From its humble beginning in 2010 as an informal community meeting organized by green pioneers Sally Stovall and her partner Dick Alton, One Earth Collective has grown to encompass a plethora of diverse programs dedicated to increasing awareness of the impact of climate change and inspiring action regarding the environment and social justice.
The initial group, which quickly gained traction in progressive Oak Park, focused on developing local green block parties offering information on planting milkweed, essential for the survival of monarch butterflies, as well as composting and chemical-free lawn care.
In 2017, the organization launched a summer pilot program devoted to mentoring teens on Chicago’s west side. The program, which eventually became “Austin Grown” in collaboration with BUILD, a gang intervention and youth development program, and other west side nonprofits, offers cooking instruction, a speaker series and field trips. Young people involved in the program are paid to maintain an urban vegetable garden.
The broad-based One Earth Collective “mothership” now comprises One Earth Local, formerly Green Community Connections; One Earth Youth Voices, which focuses on developing young sustainability leaders; and the highly popular One Earth Film Festival, widely considered the Midwest’s premier environmental film festival.
One Earth Film Festival, which was launched in 2012 by local sustainability leader Ana Garcia Doyle, has garnered international recognition. The first festival, which primarily featured films by local filmmakers, attracted 500 attendees; last year the festival reached 4,500 virtual and in-person viewers. This year’s festival, which ended April 23, was held in venues throughout the Chicago area, including the Chicago Cultural Center and Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum as well as the Oak Park Public Library and Unity Temple, and showcased submissions from filmmakers around the world.
In 2013, the organization debuted the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest, launched by former River Forest resident Sue Crothers Gee. The program has grown significantly in the past dozen years; last year it received more than 400 entries from young filmmakers throughout the country and as far away as Australia, Taiwan, Brazil and Mexico.
The contest is open to youth as young as third graders to post-graduate college students. With the support of the Manaaki Foundation, winning filmmakers receive cash awards between $100 (third graders) to $1,000 (college students). In an ingenious “pay-it-forward” initiative, winners also receive matching grants that they, in turn, award to nonprofits dedicated to projects that align with the themes of their films. In addition, several nonprofits, including the Sierra Club, Jane Goodall Institute, and Wild Ones West Cook, offer $500 Environmental Action Awards.
“The Young Filmmakers Contest encourages young people to create films that propose solutions and inspire action to combat the impact of global climate change,” said Lisa Biehle Files, who joined the YFC team in 2016. “And the matching grant program gives them the agency to make an impact that ripples throughout the sustainability movement.”
Winning YFC films are shown throughout the annual One Earth Film Festival. Beyond the contest, young people are supported by connecting them with professional filmmakers and providing them with opportunities to strengthen their skills.
Files was pleased to see that, in general, this year’s films were more hopeful than last year’s submissions, which included film titles like Code Red, The Apocalypse, and Our Generation, a film exploring the environmental challenges faced by the younger generation due to the actions of previous generations. She attributes some of this to the waning of COVID, which was so isolating and depressing for many young people.
“Some of the films submitted in 2022 were kind of dark and filled with dread. But, in the past year, they seemed to be more optimistic about the future,” Files said.
The deadline for submitting films for the 2024 One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest is June 25. Winning films will premier on September 22 at the Gene Siskel Film Center and will be shown during the 2025 One Earth Film Festival. For more information, contact https://www.oneearthfilmfest.org/contest-details.