Documentary: STRAWS

Description

It's estimated every day 500,000,000+ plastic straws are used once and tossed in the U.S. alone. Ocean Conservancy ranks straws as the #5 most found litter item on beaches. They're non-recyclable, so they wind up in landfills, litter streets and add to the estimated 8.5 million metric tons of plastic debris in oceans annually. STRAWS is an award winning documentary that illuminates the problems related with straws and other single use plastic pollution that inundate our waterways and oceans. The film inspires a new path forward. With colorful straw history animation and segments narrated by Oscar winner Tim Robbins, STRAWS (33 minutes) is a funny and entertaining film that leaves audiences with a clear understanding of the problems caused by plastic pollution. It illustrates how individuals, groups, business owners and leaders around the globe are reducing plastic straw use. STRAWS empowers individuals to be part of the solution. Director Linda Booker interviews Jackie Nunez, founder of The Last Plastic Straw, restaurant owners with "Straws by Request Only" policies, renown marine biologist and author Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, researcher Dr. Jenna Jambeck and Drifters Project artist Pam Longobardi. In Costa Rica we meet Turtle researchers Nathan Robinson and Christine Figgener, PhD student, Texas A&M University, who rescued and filmed the removal of a plastic straw in a sea turtle's nose that went viral in 2015. That story inspired middle school age student Max Machum to start #NoStrawChallenge #SinPajillaPorFavor and join a movement around the world that's making a sea of change, one plastic straw at a time. STRAWS won the Outstanding Achievement Award in Environmental Film at Cayman International Film Festival, and was called "An inspiring story of how it's possible to make a sea of change, one straw at a time," by the Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival. This event is sponsored by the South Dakota Sierra Club and the Vermillion Public Library, and is free and open to the public!