YERT Screens in Vancouver, BC on Sunday, 2/26 + More tour news!

bainbridgebellinghamportland permacultureseattlevancouvervillage vancouveryes! magazine

Feb 25

Written By

Dear YERTians,

YERT's West Coast Tour is in full swing, with screenings scheduled or complete in over 21 cities. This week we have an update about some awesome upcoming screenings, and a quick review of the ones we've completed.

Upcoming Screenings in Vancouver (BC), Bellingham, Bainbridge, and Seattle
Glowing YERT Review in Huffington Post
Standing Ovation at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Great Screenings in Madison, Minneapolis, and Fargo
The New, More Challenging Garbage Challenge

Upcoming Screenings in Vancouver (BC), Bellingham, Bainbridge, and Seattle
We've now traveled over 2,500 miles and screened at six locations for 700+ people, with over 15 screenings remaining before we call this "West Coast Tour" complete. Basically, we're just getting started, and having a blast the whole way. We've even sold enough DVD's along the away to pay for our travel expenses to-date. Woohoo! Don't forget to take a look at our growing tour schedule here, and feel free to grab blurbs and pics from our online press kit to share with friends and family.

SCREENING in Vancouver, BC, CANADA on Sunday, 2/26, at 3pm
Village Vancouver, the local Transition initiative, is hosting the event. Their schedule is so full of sustainability events up there that we could barely squeeze in! But squeeze in we have, and we look forward to meeting those individuals who make up the green powerhouse that is Vancouver. Mark Dixon (YERT Producer) will be there for discussion during and after the film, and will be staying a couple extra days to soak up all the green activity they have around town. Contact him if you'd like to hang out! mark@yert.com. [Facebook event link here] (Langara College room A130, West 49th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada)

SCREENING in Bellingham, WA on Wednesday, 2/29, 7pm
The very first "on the street" interview filmed for YERT was with Atul Deshmane, CEO of Whole Energy, who has been supporting the project with thoughts, words, deeds, and donations ever since. We're honored that he's hosting this YERT screening in his home town. [Facebook event link here] (Limelight Theater, 1416 Cornwall Avenue, Bellingham, WA)

SCREENING on Bainbridge Island on Thursday, 3/1, 7pm
We've been building up to this screening event for years! Bainbridge Island is the home of so many YERT friends we can barely count. David and Fran Korten, Kat Gjovik, Sustainable Bainbridge, the entire staff at Yes! Magazine, and friends from previous jobs around the world-- have somehow converged on Bainbridge Island, and YERT can't wait to join them for a big screening event with pre and post receptions. [Facebook event link here] (Historic Lynwood Theater, 4569 Lynwood Center Road Northeast, Bainbridge Isle, WA 98110-2238)

SCREENING in Seattle on Friday, 3/2, 7pm
With the help of some of our Bainbridge friends, we've squeezed onto the weekly screening calendar of the Meaningful Movies Project in Seattle. We're thrilled to be included in their program! This event is co-sponsored by the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, a groundbreaking sustainable MBA program in Seattle. [Facebook event link here] (Keystone Congregational United Church of Christ, 5019 Keystone Place N., Seattle)

Additional Screenings:
(click here for detailed calendar and new screenings updated daily)
2/29 - Pittsburgh, PA
2/29 - Bellingham, WA (TOUR)
3/1 - Bainbridge Island, WA (TOUR)
3/2 - Gainesville, FL (Cinema Verde Environmental Film & Arts Festival)
3/2 - Seattle, WA (TOUR)
3/3 - Portland, OR (TOUR)
3/3 - Louisville, KY (Film excerpts + Director Q&A)
3/9 - San Luis Obispo, CA (SLOIFF Film Fest on TOUR)
3/10 - San Luis Obispo, CA (SLOIFF Film Fest on TOUR)
3/13 - Charlotte, NC (Charlotte Film Festival - Ben will be there on Southeast TOUR)
3/15 - Berkeley, CA (TOUR)
3/18 - Presidio Sustainable MBA Program, SF, CA (Private Screening on TOUR)
3/19 - Sebastopol, CA (TOUR)
3/20 - Davis, CA (TOUR)
3/21 - Athens, GA (EcoFocus Film Festival - Ben will be there on Southeast TOUR)
3/21 - Santa Cruz, CA (TOUR)
3/25 - Denver, CO (TOUR)
3/27 - Concord, NH
3/30 - Concord, NH
3/30 - YERT's UK Premiere at Botanic Gardens Edinburgh

