Jackson Hole Underground

Gary Strieker is using new media to spotlight critical environmental issues.

Tonight the Jackson Hole Film Institute and Pursue Balance are sponsoring a free talk and screening of some of Strieker’s films from 7 to 9 p.m. at Teton Mountain Lodge. The filmmaker will be on hand to answer questions.

Strieker is a former award-winning international correspondent for CNN who went on to found the Environment News Trust, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to producing video news reports. His short films can be viewed at the Assignment Earth home page and via Yahoo! video, as well as on a new half-hour program on PBS.

Recently Strieker has worked with Jackson journalists Melinda Binks and Rebecca Huntington on stories such as coal-bed methane drilling in the Powder River Basin, delisting of bald eagles and depleted trout stocks in Idaho.

Binks, a videographer who owns Fall Creek Productions, and Huntington, the former ace environmental reporter for the News&Guide, also will show some of their work.

Strieker will screen “Mountains of Coal,” a feature about hilltop mining in West Virginia, and the short films “Mexican Wolves” and “Smuggling Apes.”

As town gears up for the Jackson Hole Film Festival, tonight there will be a showing of an off-festival movie that revs the debate over snowmobiles into a full-throttle indictment of the Bush-Cheney administration’s approach to government.

“A Snowmobile for George” is the story of California filmmaker Todd Darling’s ride into the exhaust cloud of deregulation. Following his own curiosity after buying a sled, Darling races from the controversy over allowing snowmobiles in Yellowstone to runaway coal-bed methane drilling in the Powder River Basin to a hideous die-off of salmon on the Klamath River.

The 96-minute film will screen at 6:30 p.m. at the Jackson campus of Teton Science Schools, off Highway 22. The event is being sponsored by the Western Organization of Research Councils, an association that represents ranchers and other landowners on issues of water, air and soil quality. On hand will be George Smith, a cowboy poet from Sheridan.

(Updated 5/23 — be sure to see comment below)

The cold, dreary weather outside is a cinema owner’s dream, especially when a certain snake-fearing professor in a fedora returns to crack the whip.

Besides last night’s midnight premiere, Movieworks has five screenings of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: 4:15, 5, 7, 8 and 9:30 p.m. There will be two additional matinees at 1:30 and 2 p.m. over Memorial Day weekend. (Movie listings always can be found here.)

The N.Y. Times review laments the lack of “any sense of rediscovery,” and there are plenty of reader comments decrying the efforts of Lucas and Spielberg, but you’d have to work pretty hard to spoil the fun of an Indiana Jones movie. Then again, the Star Wars prequels kind of sucked.

We have idolized Harrison Ford since Han Solo first fired the Millennium Falcon into hyperspace, but that boy crush turned man crush was cemented when, on our first or second day of work in Jackson Hole, Ford came into Billy’s Burgers for lunch. We knew we were in the right place.

Since then we have followed his exploits running the Snake River and swooping in with his helicopter to rescue a sick hiker in the Tetons. At 65, he continues to be an inspiration for us all, especially to anyone who has seen him work the bar at Rendezvous Bistro.

Here’s the rest of our interview with Michael Franti at the Jackson Hole Mountain Festival, plus a few outtakes.

This video was filmed immediately before Franti went on stage with Spearhead to perform for about 4,000 people huddled in the cold at Teton Village. Two nights later, we showed his anti-war documentary, “I Know I’m Not Alone,” to raise money for the Middle East Children’s Alliance, a charity he supports.

Franti talks about his trip to the Middle East, electing a new U.S. president and the fact that he was wearing shoes for the first time in eight years.

The first part of the interview can be seen here.

Thanks again to everyone who turned out last night for the showing of “I Know I’m Not Alone” at Center for the Arts, and to everyone who pitched in to make it possible, especially the Art Association and the center.

Looks like we’ll wind up raising nearly $3,000 for the Middle East Children’s Alliance.

I couldn’t help but notice the profound impact the movie made on the faces of people leaving the theater. There were several filmmakers in the audience who left feeling the bar had been set higher for their work.

If you couldn’t make the showing, check out the movie some other time. It’s available on Netflix and Michael Franti’s Web sites. I have a couple of copies people are welcome to borrow to have a screening with friends.

In the interview posted yesterday, Franti said of his motivation for traveling to Baghdad and working to make peace, “If I don’t do this now, who else will?” It’s the question at the heart of activism.

Looking up at the packed theater last night, I thought we had an answer for Michael: We will.