Marina's World
In the oceans off the coast of Florida's Key West lives Marina, a mermaid with an attitude. Her favorite hang-out, the coral reefs, are in trouble, and Marina is pretty upset about it. She takes us on a tour of her kingdom, explaining the intricate relationships that rule the reef. She delights us with stories about the ocean and its mysterious inhabitants. She complains about careless humans who harm the reef by their boats, by diving and over-fishing, by their bad habits of littering and dumping any old thing into the water.

People of the Sun Throw a Party
We visit the ancient Incan Inti Raymi festivities in the high mountains of Ecuador; first seeing a ceremony between two neighboring families, then a community center party with much dancing and some wild costumes, and finally go to a town parade where everyone dresses in traditional costume and marches to joyous music. Narration could include Incan folklore about the sun and the mountains.

Shopping
We see people shopping in all kinds of markets. We visit a farm store where kids are allowed to pick out vegetables, we go to a farmer's market in the middle of New York City and look at all the different experiences involved in shopping. We see money changing hands. We see a farmer's market in Ecuador, which is very much like the one in New York. We visit a couple of supermarkets, one in Washington DC and one in North Dakota. At one, Magic Johnson makes a surprise appearance and is followed by a delighted bunch of kids.

Sunflowers
We see baby sunflower plants growing on a farm in North Dakota in June. We see full-grown fields of sunflowers on the same farm, and also sunflowers growing in a garden in New York. The New York ones end up at a farmer's market in NYC being sold as ornamental flowers, but the North Dakota ones are harvested for seed. The seeds are combined, then sent in a truck to South Dakota where they go through a mill. They are sorted in a variety of machines, then are placed in bags for shipping. The large bags are stored in a warehouse, then packed into containers where they go off again in a truck, ready to be distributed at markets.

The Reef Doctor
We see Harold Hudson, a bearded and very sweet "grandaddy of the reef," as he travels underwater to care for ailing coral reefs. We hear the different reasons why coral gets sick or injured. Dr. Hudson glues broken pieces of coral back into their colonies; he uprights a huge piece of pillar coral that's been knocked over. On diseased brain coral, Harold vacuums off the bacteria.

Trash Island to Treasure Island
A big group of volunteers takes a sailboat out to a little island off the Florida Keys. In their bathing suits, they wade around the shoreline and collect an immense amount of trash. We learn about how trash in the ocean not only messes up our beaches, it creates problems for fish, birds, and coral reefs. When the ship returns to port, the volunteers cheerfully unload the garbage which includes, unbelievably, a kitchen sink.

Water Water Everywhere
In a mostly visual sequence, we watch as the tiniest flakes of snow grow into roaring rivers. The rivers feed the farms that grow along their boundaries as they flow out to sea. Transforming once again into the great salt body of the ocean, the waters wash over the coral reefs that sit close to the shoreline. Drawn up into the sky by the sun, water becomes vapor, then crystals of ice ... and falls once again to earth as snow.

What's In A Rainforest?
We stare long and hard at the wall of green that makes up the Amazon rain forest. All of a sudden, creatures emerge, both large and small. There are scary things such as snakes and tarantulas, and there are funny things such as sloths and monkeys. Ants, tortoises, butterflies, bugs and birds of many colors make up just some of what's in a rain forest. There are flowers and trees and rivers and leaves. There are humans there, too. With footage from all parts of the Amazon, from the yucca plantations of the Tsachila Indians in Ecuador to Bushnegro river people in Suriname to the rubber tappers of Brazil, we see that the forest is bursting with splendid, colorful diversity.

This activity is supported by funding from the Colorado Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Colorado General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

 

Back