Since 2002, Maryland Carey Law students in Professor Robert Percival's Environmental Law class have enjoyed an unusual assignment: to form small groups and make a short film about an environmental issue that concerns them. The purpose of the ungraded assignment is to make students think about how to communicate complicated environmental policy issues to the public.
Eight students in the Fall 2019 Environmental Law class created four films on environmental law. The films addressed a variety of topics including the impact plastics have on the environment to questioning how clean of a city is Baltimore and what does the environment currently look like there.
On March 4, the Environmental Law Program presented “Golden Tree” awards to the films selected for distinction in eight categories by an independent panel of judges, including Professors Taunya Banks and Kathleen Hoke along with Emmy award winning filmmaker John Brosnan.
Matt Kotroco’s film “Sand Use and Development” won Golden Tree awards for Best Picture, Best Use of Humor, Most Educational and Best Cinematography. The film “Less Plastic, Please “ by Karin Russ won awards for Best Interviews.
The awards for Best Music and Best Sound went to “Is Baltimore a Clean City?” by Michael Spanos, Mike Rada & T.J. Creevy. Finally, this year’s Special Judges Award for Best Funeral Footage went to “This Is Not OK” by Tori Long, Jackie Kapinos, Kyra Wheatley and Lauren Stetz
Inspired by the success of Maryland Carey Law’s video assignments, other environmental law professors, including the University of Idaho’s Anastasia Telesetsky, are now including student environmental films in their courses.
The Environmental Law program would like to thank all of the judges and everyone who participated in making the videos and awarding the Golden Trees.