ARTS/EXPRESSION

– Amateur film production for Time to Chill Earth Day Film Fest!

Time to Chill provides you with a venue for high-impact communication about our place on planet Earth. We believe pervasive rethinking is needed to minimize the disastrous consequences of global change resulting from the industrial way of life, and want to stimulate you to express your values in video format. You could clarify the problem, document efforts to change, portray alternative values, or just get creative. Equipment is available from Mann Library for use if needed.  Film length should be anywhere from 60 seconds to 20-30 minutes.  Screening will be during the week of Earth Day, April 22, 2008. Submit your films for prescreening ASAP.

Opportunities for organizing and planning event too!

Contacts: David McCobb (dpm9@cornell.edu), Ingrid Biedron (ib49@cornell.edu)

– SewGreen - www.sew-green.org

SewGreen is a new community program in Ithaca that promotes sustainable production and consumption of fabric and apparel through reuse activities and community education. We are engaging people of all ages in a rediscovery of self-reliant skills and fashion independence by meeting a demand for inexpensive sewing lessons and refashioning workshops. We are also developing consumer education campaigns to help clothing shoppers understand the impact of their choices. We believe it’s not only possible, but more fun—and just as fashion-conscious—to have a sustainable wardrobe. This year’s focus is on conventional cotton, the world’s most toxin-intensive fiber, and healthier alternatives.

Student involvement in SewGreen could include:

· Hands-on help with t-shirt refashioning workshops. Learn to lead this simple but popular activity that also educates participants about responsible consumerism.

· Assistance with judging entries in the Green T reuse design contest. Work with us as we take in and categorize the entries, coordinate the judging, and plan fashion shows of the winning creations.

· Assistance in setting up a gallery exhibit that features original eco-fashion designs, educational displays that show the amount and toxicity of chemicals used in the production of cotton, and other exhibits that you may develop and execute.

· Research the latest advances in eco-fashion. Monitor and analyze news stories and reports about new, earth-friendly fibers such as bamboo and corn- or soy-based fibers, or stories about companies that are offering organic products. Look at the reports critically and consider if the whole story is being told.

· Research and report on the life cycle of a conventional cotton t-shirt. Where and under what conditions is the fiber grown? How is it processed? Where and under what conditions are shirts sewn, dyed, finished? Prepare web content or outline a display to show the facts.

· Help coordinate sewing classes and other sustainable sewing events, projects, and get-togethers.

· Assist with the GREEN T campaign to encourage organizations to reconsider their promotional t-shirt purchases. How can we get community and campus groups to stop contributing to a toxic industry that adds to landfill glut?

New ideas and projects are more than welcome.

For more information, visit www.sew-green.org