A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle For a Living Planet

Screened in anticipation of Earth Day, Mark Kitchell’s epic documentary is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement: grassroots and global activism spanning 50 years from conservation to climate change.

Rich with archival footage, the film focuses on movements more than issues, unfolding in five acts, narrated successively by Robert Redford, Ashley Judd, Van Jones, Isabel Allende and Meryl Streep.

Their vivid true stories include: David Brower and the Sierra Club; Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal; Paul Watson, Greenpeace and the whales and seals; Chico Mendes and the Amazon rainforest; Bill McKibben and issues of climate change.

Writer/Producer/Director: Mark Kitchell. (US 2012) 101 min. plus discussion

John Harte is a Professor of Ecosystem Sciences in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Leo Szilard prize from the American Physical Society, and is a co-recipient of a 2006 George Polk award in investigative journalism.

He has served on six National Academy of Sciences Committees and has authored over 230 scientific publications, including eight books, one of which, “Consider a Spherical Cow” is a widely used textbook on environmental modeling. John’s research focuses on climate change, biodiversity, and maintaining ecosystem services for humanity.

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This program is part of Science on Screen, a series matching the art of film with experts in scientific fields addressing topics that affect our lives. Science on Screen is an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.