The Jackson Hole Center for the Arts will feature an evening of environmental awareness tonight, October 7th, starting at 7:00 p.m., doors and concessions open at 6:00 p.m. Several short films about the greater Yellowstone area will be presented, followed by the evening's feature film: "Vanishing Cheetahs." This film looks at local rachers' work to help preserve the large cat in Namibia.
The showing is FREE. For more information on the short and feature films and the series, "Assignment Earth," check out the press release below:
As CNN Nairobi Bureau Chief, Gary Strieker covered civil wars in Africa. Today, Strieker has launched an independent television series to document battles around the globe from another frontline – the environment.
In his new, high-definition series for PBS, "Assignment Earth," Strieker follows the world's fastest land animal, the cheetah, in its race for survival as its habitat shrinks and conflicts with people arise. Strieker's "Assignment Earth" also has produced more than 80 short films on environmental issues, including Wyoming stories from natural gas drilling to elk test and slaughter.
Fall Creek Productions, Jackson Hole Film Institute and Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs present "Assignment Earth: Africa to Yellowstone" at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 7 at the Center for the Arts Main Theater. Admission is free with open seating, offered first-come, first-serve. Doors and concessions open at 6 p.m.
Following the screenings, there will be a conversation on media and the environment with Strieker; Rebecca Huntington, former Jackson Hole News&Guide environmental reporter; and John Kerr, a former PBS development director for WGBH in Boston turned Yellowstone National Park seasonal ranger.
The evening will feature several short films from the greater Yellowstone, including stories about Wyoming wildlife crime-stoppers, Craighead Beringia South's sage grouse investigations and Snake River conservation, among others. The evening's feature film will be "Vanishing Cheetahs," an in-depth look at conservationists' work with ranchers to protect the world's largest, remaining cheetah population in Namibia. After local extinction in at least 15 countries during the past 60 years, fewer than 12,000 cheetahs are now believed to survive in parts of Africa and Iran.
Strieker is an award-winning veteran television correspondent, who reported for nearly 20 years as CNN's Nairobi Bureau Chief and Global Environment Correspondent. In 2004, he launched the Environment News Trust, a non-profit organization that produces independent, in-depth and ongoing reports on the environment.
"There is a critical need for more public awareness and informed debate about environmental issues like air and water quality, endangered species and habitat loss," Strieker says. "But many national television outlets are failing to give these issues the coverage they deserve."
Strieker has produced several environmental stories in the Rocky Mountain region with Jackson-based correspondents Melinda Binks, a filmmaker and founder of Fall Creek Productions, and Huntington, a freelance journalist.
"Gary's unwavering drive to cover complex environmental issues where they're happening makes his reports stand out in an era when major networks appear to favor positioning pundits around a table to sending reporters into the field," Huntington says.
To watch "Assignment Earth" stories, go to: www.assignmentearth.org and click on "Our Stories." The same stories are broadcast on PBS stations nationwide, Yahoo! News and YouTube. Keep up on the latest reports from the environmental frontlines by going online to YouTube.com and subscribing to the Assignment Earth channel.
For information, call Rebecca Huntington at (307) 413-2643 or Melinda Binks at (307) 413-5688 .