Green Screen Film Series
The crowd waiting to see Idle Threat
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Green Screen Committee
Gretchen Kaye-Crowley
Linda Mackay
Kerry Linderoth, Director of Sustainability, Rye Country Day School
Rye Country Day School Parents Association Environmental and Wellness Committee
In 2011, RSC, in partnership with Rye Country Day School, launched its Green Screen Series with the screening of Bag It. See below for summaries of each film.
GREEN SCREEN 2023
Rye Country Day’s 10th Annual Green Screen was a thought-provoking and inspiring event that explored the theme of sustainable fashion. The event featured a zero-waste reception, a film screening, a guest speaker, and a student fashion show.
The film Slowing Down Fast Fashion, presented by Alex James, was a critical look at the fashion industry and the trend of ‘fast fashion’, which produces cheap clothing at the expense of human, environmental, and financial resources. The film showed how fast fashion contributes to pollution, waste, and exploitation, and offered some solutions for consumers to adopt more ethical and eco-friendly fashion choices.
The guest speaker, Stephanie Benedetto, was the founder of Queen of Raw, a company that uses technology to tackle excess inventory that ends up in landfills. She shared how her company connects buyers and sellers of unused fabrics, and how they are developing an app that can measure the impact of purchases on water, chemicals, carbon emissions, and dollars.
The student fashion show, organized by the Reduce, Reuse, Upcycle Club, showcased clothing that was designed in the RCDS Makerspace. Some pieces were upcycled from old or donated clothes, while others were created from scratch using various fabrics. The students demonstrated their creativity and talent in making beautiful and sustainable outfits.
The event was a great success, thanks to the efforts of the organizers, speakers, and participants. It raised awareness and stimulated discussion about the importance of slowing down fast fashion and supporting a more circular and responsible fashion system.
GREEN SCREEN 2022
“Kiss the Ground” is a documentary film that explores the potential of soil regeneration to combat climate change and restore ecosystems. Narrated by Woody Harrelson, the film features interviews with scientists, farmers, and activists who advocate for regenerative agriculture as a solution to the climate crisis. The film has been praised for its informative and engaging content, as well as its ability to inspire viewers to take action.
In 2022, “Kiss the Ground” was previewed at the 9th Annual Green Screen event held at Rye Country Day School. The documentary was well-received by the audience, who appreciated the film’s message of hope and the potential of regenerative agriculture to mitigate climate change.
The Green Screen is the flagship event of the longstanding community partnership between RCDS and Rye Sustainability Committee. Following the screening, the RCDS community heard from three panelists, moderated by writer and healthy yards advocate Lori Fontanes:
Nick Skeadas, Founder of Curbside Compost
Amy Benerofe, RCDS Alumna and Founder of Our New Way Garden
Layton Guenther, RCDS Alum and Director of Quail Hill Farm
GREEN SCREEN 2021
Filmmakers and food lovers Jen and Grant dive into the issue of waste from farm, through retail, all the way to the back of their own fridge. After catching a glimpse of the billions of dollars of good food that is tossed each year in North America, they pledge to quit grocery shopping cold turkey and survive only on foods that would otherwise be thrown away.
In a nation where one in 10 people is food insecure, the images they capture of squandered groceries are both shocking and strangely compelling. But as Grant’s addictive personality turns full tilt towards food rescue, the ‘thrill of the find’ has unexpected consequences.
Featuring interviews with TED lecturer, author and activist Tristram Stuart and acclaimed author Jonathan Bloom, Just Eat It looks at our systemic obsession with expiry dates, perfect produce and portion sizes, and reveals the core of this seemingly insignificant issue that is having devastating consequences around the globe. Just Eat It brings farmers, retailers, inspiring organizations, and consumers to the table in a cinematic story that is equal parts education and delicious entertainment.
GREEN SCREEN 2019
Is it possible to live completely waste free? In this multi-award winning, festival favorite, partners Jen and Grant go head to head in a competition to see who can swear off consumerism and produce the least garbage.
Their light-hearted competition is set against a darker examination of the problem waste. Even as Grant and Jen start to garner interest in their project, they struggle to find meaning in their minuscule influence on the large-scale environmental impacts of our “throw-away society”.
Described as An Inconvenient Truth meets Super Size Me, The Clean Bin Project features laugh out loud moments, stop motion animations, and unforgettable imagery. Captivating interviews with renowned artist, Chris Jordan and TED Lecturer Captain Charles Moore, make this film a fun and inspiring call to individual action that speaks to crowds of all ages.
Special Guest Speaker: Chef, writer, and media host extraordinaire, Erica Wides. Erica is the creator and host of Let’s Get Real; the cooking show about finding, preparing and eating FOOD. She's also a columnist for the Huffington Post and NuMi, and has appeared on The Dr. Oz Show, the Food Network’s Top 5 and Chopped, Home Shopping Network, PBS, Sirius Radio, NPR, and in 2013 was invited to speak at TedX Berkeley.
Green Screen 2018
Did you use a straw today? It's estimated that each day in the U.S. over 500 million straws are used once and tossed -- enough to fill over 127 school buses daily. Plastic straws make the top 10 list of items found on beaches and the vast majority aren't recycled. Instead they end up in landfills, as litter, or in the ocean. This award winning documentary illuminates the negative impact of straws and other single-use plastics that inundate our waterways. Watch Straws to learn how it's in your hands to make that straw your Last Straw!
For more information about plastic straw waste and Rye Sustainability's straw-reduction initiative, visit the Sound Shore Last Straw page.
Green Screen 2017
RSC and RCDS featured two film screenings in 2017:
Minimalism
Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things, examines the many flavors of minimalism by taking the audience inside the lives of minimalists from all walks of life. MINIMALISM explores various recipes for how to live a more meaningful, deliberate life. Not a perfect life – not an easy life – but a simple one.
WASTED!
WASTED! The Story of Food Waste, aims to change the way people buy, cook, recycle, and eat food. Through the the eyes of chef-heroes like Bourdain, Dan Barber, Mario Batali, Massimo Bottura, and Danny Bowien, audiences see how the world’s most influential chefs make the most of every kind of food, transforming what most people consider scraps into incredible dishes that create a more secure food system. WASTED! exposes the criminality of food waste and how it’s directly contributing to climate change and shows us how each of us can make small changes – all of them delicious – to solve one of the greatest problems of the 21st Century.
Green Screen 2016
RSC's 2016 Green Screen presented Idle Threat: Man on Emission, a documentary about film maker George Pakenham's attempts to reduce air pollution and combat climate change by exposing New York City's lax enforcement efforts.
Green Screen 2013
RSC's 2013 Green Screen presented No Impact Man, a documentary about Colin Beavan, who made the decision to give up virtually all of the comforts of modern living -- electricity, gas-powered transportation, shipped food and public waste disposal -- in a drastic effort to curb his environmental impact.
Green Screen 2011
RSC's first Green Screen presented Bag It, a documentary about film maker Jeb Berrier, who makes a pledge to stop using plastic bags at the grocery store and how this commitment transformed his life.