One Earth Film Festival showcases community-based conservation stories in 5 films

The One Earth Film Festival continues to use the power of film to shed light on the environmental challenges of the day - and to highlight promising solutions. This year's festival, March 4-11, will present five films in four venues in Lake County.

Several Lake County residents appear in one of the films, "Years of Living Dangerously: Uprising." In Waukegan, actress America Ferrera meets a group of activists fighting hard to close the coal-fired power plant on the lakefront - and promote options that can provide clean energy and green jobs. Also, actress Sigourney Weaver explores the impact of China's explosive economic growth on the local and global environment.

"Shifting Sands: On the Path to Sustainability" take viewers 90 miles south to another Lake Michigan shoreline to tell the story of the creation of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Game-changing environmental policies and unique partnerships emerged as this story became a microcosm for one of the most pressing issues of our time: How do we maintain our way of life without destroying the natural world on which we all depend?

Award-winning director Catherine Zimmerman will introduce her film, "Hometown Habitat," at Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake. Zimmerman and her film crew traveled across the country to visit local heroes who are reversing detrimental impacts on the land and in major watersheds one garden at a time. One of these stories is set right here in Lake County, where Zimmerman interviewed Vicky and George Ranney about the Prairie Crossing conservation community in Grayslake.

Here's the lineup of Lake County showings:

• At 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 4: "Hometown Habitat, Stories of Bringing Nature Home" at Prairie Crossing Charter School, 1531 Jones Point Road, Grayslake

• At 5 p.m. Sunday, March 5: "Years of Living Dangerously: Uprising" at Christ Episcopal Church, Memorial Hall, 410 Grand Ave., Waukegan

• At 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 10: "A Plastic Ocean" at College of Lake County, A-Wing Auditorium, 19351 W. Washington St., Grayslake

• At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 11: "Shifting Sands on the Path to Sustainability" (with Spanish subtitles) at Waukegan Public Library, 128 N. County St., Waukegan

• At 6:30 p.m. March 11: "Before the Flood" (with Spanish subtitles) at College of Lake County, A-Wing Auditorium, 19351 W. Washington St., Grayslake

The Lake County showings are free and open to the public. A $6 donation per film is appreciated. For more information, movie trailers and tickets, go to www.oneearthfilmfest.org/films-by-date.

The Lake County screenings are part of the Midwest's premier environmental film festival. Local sponsors are Citizens Climate Lobby, Clean Power Lake County, College of Lake County, Faith in Place, Liberty Prairie Foundation, Prairie Crossing Charter School, Sierra Club: Woods & Wetlands Group, and Wild Ones: Lake to Prairie Chapter.