A changing video for a changing world

Local videographers Lee Schnaiberg and Semira Weiss have tidings of ecological joy to bring to the world. Problem is, they can't figure out how to get the message across. Schnaiberg and Weiss have been working and reworking their environmental scratch-video The Earth Changes for over four years now. "It's an apt title," says Schnaiberg. "The earth changes constantly. So does our film."

This time, however, it appears they may have got it right: two weeks ago, The Earth Changes won second place at the 1998 Festival of Environmental Film and Video in Santa Cruz, California. "We got a lot of negative feedback after last year's screening at the Montreal Festival of New Cinema and Video," says Schnaiberg. "It made people feel ashamed." So they dropped a lot of the clips about one-with-nature spirituality and focused in on concrete eco-solutions, resulting in a more pragmatic yet still challenging film. "Woody Harrelson told us there should be a copy of our film at every Blockbuster in North America," Schnaiberg says.

The film will screen throughout the week on campuses around Montreal as part of the Travelling Environmental Roadshow, which will also feature display booths on how to use your rooftop for solar energy or to grow a garden, as well as an honest-to-goodness, perfectly functional hybrid-electric minivan.

Roadshow stops include McGill on Friday, November 20 from 4 to 7:30 p.m., Concordia on Saturday, November 21 from 4 to 10 p.m. and John Abbott on Monday, November 23 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Info: 844-1798.

--Philip Preville