The award-winning "Emptying the Skies" will be shown extensively for the next few months.
“Emptying the Skies,” an award-winning documentary directed and produced by Elon University School of Communications instructor Doug Kass, has been selected to several film festivals in the United States and abroad.
The film has already been shown at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, the Goteborg International Film Festival in Sweden and the Big Sky Doc Fest in Montana. Future screenings include:
- Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (Greece), March 14-23
- Washington, D.C. Environmental Film Festival, March 19
- Sarastoa Film Festival (Florida), April 4-14
- San Francisco Green Film Festival, May 29-June 14
Additionally, the documentary was recently taken on by Java Films out of Paris for international distribution.
“Emptying the Skies” is based on a New Yorker article by Jonathan Frazen, an American novelist and essayist. It focuses on the illegal hunting and poaching of birds in Europe and the individuals who are risking their lives to stop it.
The documentary premiered at the Sheffield Docs Film Festival in England in June and had its U.S. premier in October at the Hampton’s Film Festival in New York, where it won the Zelda Penzel “Giving Voice to the Voiceless” Award. According to the festival’s site, the honor is given to “a film that raises public awareness about contemporary social issues, including the moral and ethical treatment and the rights of animals.”
Kass also served as the film’s co-cinematographer and said music for the documentary was composed by Marty Beller of They Might Be Giants.