Planet Green Announces the Second Season of Its Reel Impact Documentary Strand

SILVER SPRING, Md., June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Premieres of strong, provocative documentaries will continue throughout 2010, as Planet Green today unveiled the slate for the second season of its thought-provoking documentary strand, REEL IMPACT. The network has become cable's home for issue-oriented, award-winning nonfiction filmmaking every Saturday night at 10:00 PM (ET/PT) inside its VERGE primetime block.

Season two of REEL IMPACT launches with the world television premiere of NO IMPACT MAN on August 28, the story of author Colin Beavan's quest to adopt a lifestyle that generates zero environmental impact – while living in New York City with a young family.  NO IMPACT MAN created significant buzz on the festival circuit and caused audiences around the globe to reconsider their own waste output "footprints."  The following Saturday, September 4, brings the network premiere of the 2009 Academy Award® Winner for Best Documentary, THE COVE, a gripping expose of heinous ecological crimes being committed in one small Japanese village.  Later, the REEL IMPACT slate is proud to bring strong festival performance documentaries that address real issues we are facing with HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM and SUPERSIZE ME.

Earlier in August, Planet Green will feature the U.S. television premieres of two gripping features confronting issues facing the planet's waterways – ONE WATER and SHARKWATER.  Both documentaries will be featured as part of Planet Green's BLUE AUGUST month-long water advocacy campaign.  

"Documentary films represent the ultimate intersection of art and truth.  The features in our new REEL IMPACT slate ask the questions of our time and simultaneously entertain, inspire and inform," said Laura Michalchyshyn, president and general manager of Planet Green.  "Planet Green takes a great deal of pride in its role as an active partner to the documentary film community.  We are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring such a diverse offering of films to American audiences – many for the first time ever on U.S. television."  

The following is a full list of documentaries that will be featured during the second season of REEL IMPACT and during BLUE AUGUST.

REEL IMPACT – BLUE AUGUST PREMIERES

SHARKWATER – U.S. Television Premiere on Saturday, August 21, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

SHARKWATER takes you into the most shark-rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world's shark populations.  For filmmaker Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure.  Driven by passion fed from a lifelong fascination with sharks, Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas.  Stewart's remarkable journey of courage and determination changes from a mission to save the world's sharks into a fight for his life and that of humankind.  SHARKWATER is directed by Rob Stewart.

ONE WATER – Saturday, August 7, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT) (U.S. Television Premiere on August 2 on Planet Green)

Narrated by Martin Sheen and shot in 15 countries, this documentary follows the daily struggle of several communities throughout the planet to obtain and maintain potable water.  ONE WATER highlights a world where water is exquisitely abundant in some places and dangerously lacking in others, leaving audiences with a series of provocative questions that culminate in one that will impact all of our futures:  Is water a human right or a commodity?  ONE WATER is directed by Sanjeev Chatterjee and Ali Habashi.

REEL IMPACT – SEASON TWO PREMIERES

NO IMPACT MAN –World Television Premiere on Saturday, August 28 at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

NO IMPACT MAN chronicles a one-year effort by author Colin Beavan to get off the grid and live in New York City with as little environmental impact as possible.  Adding to the challenge, Beavan's journalist wife, Michelle, their toddler daughter and the family dog get to go along for the ride, forgoing the comforts of electricity, cars, nonlocal food and even toilet paper, and among other things.  The film, from independent producers Laura Gabbert (Getting to Know You, Sunset Story) and Eden Wurmfeld (The Hammer, Puccini for Beginners), premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.  In it, Beavan aims to draw attention to a host of pressing environmental crises while attempting to determine if living off the grid adversely affects happiness.  Can individual change of this kind be a step toward a systemic change in society as a whole?  And is doing one's part to save the planet worth the discomfort of adapting to life without Saks and Starbucks?  NO IMPACT MAN is directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein.

THE COVE – Saturday, September 4, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT) (Network Television Premiere on August 30 on Planet Green)

Academy Award® Winner for Best Documentary of 2009, THE COVE follows an elite team of activists, filmmakers and free divers as they embark on a covert mission to penetrate a remote and hidden cove in Taiji, Japan, shining a light on a dark and deadly secret.  Utilizing state-of-the-art techniques, including hidden microphones and cameras in fake rocks, the team uncovers how this small seaside village serves as a horrifying microcosm of massive ecological crimes happening worldwide.  The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery, adding up to an unforgettable story that has inspired audiences worldwide to action.

THE GARDEN – U.S. Television Premiere on Saturday, September 11, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

The 14-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States.  Conceived as a way to help heal the city after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country's most blighted neighborhoods—but now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.  This Oscar-nominated documentary follows the plight of the farmers from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall.  THE GARDEN is directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy.

