"[Environmentalism is] starting to swing the other way. Now, who could you find on the street that would honestly try and argue that segregation makes sense for American society? But 60 years ago, who wasn't making that argument? That was because of the dedicated work of activists."

Local environmentalist and VCU student, John Wade coordinated The BIGGEST Picture, Richmond’s first ever Environmental Film Festival. The festival, Feb. 9 and 10, will feature eight environmental films, live music and notable speakers, including former presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

What's your title/involvement with The BIGGEST Picture, Richmond's first environmental film festival?
Festival coordinator. I'm coordinating the festival and a few other VCU students are helping me put it together. Also, one of my teachers from last year, Michael Jones, is the co-founder of The Richmond Moving Image Co-op. He teaches the History of Nonfiction Film. We got to talking about nonfiction film and environmentalism. We like some of the same people in the environmental movement and it rolled from there.

What is The Richmond Moving Image Co-op?
They do the James River Film festival. That's who we're operating under so we function as a nonprofit. They're a sponsor.

What is the festival?
It's an opportunity for the Richmond community to come together and everybody to talk. I feel like everyone is sympathetic to environmentalism generally. At least most people are. So now the question is, what are we talking about when it comes to environmentalism? Are we talking about light bulbs, are we talking about fossil fuel emissions or over population or open space destruction? It's important to have those conversations because there are so many facets to environmentalism. There are so many things that I personally think are not emphasized that should be and so many things that are emphasized that maybe should be less emphasized. [The festival] is an opportunity for people to talk about priorities.

It sounds like the festival is a grassroots movement?
I think the most effective things really are grassroots movements.

How did the idea come about?
Conversations. I was in film class with a VCU student named Claire, she's also a member of the environmental club, and conversations with Michael Jones, my teacher. Film seems like a really effective medium for communicating ideas to people.

What are some of the films that will be shown?
"The Lorax" is a movie based on a Dr. Seuss book. It's only 30 minutes. "The Lorax" speaks for the trees. "Planet Earth: The Future, Into the Wilderness" is part of a three-part companion of the "Planet Earth" series on television. It's a little bit about overpopulation. "We Aren't Blocking Traffic, We are Traffic," is about the start of the "Critical Mass" bicycle movement in San Francisco. After that movie Ralph Nader is going to speak. He's going to talk about special interests controlling the political direction in the United States.

["The Corporation," "The Milagro Beanfield War," "The Wilderness Idea/ Silent Spring," "The Forest For the Trees" and "Black Diamonds" will also be shown.]

Why those films and not the beloved "An Inconvenient Truth?"
The idea was to educate people about specific environmental issues that they might not be aware of. I think global warming, while it certainly doesn't receive enough attention, within the environmental movement it probably does. We wanted to have movies that people hadn't seen.

How did Ralph Nader get involved?
I saw him speak in Baltimore two or three months ago. I talked to him afterwards about it. And he was kind enough to agree.

The documentary, "The Corporation," is about the history of corporations in this country. It's the only film without a specific environmental angle. Why include it?
The idea is that just as you cannot understand the political system without understanding the nature of the corporation, you can't understand the degradation of the environment or the environmental movement. It's important for people to understand exactly what a corporation is, exactly how it works, exactly why this institution has so much of an impact on our everyday life and how recent the phenomenon is. It's not inevitable. It's not explicitly environmental, but it's sort of necessary to understand environmentalism.

What's over emphasized and under emphasized when it comes to being "green"?
The most emphasized thing right now is that people seem to want to save the environment by consuming efficiently. Like instead of building suburban sprawl [some want to] build well-planned suburbs. Or instead of using a regular light bulb and leaving it on all the time, [some want to use] a compact florescent. And that's an important part of living responsibly. But a part that's maybe deemphasized, because it's harder, is consuming less or really shifting how you consume, fundamentally … instead of just making it more efficient but just as convenient.

It seems like Richmonders want to be environmentally conscious. Do you think there's a disconnect between what they want and what government and business are providing?
Among local businesses I've found an incredible environmentalist sentiment. The idea [for the festival] was just an idea six months ago. Now so many people are involved that's it's gotten big because so many people wanted to get involved and make it a big deal. That's mostly been local businesses. Unfortunately, governments are mostly run by special interests. I think there's a disconnect between what people want done – as far as society being more environmentally responsible – and what the government is doing. That's mostly because the government is more beholden to special interests than people's interests. Unfortunately.

