A group of AU students and professors participating in an interdisciplinary course, Practices of Environmentalism, recently returned from their trip to the Galapagos Islands.
The students spent 10 days filming and gathering interviews to produce documentaries that will address science and public policy concerning the environment.
Bill Gentile, the School of Communication professor who guided the 24 students in filmmaking during their trip, wrote in a blog post that the students set out to produce films about sustainable living, shark fishing, environmentally friendly tourism and the process of natural selection.
The students were split into four teams, with each team producing a final film project combining science, policy and the media. The group heard from various experts on the Galapagos and the politics and geography of the Americas, according to Assistant Professor Simon Nicholson.
Danny Ledonne, an SOC graduate student pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film and Electronic Media, said he went into the project with an open mind so his film could provide a new perspective on the islands.
"My goal was to arrive with fresh eyes, curiosity and the same sense of wonder that explorers and scientists had when first discovering the islands," he said. Ledonne deliberately avoided watching too much footage already produced about the Galapagos Islands so it would not influence his filmmaking, he said.
The groups had to deal with many challenges while filming in a tropical environment such as intense heat, an exhausting travel schedule and having to "rough it" in the wilderness, he said. Despite these challenges, the trip was a valuable opportunity to explore nature in its undisturbed, peaceful state, he said.
The students went to great lengths to get the shots necessary for their films, according to Gentile's blog posts about the trip. Some students had to use underwater equipment to film sea lions, sharks and turtles. Other students woke up just before dawn every day to film the rising sun and waited every evening to film the sunset, according to Gentile.
Despite problems including lackluster interviews, subjects declining to be interviewed and sickness among the students, the students' experiences contributed to their learning experience as filmmakers, Gentile wrote in his blog.
"We, the faculty, have insisted that now is the time, while still in university, to make mistakes-and to learn from them," he said. "So that when they go out to the field as professionals, they won't make them over again. So the students persist in their work. They are determined. They should be enormously proud of themselves. I certainly am."
Ledonne said that the trip gave him new insight into the ever-changing definition of environmentalism and how it can be applied to everyone.
"[I discovered] environmentalism is more than a small group of activists or scientists," he said.ÿ"It involves research, policy implementation and communicating these efforts in an engaging, cohesive way.ÿWe must all broaden the term 'environmentalist' to include all of us-for we all have a vested interest in the environment we share with our people, other animals and the generations yet to come."
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