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Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives Opens the DC Environmental Film Festival
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 11, 2008 – After three years of effort, filmmakers Alice and Lincoln Day premiered Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives: The Environmental Footprint of War at the 16th Annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital. Scarred Lands, which opened the 2008 Festival, was warmly received by a packed audience at the Carnegie Institution of Washington (read reviews by the Voice of America, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and SCIENCE).
VideoTakes, Inc. served as the production team on the seventy-minute documentary, which combines expert interviews and archival footage into a powerful exposé on the hidden costs of war and preparation for war. In all its stages – from the production of weapons, to combat, to cleanup and restoration – war entails actions that pollute land, air, and water, destroy biodiversity, and drain natural resources. Yet the environmental damage occasioned by war is routinely underestimated, underreported, even ignored. In examining the legacies of WWII, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Soviet-Afghan War, and the Persian Gulf and Iraq Wars, Scarred Lands shows that the natural environment truly is war’s “silent casualty.”
The premiere screening was followed by a panel discussion with directors Alice and Lincoln Day and several persons interviewed in the film: environmental science professor Saleem H. Ali; Michael Barrett, researcher on environmental consequences of ships sunk in WWII; military and veteran affairs consultant Lt. General Robert Gard, Jr. (U.S. Army, Ret.); climate change scientist Michael MacCracken; history professor John R. McNeill; defense and foreign policy specialist Marie Rietmann; epidemiologist and public health professor Jeanne Mager Stellman; and Paul F. Walker, authority on nuclear and chemical weapons clean-up programs.
Alice and Lincoln Day and their production team at VideoTakes, Inc. are currently considering several distribution options for Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives, including additional film festivals, public broadcast, educational distribution, and home video. The Woman’s National Democratic Club will hold a public screening of the film on May 27, 7 pm, at the WNDC headquarters in Dupont Circle. Please check back soon for information on additional screenings and distribution.