Celebrating Energy Independence Day? Join a "Crowd-Sourced" Documentary on March 21
Working on making Vermont energy independent? Want to be in a movie?
Bright Blue EcoMedia, the local company behind the lake pollution documentary Bloom, is planning a new “crowd-sourced” documentary to consist of footage gathered all over the state on March 21, which activists have dubbed “Vermont Energy Independence Day.” That’s the day Vermont Yankee’s license expires.
Jon Erickson of the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for Ecological Economics says Bright Blue is partnering with 350.org and other eco-groups to get the word out that “anyone with a camera and an image to share of Vermont’s energy transition” can contribute by uploading their video to a special YouTube channel. (More info here.)
Bright Blue will edit those raw offerings into a feature film, one Erickson hopes will show that “these little things that are happening one household at a time, cumulatively, are a lot of things,” he says. So even someone who's just switching to CFL bulbs on March 21 can contribute. Erickson has organized one of his UVM classes into a "story corps" to seek out footage, and hopes to arrange for some local cafés to host filming sessions with live music.
Crowd-sourced documentaries are hot right now — Life in a Day used footage from amateurs all over the world to paint a global picture of one day on Earth. Energy independence may seem like an elusive goal, but the folks at Bright Blue are hoping this project will convince Vermonters that every little bit of effort counts.
