2024 Student Climate Film Festival nets diversity of local films

Green Drinks Dubois County will host the 2024 Student Climate Film Festival on April 19 at the Astra Theater in Jasper. Doors open at 5 p.m., and the program starts at 6 p.m. The event is free to attend, and all area students, family, friends, and anyone interested in seeing these short environmental documentaries produced by area high school students can come and enjoy these films.

The Student Climate Film Festival is an extension of Green Drinks Dubois County’s goal of education about the environment, climate issues, conservation, and sustainable living. They meet monthly to discuss these issues and host guest speakers with the goal of education.

“We learned over time in Dubois County there is not a lot of understanding about climate issues, how our environment is losing its protection and its relation to poor public health,” said organizer Mark Nowotarski. “To expand awareness and education we felt a good place to start was at the high school level. We remembered the student film festival that was done last year, and Danni Schaust and I thought it might be a good way to get high school students thinking about climate issues and the environment.”

They contacted each Dubois County high school to see if there was interest in participating in the festival. All four were interested, but due to some conflicts, only Southridge and Jasper were able to form teams to create films. In the end, due to the deadline for entry, four entries from Jasper made the cut for the first event.

The four student-produced documentaries are between seven and ten minutes long and address different issues related to climate change.

“What surprised me the most is the diversity of the short documentaries,” Nowotarski said. “They range from how climate change impacts invasive species to interviews to learn what students know about the issues to even the climates impact on ski resorts.”

In addition to the student documentaries, Green Drinks will show an eight-minute professionally produced documentary titled “Gen Z Mental Health: Climate Stories, followed by a brief discussion and a questions and answer session with representatives from Life Springs.

Several environmental organizational sponsors will have tables set up in the Astra lobby with information and representatives to answer questions.

Sponsors include Earth Charter Indiana, Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter, Hoosier Environmental Council, EDP Renewables, the Southwest Indiana Citizens for Quality of Life, and Day of Wood.

“Again, I hope we get a good turnout because I believe the public will enjoy the documentaries and learn something at the same time,” Nowotarski said.