From filmmaker Jared Flesher (Hundred Year Films), here are some kid-friendly excerpts from a series he had done called The Creature Show. these are great for kinds who have an interest in the outdoors and NJ wildlife, for kids who don't get many chances to be out in nature, and they would be great for teachers as teaching tools or just as a good story for discussion.
They may be a bit creepy in movies, but bats do a lot of good for us. Do you like mosquitoes? Well, bats love them - to eat!
You will probably never get the chance to be Releasing a Bobcat into the Wild, but you can in this video. Most kids will never have even seen a bobcat in the wild.
I monitor two local vernal (spring) pools. But in any season, you can watch a trip to see Frog & Salamander Eggs in a Vernal Pool. And you won't get your feet wet.
Snakes are another creepy crawler that gets a bad rap in movies and media. Let's go out in the woods and try Radio Tracking Snakes. Spoiler Alert: they do track and find an endangered corn snake (not poisonous).
In 2024, NOFA NJ partnered with filmmaker Jared Flesher of Hundred Year Films to highlight the artisans behind the local grain movement in New Jersey. The resulting documentary, Good Grain, explores the opportunity and excitement that the local grain economy brings, and why it is important to shift away from our reliance on synthetic chemicals in the production of grain crops. Good Grain features the Farmer (Morganics Family Farm), the Miller (River Valley Community Grains), the Maltster (Rabbit Hill Malt), the Baker (Sourland Bread), and the Brewer (Chilton Mill Brewing).
GOOD GRAIN premieres August 27, 7pm, inside the historic 1930's barn at Pinelands Preservation Alliance in Southampton, NJ. Enjoy snacks made from local grains and a post-screening Q&A and discussion about the local grains movement.
The screening is free, but registration is required.
I received an email update from filmmaker Jared Flesher on our first snowy day in NJ. He has made a number of environmental films with a particular focus on New Jersey. (see earlier posts about them) His email was a little update on his documentary, Sugar House Yantra. It is an interesting film about tapping maple trees for syrup, but it is about a lot more than that. I saw it at the Montclair Film Festival last October.
The subject is Charlize who started tapping maple trees 35 years ago. She was working as a construction worker, then a shop teacher, then a home builder. But in her seventh decade, she found it possible to express her true identity as a transgender woman. Now retired, Charlize works her farm, Sweet Sourland, in New Jersey. Here, in addition to producing syrup and raising sheep, she pursues a lifelong passion for creating art. Her specialty is colorful geometric designs painted on unusual canvases such as glass and wood.
The film will have a free screening and Jared and Charlize will be there at Stockton University's Campus Center Theater on January 20 at 4 pm. Before the movie, learn how Stockton University is working to produce syrup in an even warmer climate by relying on red maple trees instead of sugar maples. Charlize has been one of the project's advisors. Stockton University. Another screening will be at Rutgers University on January 27, 2024, in partnership with the Northeast Organic Farming Association of NJ. (see his website for info)
Jared writes:
On my first day of filming Sugar House Yantra - December 20, 2021 - maple syrup farmer Charlize Katzenbach remarked that never in 35 years had she started tapping maple trees before the Winter Solstice. But on this day the sun had not yet set on autumn, and here she was out drilling tap holes. In our modern era, the sap starts running before winter has even properly arrived.
It’s not completely clear what impact climate change will have on maple syrup farmers in North America, but many signs point to bad. According to the United States Geological Survey, “Changes could lead to lower rates of syrup production in the U.S., with some areas in the southern half of sugar maple's range becoming unsuitable for production.”
According to another study, 89% of producers have experienced the negative impacts of climate on maple syrup production.
One of the scenes I wanted in my documentary was of the sugar house on a snowy winter day. That iconic shot of small-scale maple syrup production. But never in two years of filming was there enough snow.
It’s too late for the film, but during last Saturday’s minor snowstorm I returned to Sweet Sourland Farm and snapped some snow photos. For me this felt like finishing the job.
Though most people - even those living in NJ - don't associate our state with maple syrup, it does exist here. Below you can see the natural distribution of the sugar maple, Acer saccharum. and notice that Central Jersey's location is on the southern edge.
Jared Flesher's “Dark Sacred Night,” is a short (16 minutes) documentary about the rapidly increasing problem of light pollution. Dark skies are threatened or endangered depending on where you are on the planet.
This is International Dark Sky Week. It's a good reminder to look up at the night sky and see the stars and planets - if you can see them.
The award-winning documentary is now live for all to watch on YouTube.
More than 80 percent of the world’s population, and 99 percent of Americans and Europeans, now live under light-polluted skies. Many people live and die without ever seeing the Milky Way.
Princeton University astrophysicist Gaspar Bakos wants to change that. He is one of a growing number of experts championing simple, commonsense changes to outdoor lighting that can dramatically reduce light pollution.
As Bakos teaches, light pollution is a problem that impacts far more than astronomical research and stargazers. New studies show that excessive amounts of outdoor lighting contribute to a range of human health problems, squander energy, and have a dramatic negative impact on wildlife, particularly birds and insects.
Bakos’s approach is to promote change one streetlight at a time. Simple solutions to light pollution can be summed up in a few words: make lights dimmer, shield lights so they only shine downward, and use warm-colored lightbulbs.
In Princeton, New Jersey, where Bakos lives and works, he dreams of a park set aside for dark sky viewing, where all surrounding lights are muted and properly shielded. By setting a good example, he hopes other communities will be inspired to do the same.
