#cifffilmseries

The film Elemental directed by Gayatri Roshan and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee was released in 2012. This film paints us a portrait of three environmental activists. We follow their stories as they face challenges in trying to raise awareness on various environmental issues. I appreciated the three different stories in this film, and how each story was fighting for their own and unique passion. From designing a machine that uses natures blueprint to help in ending global warming, to getting down and dirty in a fight to keep the waters clean, this documentary shows that all it takes is one person. The one person that dares to speak up for what they believe in and spark that flame in others.

One thing that this film avoided was giving lots of statistics and data about global warming, water pollution, and how damaging tar sands are. This is often overdone by these types of documentaries and can have a negative effect on the viewer. I found it refreshing just following their stories without feeling like the documentary was trying to persuade me one way or another on the issue. It served more as an eye opener as well as an insight to what life is like for those extreme activist who make such radical changes possible. 

  GMO OMG, directed by Jeremy Seifert, is a great film to open the worlds eyes to the negative sides of GMO's. Jeremy started out as nothing but a concerend father, curious about what effects the food his children are eating will have on them in the short term and long term. Early in his research he was trouble by how little were infact mentioned about GMO's. It shouldn't be such a struggle to find out what we putting inside ourselves.

Jeremy did an amazing job with the sequencing in this film and the main focal points he decided to stick with throughout the movie. I believe the role that his children play in this film are crucial to how powerful it is. The fact that he is just an average joe wanting answers for his children is something a lot of people can relate with.

I really enjoyed the corn field scene as well. It was pretty comical yet also powerful for the anti-GMO side of the argument. Jeremy and his kids dress up in these crazy suites to protect themselves from any harmful pesticides or other things that are now throughout cornfields. The fact that back when Jeremy was little, and there was no risk or need for those suites hits you.

Something I couldn't believe about this film was how secretive all the big corporations are about GMO information. The scene that really stuck out was when he finally made it to Monsanto. He walked into the lobby, someone was on the phone already ready to kick him out. What's the deal with that? It made me think, wow, they must really have something to hide from the public.

This film really got me thinking, and honestly worrying. Why are there still so many unanswered questions about GMO's? and why are corporations like Monsanto going to such great lengths to prevent these questions from being answered.

Will it soon be impossible to avoid GMO's? and what effects will this have on us.