Overburden 2015|65 min|USA Directed by Chad A. Stevens Australian Premiere
Followed by panel discussion with Deborah Hart (Author Guarding Eden), Greg Foyster (Author Changing Gears), Tom Doig (Author The Coal Face), Nicholas Aberle (Environment Victoria).
What does a post-coal world look like?
Overburden is the story of a fiery, pro-coal right-winger and a tenacious, environmentalist grandmother as they take on the most dangerous coal company in America. These two lives intertwine as the pair unite to launch the first wind farm in coal country, rebuild their fractured community and prepare for the transition to a new, green economy.
The international coal industry is in a “terminal decline,” leaving communities facing an uncertain and dire future. Overburden is the first film of its kind to document the end of the age of coal and celebrate the heroes who are standing up to rebuild their fractured communities.
Deborah Hart wrote Guarding Eden (Allen & Unwin, 2015) to show how and why highly destructive, polluting industries that built immense wealth and influence last century are now using that power recklessly to protect their profits, and what ordinary citizens are doing in attempts to safeguard nature and humanity’s future.
Before becoming an activist Deborah spent 16 years working in development roles with leading Australian arts and culture organisations. In 2006 Deborah founded LIVE, one of Melbourne’s first local climate groups, and later co-founded CLIMARTE(2010), an independent not for profit body that brings the arts community together to tackle climate change.
Deborah volunteers with numerous not-for-profit environment groups and helped establish ClimActs (with Dr Liz Conor, 2013) to combine spectacle, humour and direct action to draw attention to the climate issue. ClimActs’ founding act the Climate Guardians recently captivated the world’s media in Paris during COP15.
Tom’s nonfiction has been published in The Big Issue, Crikey, New Matilda, Smith Journal, The Lifted Brow and Voiceworks. He is currently a PhD candidate at Monash University, researching the lived experience of crisis and climate change in the Latrobe Valley, and writing an expanded version of The Coal Face.
Dr Nicholas Aberle is the Safe Climate Campaign Manager at Environment Victoria, one of Australia’s leading environment not-for-profit environment organisations. He works on campaigns and policies to reduce Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions, as well as related issues such as the regulation of coal mines and pollution.
Prior to this role, he spent three years at the Victorian Government’s Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, contributing to the 2013 State of the Environment report, with a particular focus on energy and climate issues. At the same time, Nicholas also founded, and for four years ran, the Environmental Film Festival Melbourne.
In a previous career, he was a medical research scientist, completing a PhD in organic chemistry from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and a three year research fellowship at Yale University in the USA. He also holds a Law degree from the University of Melbourne.
Greg Foyster is a journalist specialising in social issues and the environment. His feature articles, news stories and opinion pieces have appeared in more than 15 different publications, including The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Big Issue, Crikey, Smith Journal and the ABC.
An alumnus of Centre for Sustainability Leadership, Greg has given public presentations at the Sustainable Living Festival, the Wheeler Centre, the Melbourne Writers Festival and the Sydney Writers Festival, and has been featured in The Age’s ‘Top 100’ list of inspiring and influential Melburnians.
Greg is the author of the book Changing Gears: A Pedal-Powered Detour from the Rat Race, which tells the story of a 6500 kilometre bicycle journey around Australia exploring sustainable living.Hecurrently works as the Communications Manager at Environment Victoria.
