Cinema carries a transformative quality unlike any other artistic medium. Although it may go underappreciated in our age of constant saturation and infinite content, film’s capacity to immerse viewers in perspectives other than their own is massive, carrying the potential of leaving audiences with not only lasting impressions, but new insight, understanding, and empathy about the world they inhabit.
Read on for our interviews with:
Alexa Caravia
Milly Cohen
Jayme Gershen
Helen Peña
Shireen Rahimi
That’s why Oolite Arts recruited some of Miami’s best and brightest creative minds for Save the Bay, a video campaign dedicated to raising awareness of how locals can help preserve Biscayne Bay. Last week, the org staged a YouTube Live broadcast spotlighting PSAs by Shireen Rahimi, Milly Cohen, Helen Peña, Jayme Gershen, Alexa Caravia, and others on ways Miamians can do better by our troubled natural wonder.
Although it’s important to watch these PSAs and gain new perspectives on protecting Biscayne Bay, Oolite Arts is now inviting viewers to weigh in themselves: Now through Wednesday, August 11, you can rewatch these shorts (scroll to the bottom of 👉 this page) and vote for your favorite. The winner will be announced on Friday, August 13, when they’ll receive an honorary People’s Choice Award along with a $1,000 prize.
In honor of Save the Bay, Biscayne Bay itself, and the power of cinema, The New Tropic spoke with five of the filmmakers involved with the initiative. Their answers probe deep into the social responsibility of art, what it means to live alongside fragile ecosystems like Biscayne Bay, and the intertwined fate of Miamians and our natural resources.