What's your hope for the festival?
The hope is to focus and direct the energy of people who are sympathetic toward the idea that things need to change and that people need to be more responsible with how they treat the environment. We're part of an ecosystem. In order for an ecosystem to function, you have to take from it, but you also have to give back. We use resources unsustainably. Society needs to sit down and deicide what direction and how we want to do it. Unfortunately, it's going to take people putting pressure on the government.

What local businesses are already doing a good job of being environmentally friendly?
Ellwood Thompson's, obviously, and one of our sponsors 96.5 The Planet … you can go to their Web site and look at your carbon emission. All the people I'm going to name are sponsors. They're sponsors because I thought they might care and I went to them and asked and in they did. Alchemy Eco Boutique, in Carytown, all that stuff is made out of recycled materials. Goodwill, I work for Goodwill, what they're doing is already recycling.

Environmentalism is the hot topic for everyone lately. Has there been a tipping point in environmental movement?
I think the small few have been talking about the environment for a long time and have been making sense for a long time. How many environmental organizations are there in Richmond alone? Probably 50 … probably more than that. Movements are always small when they start. Movements that are righteous are eventually recognized by people. "An Inconvenient Truth" definitely helped, but before it environmentalism was a hot issue. Why did anyone go and see that movie, why did anyone care? Maybe Al Gore just made that argument about global warming and the urgency in an effective way.

Things are starting to swing the other way. Now, who could you find on the street that would honestly try and argue that segregation makes sense for American society? But 60 years ago, who wasn't making that argument? That was because of the dedicated work of activists.

What's your background?
I'm just an environmentalist. I grew up in Richmond, in the West End in the suburbs. I've just seen a lot of things changing in my lifetime. I think the environmentalism is an important movement. I think people are going to realize that more and more; I just wish they'd realize it quicker. The quicker we move on a lot of these things, the more we can do.

How did you get you become an environmentalist?
I've been a environmentalist since I was 15. I've never owned a car, I ride my bike everywhere. I've been a vegetarian for six years. I've always been involved in the environment, I'd just never coordinated anything myself.

If you could decide that three things Richmond should do as a city to be more green, what would they be?
The first one would be to put money in the budget for conservation easements – to try and put a stop to suburban sprawl. The growth in the Far West End and East End, in Varnia, the unplanned suburban sprawl has really hurt the city. The second thing that Richmond could do is encourage alternative modes of transportation. That would both encourage people to ride bikes and use public transportation. It would also change the way the people develop.

Again, back to suburb sprawl … people would be less inclined to move to a sprawling area if they were more inclined to use an [alternative] method of transportation. [The third] is hard because most things would have to be started on a federal level. But [Richmond] could provide an example to businesses and individuals by making all government vehicles more fuel efficient or even switch them all to being powered off recycled vegetable oil. The government doesn't always have to legislate … it can lead the way.

What's can Richmonders do to be more green?
Use as little petroleum as possible. Ride a bike if you can, use public transportation if you can. If you can't, make sure you car is fuel efficient and small. Really just cut down on how much energy you use – period. The major ways we're harming the environment is through a gratuitous consumption of energy. When you leave the light on, it sound ridiculous, but mountains are literally being destroyed in West Virginia for that light. Coal is something like 50 percent of how we get our electric energy.

If you go to West Virginia, it's truly crazy to look at; they're literally blowing the tops off of mountains to get to coal. How many millions of years does it take for a mountain to build. We'll actually have some come and speak about that. Larry Gibson. He lives on Kayford Mountain, it used to be the lowest mountain in his region and now it's the tallest.

There's another way to mine, right?
Yes. And some of the poorest regions in the United States are regions where people have been mining. Those areas are really impoverished.

This is something that's curious to me. I've noticed that even though more and more people are calling themselves environmentalist, people are still buying SUVs and gas-guzzling vehicles. Why, in your opinion?
It's really amazing to me. Every time I see somebody get a new car and it's an SUV, I'm flabbergasted. I have no idea why. Unfortunately, I think that people just don't think critically enough about what they do.

For more information on The BIGGEST Picture visit thebiggestpicture.org.

w LAST TIME OUT: Leslie H. Brockman, R.E.B. Award for Teaching Excellence winner.