Environmental Film Festival: Hotspots

Environmental Film Festival: Hotspots
March 12, 7:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Register now.
When: March 12, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Visitor Center Auditorium

Come early and enjoy the cash bar from 6:30-7:30 p.m.!

Parking is free for FONZ members or $5 for nonmembers.

The Environmental Film Festival has become the leading showcase for environmental films in the United States. Presented in collaboration with 101 local, national, and global organizations, the festival is one of the largest cooperative cultural events in the nation’s capital.

This year, for the 17th annual Environmental Film Festival, the National Zoo will show Hotspots, a fascinating new film highlighting the work of field biologist Russell Mittermeier.

The richness of our planet and the importance of conserving its extraordinary biodiversity for medical purposes is the central theme of this film. It takes viewers on an adventure with Russell Mittermeier through a handful of the 35 most biologically rich life zones on earth. By making these locations a priority, conservation ecologists believe that the rapid rate of species extinctions might be reversed. The possible obliteration of these species with their unknown potential benefits, illustrates how critical it is that we humans protect our environment for the sake of all species inhabiting the earth.

Don Moore, Associate Director of Animal Care at the Zoo, will introduce the film. A discussion with filmmaker Michael Tobias and field biologist Russell Mittermeier will follow the screening.

Directed and written by Michael Tobias, hosted by Russell A. Mittermeier, produced by Jane Gray Morrison and Michael Tobias.

At 7 p.m., preceding the screening, Russell Mittermeier will sign copies of his book, Hotspots: Earth's Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecosystems.