The Sundance Channel is extending the Green throughout the summer with some new programming:

The Sundance Channel is extending the Green throughout the summer with some new programming:

Outrageous Wasters,” a four-part series that follows a single family through an ultra-crash course in eco-aware living, designed to transform them from energy-guzzling “meanies” to tree-loving “greenies” in two weeks.    Kicking off on July 29 at 9pm et/pt is season 2 of “Its Not Easy Being Green.” In eight thirty-minute episodes three “green experts” travel around the British countryside advising and assisting a range of citizens in realizing their eco goals.

Tuesday, July 1^st     

9:00pm

“Outrageous Wasters” Episode 1 (U.S. Television Premiere) - In the suburban town of Aylesbury, the Witheys – Stella; Mark, her husband of three years; and Stella’s 14-year-old son Jak – admit they have given little thought to environmental issues.  They’re a two-car family, with loads of electronic gadgets and a rather cavalier approach to consumption. 

10:10pm

Wetlands Preserved (U.S. Television Premiere) – Directed by Dean Budnick.  From 1989 to 2001, Budnick chronicles the environmentally friendly club’s legend with rare vintage concert footage and accounts from the club’s former owners, rock critics, musicians and club regulars.

 

 

Tuesday, July 8

9:00pm e/p

 “Outrageous Wasters” Episode 2 (U.S. Television Premiere) - The affluent Buchannan family – John, Susan and their children, 19-year-old Kris and 16-year-old Aimee – share a sumptuous home near Glasgow, Scotland.  They own three cars and a fourth vehicle is in the offing; their meals are largely comprised of imported ingredients. 

10:10pm

Garbage Warrior (Original Production) – Directed by Oliver Hodge and co-production of Open Eye Media, ITVS International and Sundance Channel.  This inspiring film profiles maverick architect Michael Reynolds, who has spent thirty years developing radically original models of self-sustaining housing near Taos, New Mexico. 

 

Tuesday, July 15^th 

9:00pm

“Outrageous Wasters” Episode 3 (U.S. Television Premiere) - The Fowlers of Dunkirk – successful entrepreneur Roger; his wife Nicola; and their children, 15-year-old Francis, 13-year-old Jonathan and 9-year-old Katya – have a carbon footprint five times the British national average.  They play loads of games, have a shocking number of TVs, and host weekly parties that generate lots of empty bottles and leftover food – all of which ends up as landfill event.

10:10pm

In the Pit – Directed by Juan Carlos Rulfo. To give a human face to seemingly unendurable labor, Mexican documentarian Rulfo visited a major construction site as workers toiled to build an upper deck of Mexico City's immense Periferico Highway.  Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary, 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

 

Tuesday, July 22^nd   

9:00pm

“Outrageous Wasters” Episode 4 (U.S. Television Premiere) - Hairdressers/salon owners Stewart and Anji Armodtrading live 13 miles outside of London in Maidenhead, sharing a home with their 21-year-old year daughter Shanelle, their 18-year-old daughter Strong, and Strong’s friend, 17-year-old Carla.  Anji runs about 35 loads of laundry per week, and computer programmer Shanelle ends each day with a luxuriant bath

10:10pm

Genesis (Sundance Channel Premiere) – Directed by Claude Nuridsany, Marie Pérennou.  From the French team behind the Microcosmos comes this bewitching look at the origins and evolution of life on Earth. 

 

Tuesday, July 29^th    

9:00pm

“It’s Not Easy Being Green” Season 2/Episode 1 (U.S. Television Premiere) – In the borough of Wirral in northwest England, Dick meets Helen and Russell Keenan, who have ambitious plans for a self-sufficient eco-compound. 

9:35pm

The Greening of Southie – Directed by Ian Cheney.  This documentary goes behind the scenes and onto the scaffolds to follow the construction of Boston’s first green residential building, a luxury condominium complex called the Macallen. 

 

Tuesday, August 5

August 5^th at 9:00pm

“It’s Not Easy Being Green” Season 2/Episode 2 (U.S. Television Premiere) Dick and James meet sisters Jake and Candy Moriarty, who have sold the family B&B and now want to create an eco-friendly campsite on land they own in Cornwall. 

