Earth Equity News

Environmental Films Have a Green Problem: Money. By John Horn, LATimes, August 13, 2009. "Few new ecological documentaries are enjoying robust box-office takes. Chalk it up to audiences preferring escapist tales rather than disturbing reality. Food, Inc., a documentary about the dangers of the food supply, has done remarkably well since its June 12 premiere, grossing $3.6 million to date. Some upcoming documentaries -- including Sept. 11's No Impact Man, about one man's obsessive yearlong quest to live sustainably -- could well leave an equally impressive box-office mark... But ticket buyers have been reluctant to swim to The Cove, a documentary on Japanese dolphin killing that has some of the year's best reviews... The Garden, an Oscar-nominated feature documentary about the battle over a community garden in South Los Angeles, sold only $26,931 in tickets after its April release... 'I think people are a little overwhelmed -- I think I am -- when it's just one catastrophe after another,' says Robert Stone, a veteran nonfiction filmmaker whose film, Aug. 21's Earth Days, traces the history and outlook of the environmental movement. 'It's very easy to feel like there is no hope. But I think my film can serve a larger purpose -- to provide a framework so people can understand how we arrived at this point, and provide some hope,' Stone says... Dirt! The Movie, is just that -- a movie about dirt... After its Sundance premiere this January, potential distributors 'did not show a significant interest' in a topic that Bill Benenson [co-director] believes is 'fundamental to our survival and status and place on Earth'... The film will be a part of next year's Earth Day programming presented by PBS and ITVS, the Independent Television Service... Dan Cogan, whose Impact Partners fund has contributed millions of dollars to help finance socially relevant filmmaking over the last 2 1/2 years, says that only a handful of documentaries can be expected to gross as much as $2 million theatrically."