Students for Environmental Action, the Student Peace Alliance, and Student Events sponsored a pre-release showing of the film “The 11th Hour” Feb. 4 through Feb. 6 in the Gerstenzang auditorium.
“The 11th Hour” addresses the challenges, and ultimately the opportunities, that mankind is faced with as a result of climate change. Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Leila Connors Peterson and Nadia Connors, the film’s official site describes it as “a human story that takes into account who we are and the state of our relationship to this planet, our only home.” “The 11th Hour” combines footage of natural disasters, interviews with over 50 leading experts over the world, and statistics to tell the story of mankind’s connection to Earth; its past, present, and future.
Members of SEA attended Powershift in November of 2007, the first national student conference “to solve the climate crisis.” At the conference they were shown a pre-screening of “The 11th Hour” and after viewing the film they decided to share it with the Brandeis community. “We really loved it and were really inspired by it,” said SEA member Mia Goldwasser ‘10. “It’s not just about global warming, it connects climate change with human rights, politics, economics… it brings everything together.”
SEA contacted a distribution company, which last year allowed them to show an advanced screening of “An Inconvenient Truth,” and the company provided SEA with a VHS copy of “The 11th Hour.” The VHS tape was converted to DVD when it became apparent during the first screening that the VHS tape affected the quality of the image.
On the last day of the event, the Student Peace Alliance, STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, and Students for a Democratic Society had tables set up at the entrance of the auditorium.
All three clubs promoted upcoming events not directly connected to “The 11th Hour.” STAND encouraged students to attend a North East conference and SDS endorsed an Iraq Moratorium. Also, SDS handed out fliers advertising a site called “No War No Warming,” with a statement that read “Fight Climate Change, Not Wars For Oil!”
SPA asked students to send Valentines to local representatives to help convince them to champion instituting a cabinet-level Department of Peace. Specifically, the focus of Valentines was on violence towards women, which the Department of Peace would help reduce.
The advanced screening was well attended and received positive feedback.
