Film Screening: Feature film, Salero, and three short films, “Narrating Nature”

-- Introduced by Dalia Patino-Echeverry, Gendell Associate Professor of Energy Systems and Public Policy. Nicholas School of the Environment.

Salero
(Mike Plunkett, 2016, 76 min, Bolivia/USA, in Spanish w/ English subtitles, Color, DVD) 

The world's largest salt flat, Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, is a pristine, otherworldly expanse of white. For generations, the only signs of life have been the "saleros" who harvest salt from its radiant surface. This remote region is thrust into the future when Bolivia's leaders embark on a plan to extract a precious mineral found beneath the salt crust, and to build an infrastructure connecting the Salar to the outside world. Salero, a nonfiction feature film, is a poetic journey through the eyes of Moises, one of the last remaining salt gatherers. Set at the dawn of the modern age in one of the most secluded places on earth, Moises' story explores how identity is formed by both tradition and progress.

-- Winner of Best Director and Best Documentary Feature at River Run International Film Festival 2016
-- Official Selection San Francisco International Film Festival
-- Official Selection Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2016

Narrating Nature
These tree short films are the product of Narrating Nature: Documentaries for Environmental Studies course. Spring 2017.

Restoring Nature. The case of Sandy Creek Park. (2017, 14 min) 
Jane Liu, Paulina Miranda, Hayley Hanway, Ryan Briggs, Liz Kennedy. Featuring Robert Hayley. Miguel Rojas-Sotelo, Instructor.

Restoring Nature, shows the work of the local Durham Community to recover a wetland that was transformed in a water treatment plant for Duke University in the 1930s. By working together, scholars, activists, civil society, and the local government, today Sandy Creek is fully restored. An rural/urban habitat for many species that co-habit in harmony in one of the most rapid grown urban areas in the South of the United States.
 

Taking Action. Duke’s Climate Plan. (2017, 13 min) 
Sun Zhe Cao, Jamie Lockwood, Ethan Miler, Eliza Letourneau. Miguel Rojas-Sotelo, Instructor.

By 2024 Duke University wants to reach carbon neutrality, this short film shows some of the ways Duke University is addressing to get there. Featuring Charles Adair, Duke Carbon Offset Initiative; Lori Bennear, Duke Nicholas School Faculty, Energy Initiative.
 

LEEDing the Way. (2017, 8 min)
Charlotte Gosnel, Conor Makepece, Michaela Unda, Lola Sanchez-Carrión. Miguel Rojas-Sotelo, Instructor. 

LEED means leader in energy and environmental design. To be LEED certify a construction has to meet a set of standards according to UGSBC. By using green materials, natural light, alternative energy sources, etc., a building can reach the certification. Duke University has 41 buildings that are LEED certified. This observational film looks to some of them and their everyday use.
 

Cost: Free and Open to the Public

Sponsors: the Duke-UNC Consortium in Latin American & Caribbean Studies, the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (CLACS), the Nicholas School of the Environment, the Tropical Conservation Initiative, and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI). 

[Download PDF flyer]  [NC Latin American Film Festival website]