 

9:35pm

The Unforeseen (Television Premiere) Directed by Laura Dunn.  Combining lyrical cinematography, illuminating archival footage and even-handed reportage, Dunn maps three decades of conflict between real estate developers and community-based conservationists in Austin, Texas.  Executive produced by Terrence Malick and Robert Redford.

 

Tuesday, August 12

9:00pm e/p

“It’s Not Easy Being Green” Season 2/Episode 3 (U.S. Television Premiere) Dick meets Chris and Carla Fletcher, rat-race refugees who have settled in Aberdeenshire, Scotland to grow their own food and raise livestock (including an unusual breed of sheep). 

9:35pm

Grass – Directed by Ron Mann.  While it’s unlikely to change US drug policy, this entertaining documentary chronicling the bizarre 100-year history of laws against the use of marijuana may prompt outrage, discussion and a perverse sense of nostalgia.

 

Tuesday, August 19

9:00pm e/p

“It’s Not Easy Being Green” Season 2/Episode 4 (U.S. Television Premiere) James meets Maggie of Staffordshire, who is renovating her 1930s house in a thoroughly eco-friendly fashion, re-using original fixtures and as many eco-friendly materials as possible. 

9:35pm

Ice Breaker (Television Premiere) – Directed by Jody Shapiro and David Best.  This documentary captures 42 days onboard a Canadian Coast Guard ship as it sails from Newfoundland to the high Arctic, patrolling some of the most spectacular and dangerous waterways on the planet. 

 

Tuesday, August 26

9:00pm e/p

“It’s Not Easy Being Green” Season 2/Episode 5 (U.S. Television Premiere) At New House Farm, James recruits his friends and his sister Charlotte help dig a new pond to attract more wildlife – and give the family’s ducklings their own home.  Dick meets with East London resident Andrew Martin, who wants to install a solar hot water heater in his back garden

9:35pm

Everything’s Cool – Directed by Daniel B. Gold and Judith Helfand.  Mixing humor with urgency, Gold and Helfand (Blue Vinyl) profile the small group of global warming messengers who continue to prod a largely apathetic public into political activism.

 

Tuesday, September

9:00pm e/p

“It’s Not Easy Being Green” Season 2/Episode 6 (U.S. Television Premiere) In Lincolnshire, we meet Zannah and Arthur, who are renovating a 200-year-old cottage that has no onsite heating source. 

 

9:35pm

Somba Ke: The Money Place – Directed by Linda Henningson, Petr Cizek and David Henningson.  Sombe Ke reveals the neglected story of the remote Canadian region that supplied the Manhattan Project with uranium for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombs, and its dark and disturbing legacy.

 

Tuesday, September 9

9:00pm e/p

“It’s Not Easy Being Green” Season 2/Episode 7 (U.S. Television Premiere):  In the seaside area of New Forest, Matt Goldschmeid wants to make a permanent home of the lush vacation property his parents bought in the 1980s. 

9:35pm

Burning the Future: Coal in America – Directed by David Novack.  West Virginia provides coal to produce electricity for half the nation. Ironically, while preserving jobs, coal mining disfigures mountainsides, destroys plant and animal species and spreads toxic groundwater.

 

Tuesday, September 16

9:00pm e/p

“It’s Not Easy Being Green” Season 2/Episode 8 (U.S. Television Premiere Dick and Jim visit a Cambridge mechanic named Gary, who wants to save money by switching his car to biodiesel.  Using scrounged and free materials, the men construct a backyard biofuel processor, which will convert used vegetable oil from the local take-out restaurant.

 

9:35pm

Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa – Directed by Jeremy Stulberg and Randy Stulberg.  Some 400 people make their home on a rugged 15-square mile stretch of New Mexico desert known as the Mesa.  Devoid of basic amenities like running water, paved roads and power lines, the Mesa isn’t an easy place to live, but it does offer solitude and autonomy to those who need it, as well as an alternative to contemporary consumer society.