Mass MoCA Goes Green
Launches Film Series with the Classic Endless Summer
By: Charles Giuliano - Dec 05, 2007
Here we are in the winter season and already Mass MoCA is conjuring dreams of an Endless Summer. While the snowbirds are flying South to nest until Spring those who are left behind to hunker down will take wing with flights of fancy. What follows is the press release from Mass MoCA.
(North Adams , Massachusetts) - MASS MoCA's Thursday night Cinema Lounge series, Green Docs, kicks off on December 6, 2007, with Bruce Brown's classic surfing documentary The Endless Summer. Green Docs brings a slate of green-themed documentaries to the screen in MASS MoCA's cozy Club B-10, offering varied perspectives-alternately hard, humorous, and wistful-on the wide-ranging environmental issues that dominate the news and increasingly shape our world. Each film is followed by a Q & A with filmmakers and activists, offering more in-depth information about the issues introduced.
The Endless Summer opens Green Docs on a lighthearted note. Shot in the mid-1960s, it chronicles the intercontinental travels of two surfers in search of the perfect wave. The exploits of the surfers are cheerful and humorous -- whether they're catching waves, teaching locals to surf or being chased by zebras -- but the real majesty of the film is in the breathtaking scenery. Pristine beaches and glittering surf form a constant backdrop, visuals The New York Times describes as full of "hypnotic beauty and almost continuous excitement". The majesty of the sea combined with the adventurous attitude of the surfers is infectious, gently inspiring in viewers a greater appreciation of the coastal landscape and ecosystems.
The documentary's title is pulled from the whimsical idea that, given enough time and money, one could follow summer around the globe, making it endless. The current ecological climate adds a new layer to the notion, the potential of a disastrous endless summer caused by global warming. The Endless Summer depicts an environment that has been slowly disappearing over the past forty years. Fortunately the spirit which birthed the film is still alive and well, leading to the creation of the Surfrider Foundation almost two decades later.
Surfrider Foundation is a grassroots organization "dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education." With over 60 national chapters and international affiliations, Surfrider's accomplishments include winning the second-largest Clean Water Act suit in American history, as well as many smaller suits, blocking several constructions which would have destroyed surf and wetlands across the country, and educating thousands of school children on beach safety, pollution and ecology.
Green Docs continues through April 2008, screening six feature-length films in total, tackling subjects from climate change to renewable energy, species extinction to eco-friendly business mavericks. Upcoming screenings include: Who Killed the Electric Car? about the life and death of GM's EV1 electric vehicle which mysteriously never made it to the public market, on January 17; Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Box about Emanuel Bronner's wild journey to provide consumers with an all-natural, multi-purpose cleanser on February 7; Darwin's Nightmare about the devastating environmental effects of the introduction of ocean perch into Lake Victoria on February 28; Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea about one of America's worst ecological disasters and the hardy eccentrics who hang on to hope for the revival of the lake, on March 27; and Left Behind in Louisiana about the radical growth and change in America's contemporary Christian churches after the devastation experienced by the faithful along Louisiana's Gulf Coast, on April 10.