Plastic Pollution Coalition

The Plastic Pollution Coalition, a nonprofit organization is a coalition individuals and institutions involved in the study and remediation of plastic pollution worldwide. The Plastic Coalition promotes strategic planning, coherent communication, synergistic action to reduce the negative impacts of plastics on the environment, marine life, and human health worldwide. 

Executive Board: Lisa Boyle, Environmental Attorney, Dianna Cohen, Artist, Manuel Maqueda, 

Environmental Strategist, and Daniella Russo, Campaign and Social Activation Expert.   

Supporters, advisors and facts about plastic pollution can be viewed at this website: http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/ The coalition is hosting an upcoming screening at UCLA.

A film festival to honor Oceans Day

From Daniella Russo's notebook
So after long debates about how to get people interested in - er - garbage, marine debris and plastic containers, in a moment of absolutely clarity, our team of grass-roots organizations, filmmakers and non-profit leaders arrived at the decision to organize a film festival! In partnership with the Cannery Row IMAX who is providing its beautiful new facility for the event, we are now in the midst of organizing the inaugural Oceans Day film festival. This year's theme is "Think Beyond Plastics". We will screen three terrific films: Marina of the Zabballeen, Message in The Waves and Strange Days on Planet Earth (Dirty Secrets).


How do you get a film festival on a shoestring budget? Ask Wendy Goldman. Wendy is the queen of the event, who organizes us all with an iron fist and produces with a tremendous speed press releases, fact-sheets, pledges and everything else a film festival needs. Which is a lot. Click on our staff link and find out more abut Wendy. She is terrific.

Think Beyond Plastics gains momentum

From Daniella Russo's notes
Well, so much about writing regularly. We got real busy really fast: the campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of plastics "grew legs" in multiple communities and many grass-roots organizations. We have reached out to Surfrider, Save Our Shores, Oceana, Sea Life Conservation, Save The Whales and many others to get the message out to our communities. How? We produce thousands of CDs with outreach materials and ask people to take one and host a party. Not tupperware party, but a plastics-awareness party. As a result of our relentless focus on getting the word out, our Facebook cause Don't Trash The Ocean topped 15,000 and continues to snowball and traffic to our web sites GreatGarbagePatch.org and DropThePlasticBag.org has nearly doubled.
We must press on.

Two new web videos by Sea Studios

Dr. Sumaila, director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia Fishery Center, talks about overfishing, its impact on the Ghanaian economy, and the global ramifications of a fish shortage in Africa.


Captain Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Research Institute, highlights some of the problems of plastic contamination.

“Once Upon a Tide”

Sea Studios Foundation, Monterey, CA 8/15/07.
In addition to producing science documentaries like “Shape of Life" and "Strange Days on Planet Earth" , we are starting to depart from traditional science narratives. “Once Upon a Tide” is a live-action / animated fable designed to touch people’s hearts by witnessing the journey of a little girl named Olive. Olive lives in a world, set in a time, not unlike our own, where a spell has been cast causing people to forget about the ocean and its importance to our lives. Luckily for Olive, she finds a shell that helps open her eyes to the magic of the ocean. Here are some stills from the film:



Animation created by LAIKA/house

Yesterday we shot two of the live action scenes in Monterey. We had what I thought was a big crew, a director, a DP, a sound recordist, an AC, a grip, a gaffer, two caterers, several producers, a child actress, her mother, a make up artist, a prop designer, me, and a crane operator. I guess that isn’t big by Hollywood standards, but it was the biggest shoot I had been on.



Everything went great. Olive, our star was good as gold. The weather cooperated for the most part. We thought our big hero, dune jib shot would be ruined by fog. But the sun came out just in time and we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset. It was a fabulous day!

Signing off for now...Hannah Smith Walker (Sea Studios Production / Post Coordinator)

Harry Potter and the search for the perfect children’s bedroom

Sea Studios Foundation, Monterey, CA 8/15/07.
While most everyone at Sea Studios was out having grand adventures in Africa, I had my own quest in Monterey. I had three weeks to find the perfect sand dune and the perfect children’s bedroom for an upcoming documentary called “Once Upon a Tide”. It was great trekking all around Monterey finding all different shapes and sizes of sand dunes.
But the bedroom was another story. I had struck out at every turn finding the mythical perfect child’s bedroom. But luckily, a boy named Harry Potter led me to a woman named Tammy.
The night before the new Potter book came out, I found myself in a library-sponsored trivia contest. I didn’t know a soul in the audience, but I noticed one of my competitors seemed to know everyone. Scores of people held up placards supporting a woman named Tammy and her daughters in Harry Potter trivia domination. Tammy wiped the floor with me and ended up winning the competition. When I went up to her to congratulate her, I surprised her by asking to take pictures of her daughters’ bedrooms. She gave me quite a funny look, as I tried to explain that I was scouting locations for Sea Studios. It all came out in a nonsensical rush, but fortunately a woman near by perked up and said, “Sea Studios, I know Sea Studios, they make wonderful films”.

So, to make a long story short Tammy showed me her wonderful home, and two weeks later a giant film crew invaded her house.