Boston Flora

Tag: Emily Driscoll

  • Saturday, May 12, 2:00 pm – Shellshocked: Saving Oysters to Save Ourselves

    In conjunction with the new exhibition, Mollusks, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge,  will screen Shellshocked, a new documentary by Emily Driscoll, on Saturday, May 12 beginning at 2 pm. The film follows efforts to prevent the extinction of wild oyster reefs, which keep oceans healthy by filtering water and engineering ecosystems. Due to overfishing and pollution, much of the world’s wild oyster reefs have been declared “functionally extinct.” Followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker and George Buckley, of the Sustainability and Environmental Management Program at Harvard Extension School.  Regular admission rates apply.  For more information, visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

     

     

  • Thursday, August 19, 5:15 pm – Cambridge Premiere of Bugged

    You are invited to the Cambridge Premiere of BUGGED, The Race to Eradicate the Asian Longhorned Beetle, Narrated by Emmy Award-Winning News Correspondent Pat Dawson, Produced/Directed by Emily Driscoll, on Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 5:15PM, at The Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge.

    For more information, call 617.495.3045 or log on to www.hmnh.harvard.edu

    Bugged is “…frankly one of the most comprehensive and best educational documentaries on the Asian longhorned beetle that has been made to date….Now, more than ever, the general public needs to remain observant and vigilant in case ALB shows up in your city or neighborhood. This short film will broaden one’s view of this most important and unwanted pest!”

    -Richard Hoebeke, Taxonomic and Survey Entomologist, Cornell University

    About the Documentary:
    Alien invaders live hidden among us. The Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) is one of the world’s worst invasive species and could destroy one third of America’s trees. Now, for the first time, the ALB infests a city (Worcester) on the edge of a natural forested area. Follow the scientists, USDA officials and private citizens who are the front lines in the Asian longhorned beetle eradication war.

    Bugged is the first documentary to present the national story of the ALB infestation in America and to explore the  science of eradication.

    www.buggeddocumentary.com

  • Wednesday, August 4, 2:00 pm and 6:00 pm – Bugged

    Martin Luttrell of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette has posted the following announcement, which may be found in full at www.telegram.com:

    Shortly after earning her economics degree at George Washington University, Fitchburg native Emily V. Driscoll set her sights on science journalism, getting a master’s degree and setting to work as a documentary film maker.  And after producing a number of short-form documentaries as a member of a production company, she returned to Central Massachusetts to document the efforts to eradicate the Asian longhorned beetle.

    Bugged: The Race to Eradicate the Asian Longhorned Beetle, is the first science documentary Ms. Driscoll has directed. It will be shown in Worcester and Fitchburg next month.  Ms. Driscoll, 29, said she began interviewing sources for the project in September and finished editing the 24-minute piece in June.

    “I want to spread awareness of the Asian longhorned beetle in America, and the extraordinary efforts at eradication,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in New York City. “I want people to understand the gravity of the situation, and the efforts that go into containing it.”

    The Asian longhorned beetle destroys trees by boring holes through them, and some officials are concerned that they are endangering trees and forests throughout New England. The infestation area in and around Worcester now covers 74 square miles, where more than 25,600 trees have been cut down.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture has put up $41.5 million to expand the eradication project this year, and officials with that government department have said they are optimistic that eradication should succeed over the next 10 years.

    Ms. Driscoll, who moved from Fitchburg to New York City while in elementary school, received her economics degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 2002, and her master’s degree in science journalism from New York University in 2007. She is now working toward a master’s in science documentary production at the Gallatin School, a school of individual study within NYU.   The film will be shown at the Worcester Public Library at 2 and 6 p.m. Aug. 4. Ms. Driscoll will not be present for those screenings, but will be on Aug. 6 in Fitchburg. That screening will take place at Riverfront Park, at a time to be announced.

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