|
BEST DOCUMENTARY - Imperial Beach International Film Festival
FEATURED SELECTION - Plymouth International Film Festival
HONORABLE MENTION - Earthvision International Film Festival
Ecoparque, the film, explores the creation and impact of Ecoparque, the conscious, naturalistic, and enlightened place--a park flourishing on a formerly barren urban hillside thanks to an innovative system that uses residents' wastewater not only to transform one canyon, but to make a scientific and economic case for neighborhood-scale, nature-mimicking, chemical-free facilities being preferable for many canyon communities.
"As the architect of Ecoparque, I can say that Michael Bedar's film, Ecoparque, does more to advance community empowering and ecologically sustainable water solutions than my career working towards the same goal. Excellent work."
- Oscar Romo, Watershed Manager, Tijuana River Estuary
"Ecoparque catalyzes the shift towards a naturalistic infrastructure paradigm."
-Greg Shideler, Owner, Integrated Habitats
"Ecoparque stands out from most videos for its important issue, strong storytelling, and clear, illuminating treatment."
-Adam Werbach, Fmr Director, The Video Project and the Sierra Club
REVIEW OF ECOPARQUE ORIGINALLY IN THE SIERRAN: Nestled into a steep, barren hillside overlooking the Rio Tijuana, only a few miles south of the US-Mexico border, a creative experiment in natural resource management is taking place on a daily basis. The location is known as Ecoparque, and the experiment involves taking treated wastewater that is normally discharged into the ocean, and re-using it to irrigate and transform an otherwise arid slope into a verdant park and small wildlife preserve, complete with lush hiking trails and magnificent views of downtown Tijuana.
When documentary maker Michael Bedar heard of this experiment, he decided this sustainable use of water was worthy of his first local video production. The result is a short film called simply Ecoparque. In February, he shared his video with the Sierra Club's Border Environment Committee.
Bedar has captured images of daily life in Tijuana, emphasizing the dry and paved over urban setting, and intersperses them with conversations of various people who work at Ecoparque or live nearby. He interviews people walking along the trails, or standing under the canopy of trees, in contrast to the gritty urban scenes. These help paint an interesting portrait of a facility that is not only efficient, but also educational and naturally lovely thanks to reclaimed water.
We hear from one employee that thousands of students tour Ecoparque each year, to learn more about basic water recycling and treatment principles in a "real world" setting.
We also learn that Ecoparque has not only transformed a hillside, but the actions of the residents in the surrounding neighborhood (about 1200 households are connected to the Ecoparque collection system).
Where once some people illegally dumped toxic waste down their drains, interfering with the facility's operations, they have now willingly changed their activities to help protect the trees and plants that are irrigated with the wastewater after it goes through a simple treatment process. Oscar Romo, one of the original directors of the treatment plant, explains that meeting with the neighbors and educating them about the toxicity problems in an open, trusting way quickly led to their cooperation. Once they understood the quickly led to their cooperation. Once they understood the impact their actions were having, they changed their behaviors, stopped dumping harmful wastes down their drains, and became part of the Ecoparque success story.
Bedar has created a lively (catchy music) and educational view of an alternative sewage treatment plant that would be a useful teaching tool for teachers and environmental organizations alike. Ecoparque shows viewers there is a simple solution for one of humankind's oldest problems: reconsidering the waste-products of civilization (in this case, sewage) and turning them into a resource.
The creators and supporters of Ecoparque realized that these wastes could also be valuable for fertilizing native plants high above Tijuana, and for recreating a natural habitat in an area that has been rapidly covered with concrete and buildings. Michael Bedar realized there was an educational and even uplifting story behind this project, and has created a video that deserves to be shared with anyone interested in discovering how something we often think of as "waste," to be dumped out to sea, can, in fact, be put to good use for the benefit of many.
Review Written by Lori Saldaña
Environmental Research Fellow
Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies
University of California, San Diego
US Chair, Advisory Council
Border Environment Cooperation Commission
CREDITS
Written, Directed, and Co-Produced by Michael Bedar
Edited and Co-Produced by Taylor Sharp
Narrated by Christina Abastillas
Original Score by Michael Bedar and Rory Clarke
|
| Presenter: |
Michael A. Bedar |
| Included: |
1 Online Streamed Video(s) (33 mins total)
|
| Price: |
$24.95 USD On Sale! $13.95
|
- Learn how worms, biofilters, and clarifiers are used in converting a dumpsite to an urban forest.
- Learn which human health, economic, environmental benefits are achieved in decentralizing and allowing biology to work in cities.
- Learn which exploitative interests resist those who try to form decentralized, locally autonomous forests.
- Become an advocate, yourself, for tying the cycle together by converting nutrients into green value-additions that boost quality of life.
- "Ecoparque scores a strong achievement for showing that people can develop their own natural relationship to the environment in a far more effective way than institutions have often given people credit for. Congratulations." -Mark J. Spalding, Executive Editor, The Journal of Environment and Development, Professor of Environmental Policy and Law, Chair Emeritus, Environmental Law Section, State Bar of California
- "Ecoparque is one of the best independent films both in domestic and international independent media." - Independent Media Center
- "Essential viewing for my students." - Ann Lopez, Professor of Biology, San Jose City College
- "Ecoparque is at the leading edge of environmental documentaries because great thought was put into increasing the visibility of existing solutions." - Jim Bell, Director of Ecological Life Systems Institute
- "Ecoparque is a great tool for empowering local communities about self-managing their water resources." - Amy Boone, Environmental Defense
- "Ecoparque is a very useful and inspirational documentary for demonstrating the feasibility of biosystem approaches for waste composting and bringing some viable, self-sustaining verdant areas into arid cities." -Dr. Michelle Rudy, Alternatives Design Group, University of Arizona
- "Thank you for producing Ecoparque and showing it at our Forum for our up and coming engineers." - American Society of Civil Engineers
- "We proudly show Ecoparque as part of our educational programming." - Eric Lloyd Wright, Wright Way Organic Research Center
- "Ecoparque stirred the participants at our organic architecture conference." - Fred Stitt, Director, San Francisco Institute of Architecture and Eco-Wave Conferences
- "Each time I view Ecoparque, I find even more in it than the last time!" - Dr. William Roley, Director, Center for Regenerative Studies, Watershed Coordinator, California Department of Water Resources
|
