Middlebury Film Festival

^{I wrote this back on August 29th, but ran into some technical issues while away from home, so this is a very belated post…..}

I can’t write about what I’m up to and not write about Dolly. She was buried yesterday and I feel her presence. I know we are all so moved by how far and wide the love for her was spread. My heart about burst when I saw a video of the Buckingham Palace guard playing “9 to 5”. As I shared on my Instagram post last week, I spent a good bit of time with Dolly…most especially when, soon after we wrapped filming on “9 to 5”, we spent 10 days together on her tour bus with 3 other friends of hers touring the mountains and hollows of Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas—Appalachia. Dolly wanted to help me prepare my next character, Gertie Nevels a wife and mother living on a rural farm in Kentucky in The Dollmaker, based on the beautiful novel by Harriet Arnow. It was her way of thanking me for casting her in her first movie. I ended up winning an Emmy Award for it. I spoke about this trip in the documentary about Dolly that I participated in.

But lying in bed last night, I thought of all the things I should have asked Dolly about but never did.

I should have asked her to tell me what it was like to live in a one room cabin, no electricity, no indoor plumbing, with her parents and twelve siblings. Twelve brothers and sisters!! She did tell me they made their own candles and soap. They must have learned the facts of life early on –all living together with babies coming one after the other. I should have asked about that. I should have asked if her parents were strict with them? Did they go to a town to buy groceries, or did they grow all their food? So many questions I should have asked.

So, I just want to pass on this lesson: Ask all your questions when you can cause you never know when it will be too late.

I attended the Middlebury Film Festival in Vermont with the documentary film GASLIT that I did with Greenpeace. It was my first time in that beautiful town. I have a true love for the old brick mill towns that built this country

My first night there I was able to have dinner with Amy Goodman who was also at the festival with her film “STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE!”. You can watch the trailer and find a screening at: https://stealthisstory.org

My film, GASLIT is about what the LNG (liquified natural gas) industry and the plastics and chemical industries have done to the people and communities along the Gulf of Mexico and lower Mississippi River. …and to our planet. By the way in case you don’t know, plastics and many of the worst chemicals are derived from fossil fuels so when we phase out of the latter, hopefully we will be largely free of the former.

I have witnessed the human and environmental destruction in the mostly poor black and brown communities – the cancers, the destroyed estuaries that are so critical for wildlife, especially the migrating neotropical birds that need those marshy lands to rest and eat in preparation for their long flights north.

For generations, families along the coast have relied on fishing, shrimping and crabbing to support themselves. These sources of food and survival have almost been destroyed by the industries. I had read about what was going on but when I was there, witnessing the size of the LNG terminals, I was gob smacked. These metal monstrosities are the size of whole cities towering over small towns that appear to be largely abandoned, towns that were once thriving with stores and banks and homes built long ago by parents planning on leaving them to children and grandchildren, now gone. The fossil fuel industry calls these communities “sacrifice zones,” populated by people they consider disposable.

The doc focuses on the people fighting back and it is very powerful and moving. We’ve already won a number of awards as we bring it to festivals and do special screenings around the country, like Middlebury.

Jay Craven is co-founder and director of the Middlebury Film Festival and teaches filmmaking at the University of Vermont. I met Jay in 1971 while attending my very first anti-war conference in Chicago hosted by Clergy & Laity Concerned (CALC). I knew no one, felt lost, and Jay befriended me so I was very happy when he invited us to his festival.

Jay Craven & Me

If you were not able to catch on of the film screenings, I’m happy to share that for a limited time you can now rent Gaslit and receive access to an exclusive Q&A with me, Director Katie Camosy, Film Participant Jo Banner, and Author and Environmental Justice Advocate, Leah Thomas. We candidly share behind the scenes insights, tips on how to stay active in the fight, and ways you can get involved. Click here to watch or visit www.gaslit.com/watch. And — Gaslit will be available worldwide to rent or buy on Prime and other digital platforms later in September! Visit www.gaslitdoc.com/watch for updates on our exact launch date.

This festival was also special for me because my daughter, Vanessa, who is a Vermont farmer and has made documentaries, joined me. And my friend and climate activist par excellence, Bill McKibben, is also a Vermonter and moderated the post screening panel.

But first, Bill, his wife Sue, and I went hiking in the forest to the old cabin where Robert Frost did his writing.

Here’s a shot through the windowpane into where Frost did his writing.

Now I’m off to Venice Italy, more on that trip soon.