COLLAPSE – U.S. Television Premiere on Saturday, September 18, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

Meet Michael Ruppert, a different kind of American.  A former Los Angeles police officer turned independent reporter, Ruppert predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter, From the Wilderness, at a time when most Wall Street and Washington analysts were still in denial.  Now, the radical thinker spells out the impending energy, environmental and economic crises he sees ahead.  COLLAPSE is directed by Chris Smith.

KILL IT, SKIN IT, WEAR IT – U.S. Television Premiere on Saturday, September 25, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

In the 1980s the fur industry was brought to its knees by the anti-fur lobby—but now, fur is back on the catwalks, in the magazines and on Main Street.  Chef Merrilees Parker attempts to uncover the truth behind this remarkable fashion revival, going on a journey to discover if it's possible to source ethical fur as we source ethical food—and if it is ever really possible to wear fur without a guilty conscience.  KILL IT, SKIN IT, WEAR IT is produced by RDF Television.

SUPERSIZE ME – Saturday, October 2, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT) (Network Television Premiere on September 28 on Planet Green)

Oscar-nominated documentary director Morgan Spurlock takes a hilarious and often terrifying look at the effects of fast food on the human body, using himself as the proverbial guinea pig.  For one month, Spurlock eats nothing but McDonald's, ordering everything on the menu and "supersizing" his order whenever asked.  The result is a sobering examination of the line between personal and corporate responsibility.  SUPERSIZE ME is directed by Morgan Spurlock.

HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM – U.S. Television Premiere on Saturday, October 9, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

Step inside the energy capital of the world to hear the truth about oil, straight from the hearts of the Texas oilmen themselves.  Today, in the midst of global warming and peak oil, the world's energy demand is skyrocketing.  Aggressive strategies for securing crude now go to the highest bidder or the biggest bully.  Hear the confessions of oilmen who work in the trenches every day, scrambling to feed America's ferocious appetite.  Even they know that being addicted to cheap oil is the drug that will be the nation's downfall.  HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM is directed by Nicole Torre.

KING CORN – Network Television Premiere on Saturday, November 6, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

A 2008 Peabody Award winner, KING CORN follows college best friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, who move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from.  With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most productive, most subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil.  But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.  KING CORN is directed by Aaron Woolf.

BIG RIVER – U.S. Television Premiere on Saturday November 6, at 11:00 PM (ET/PT) (Following KING CORN)

Following up on their Peabody-winning documentary, the KING CORN boys are back.  In BIG RIVER, best friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis have returned to Iowa with a new mission: to investigate the environmental impact their acre of corn has on the people and places downstream.  BIG RIVER is directed by Curt Ellis.

H2OIL – U.S. Television Premiere on Saturday, November 13, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

America's biggest oil supplier has quickly become Canada's oil sands.  Located under Alberta's pristine boreal forests, the process of oil sands extraction uses up to four barrels of fresh water to produce only one barrel of crude oil.  But water—its depletion, exploitation, privatization and contamination—is one of the most important issues facing humanity in this century.  H2OIL follows a voyage of discovery, heartbreak and politicization in the stories of those attempting to defend water in Alberta against tar sands expansion.  Unlikely alliances are built and lives are changed as they come up against the largest industrial project in human history.  Ultimately, we ask, what is more important, oil or water? H2OIL is directed by Shannon Walsh.

COLONY – U.S. Premiere on Saturday, December 4, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

COLONY follows the stories of several American beekeepers during 2008 and 2009 as the country's economy spiraled downward, including David Hackenberg, who first identified colony collapse disorder when he mysteriously lost eighty million bees from his Florida hives. COLONY also follows entrepreneur David Mendes, as he travels across the country, renting out his bees to farmers for weeks at a time, as well as the Seppi family, newcomers to the beekeeping world, who face the collapse of their colony and the economy, but are rooted by their deep Christian faith.  COLONY is directed by Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell.  

HEALTH IS ON OUR PLATE – U.S. Premiere on Saturday, December 18, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

This investigative documentary shows that the main cause of the cancer epidemic is the chemical molecules that have invaded our environment and our food over the last 50 years.  Retracing the way food is produced, from the farmer's field to our plates, HEALTH IS ON OUR PLATE analyzes international systems for approval of chemicals and pesticides, explains the mechanisms of carcinogenesis and shows how you can protect yourself by boosting your immune system through food.  HEALTH IS ON OUR PLATE is directed by Marie Monique Robin.

About Planet Green:

Planet Green is the multiplatform media destination for people looking for something new.  Launched on June 4, 2008, Planet Green is following the evolving conversation about sustainability and is the entertainment brand that champions the visionaries who move our world forward in small and large ways.  Planet Green and its two robust Web sites, planetgreen.com and TreeHugger.com, offer unique, insightful and inspiring content related to how we can evolve to live a better, brighter future.  Planet Green's original programming, digital tools and content will entertain, educate and activate.

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