Gifford - Executive Chef, Cafe Pinot. Chef Gifford has been heralded in national publications such as Food Arts, Life Magazine, and Woman’s Day. A graduate of the Culinary Instute of American and formerly Executive Chef of Manhattan’s top-rated Rain restaurant, her cooking style is inspired by France and California, with accents of the Asian cuisines of Thailand and Vietnam.

Lisa Lucas – Vice President, Los Angeles chapter, Slow Food Nation, and an active memver of the Slow Food movement since the mid-1990’s. Ms. Lucas is also an attorney specializing in publishing law and related matters.

Amelia Saltsman - television host and producer of “Fresh from the Farmer’s Market,” cooking teacher, and writer. Her articles have been published in the LA Times, National Geographic Traveler, and others. Saltsman’s book, The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook, was published in August 2007. Alice Waters of Chez Panisse called it "an amazing resource to have with you, a complete season-by-season handbook to guide you through the bounty of the market."

“Electric Cars: Ready for Their Close-up” - panel

Date/Time: Sunday, August 17^th, 4:00 – 5:00 pm

Location: Grand Avenue between 2nd and 4th on Bunker Hill

Every year more than 40 million new cars are made worldwide, while in the past 10 years gas prices have increased more than 300 percent. Gas could cost $7.00 per gallon b7 2010, according to the CIBC. Electric cars represent a versatile and efficient way to diminish the need for gas consumption as well as a clean way to do everyday work. But are electric cars ready to move from “rehearsal” to mass production? To use film parlance, are they truly ready for their “close-up”?

Moderator:  Ken Bensinger, automotive reporter, Los Angeles Times, who covers car manufacturers, industry trends, alternative fuel vehicles and car culture. Previously, Ken was a banking reporter at SmartMoney magazine in New York and began his career at the Wall Street Journal in New York. 

Panelists:

Dave Barthmuss - Group Manager for General Motor’s Western Region, Environment & Energy Communications team. As head of communications for the automaker's largest region in the United States, Dave is responsible for a wide variety of public relations assignments, including engaging GM and its brands with key stakeholder groups to help communicate the company’s environmental, technology and policy initiatives.

Chelsea Sexton: Executive Director of Plug in America, a coalition of individuals and organizations that advocates for the preservation and manufacture of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and electric vehicles. Sexton also manages an alternative fuel division for the Santa Monica, California based start-up Zag.com.

"Green Collar Jobs” – a Panel for Sustainable L.A. at the Downtown Film Festival/L.A.

Date/Time: Sunday, August 17th, 5:30 – 6:30 pm

Location: Grand Avenue between 2nd and 4th on Bunker Hill

In a country increasingly divided between good intentions (environmental consciousness) and the reality of commerce and politics (e.g., Big Oil and off-shore drilling), is it still possible to find a “green collar job”? Join Councilwoman Jan Perry and her panel of green collar executives and leading environmental activists to explore the myths and reality of “green jobs” in Southern California and beyond. Be prepared for a spirited and no-holds-barred debate on this important hotbed issue.

The panel is devoted to the full range of “green jobs”, including:

· Positions in the environmental industry/”green” organizations

· Jobs with environmentally conscious companies in a variety of fields

· Positions with companies devoted to manufacturing and distributing environmentally conscious products

· The “greening” of jobs in Los Angeles as a mega-trend

Moderator: Jan Perry, Los Angeles City Councilperson, Council District 9

Now in her second term as Councilwoman of the 9 District, Perry represents some of the most diverse and vibrant communities in Los Angeles including Bunker Hill, Little Tokyo, and South Los Angeles. Perry co-authored Proposition O to clean Los Angeles water and has greened her district by reducing blighted property and cleaning brownfields. She has spearheaded a number of measures to open up job opportunities. Among her other responsibilities, she currently serves as the chair of the Energy and the Environment Committee, the vice-chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Recovering Energy, Natural Resources, and Economic Benefit from Waste for LA (RENEW LA) Committee, and is assistant president pro tempore for the Los Angeles City Council.

Panelists:

Dan Jacobson - Legislative Director, Environment California. Mr. Jacobson coordinates policy development, research, and legislative advocacy for Environment California. Based in Sacramento, he leads the organization’s policy agenda and advocates before the state legislature. Mr. Jacobson led efforts to pass the California Clean Energy Act, the strongest renewable energy law in the country; has authored several reports, including Three Strikes and You Profit: A CALPIRG Study of Clean Water Enforcement in California; and testified before the state legislature on preservation and clean air issues. Mr. Jacobson serves on the board of the Clean Power Campaign.

Jessica Jensen - President, Low Impact Living, the largest green home-improvement site online. Jessica and her co-founder, Jason Pelletier, launched Low Impact Living to help Americans embrace eco-friendly practices in their homes and personal lives. Jessica is frequently cited in national media as an expert on green building, renewable energy, recycling and other residential sustainability issues. Prior to launching Low Impact Living Jessica worked in the financial media and management consulting fields. She is a graduate of Amherst College and holds a MBA from INSEAD.

Robert Rogan – Executive Vice President, eSolar
Robert Rogan is responsible for all domestic commercial transactions, corporate branding, and marketing activities at eSolar. Mr. Rogan obtained his MS and PhD in Materials Science at the California Institute of Technology, and he holds a BS, Scholar of the College, from Boston College.

Bill Scott -- Executive Vice President, Akeena Solar
Mr. Scott holds an MS in Environmental Management from the University of San Francisco and a BS in Economics from the University of Wyoming. His professional experience spans 18 years in the renewable energy industry. Along with Solar and Energy management, Mr. Scott spent 10 years serving leading firms in information systems technology.