Glowing YERT Review in Huffington Post
With a title like this, what's there not to love? "Beyond Hope: Groundbreaking Environmental Road Trip Film Takes Climate Change Solutions Back Home." Jeff Biggers has gone above and beyond the call of duty to write a thoughtful, eloquent, and ultimately glowing review of the YERT film. It's almost as nice to read it as it is to see the faces of audience members after they see the film. Here's a little snippet from the review:

"...the YERT film crew has managed to pull off the impossible in the world of cinema: A deeply absorbing and often hilarious road trip that confronts the badlands of our nation's spiraling descent into dirty energy darkness, only to emerge along the solar roadways and wind-swept plains into the myriad possibilities for new power and sustainable living."

Can you help us share the article with friends via Facebook and e-mail? Here's the link to share: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/your-environmental-road-trip_b_1280954.html

Standing Ovation at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
We had no idea how much of a YERTy town we would find here in Missoula! From our gracious host, Vicki Watson, to our festival sponsor, The Biomimicry Institute, to the fun, friendly and helpful staff of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, this entire week has been a blast. It's difficult to decide what has been more fun to encounter - the long and enthusiastic standing ovation by some 200 audience members at our Big Sky screeining? The fist bump from one of 300 high schoolers who saw our new hour-ish long educational cut? Or the cooing of 50 middle schoolers as I showed them our little fuzzy adopted mascot, Harry the Hairy Eared Dwarf Lemur (originally from the Xeko game), during a very active Q&A session at their school? I suppose we'll never know. Thank goodness we don't have to decide. :-)

Great Screenings in Madison, Minneapolis, and Fargo
The West Coast Tour of YERT started out with three fun screenings as we drove west. Ryan, the Director from the awesome Within Reach Movie assembled a double feature for the thoughtful community at Arboretum Co-Housing in Madison, Wisconsin. Ryan and Tina literally rolled out the "green carpet" for our screening at Moss Envy in Minneapolis. And last but far from least, Nicole and David Crutchfield gathered their community together for a screening of YERT at the Historic Fargo Theater. All three screenings ended with lengthy discussions about the film and local sustainable community events and issues. Based on the audience response at these first few screenings, America appears to be ready for such discussion. Perhaps even yearns for it. Pictures below...

(Photo 1 is Arboretum Cohousing, 2 is Moss Envy, and 3 is Fargo!)

The New, More Challenging Garbage Challenge
In the original YERT adventure, we kept our garbage in the car for the whole year, trying to restrict garbage to just one shoebox per month. We estimate that's about 1/100th of the average American's garbage. (Know better? Let us know!) For the current West Coast Tour, we're taking the garbage challenge to a whole new level - all garbage for the entire 50-day tour goes into one small ziplock bag. That bag goes into Mark's cargo pants pocket. We took a picture of the garbage after 13 days on the road. Take a look at the picture and let us know what you see-- the person who guesses the most items correctly during the next week gets a free YERT ChicoBag! (Send guesses to team@yert.com)

(Click to zoom in on the 13 days of garbage shown above.)

Phew! That's the latest news. Want more? Are you sure? Get the most and fastest updates about the YERT screening and tour schedule on our Facebook page. Next week we'll also have an update about a new educational (i.e. SHORT) cut of the YERT film that Ben has been feverishly working on-- while he also prepares for upcoming Southeast and Northeast YERT screening tours. Good stuff!

Hope to see you soon, somewhere in the country!

Cheers,
Ben, Mark, and Julie
team@yert.com