A young Pearl Bailey reminds us to take some time to embrace the rhythm.

As we age, so might our confidence. And this is exactly why we need Pearl Bailey’s Frankie to pull us through tough times. Sure, an impromptu dancing and singing number on stage can be seen as a ploy for attention, but it can also be an empowering move of self-expression when one hears the music calling. Sometimes, a girl just wants to dance.

Here we see Bailey performing in Carmen Jones (1954), one of the first mainstream Hollywood movies featuring an all African-American cast. It’s a retelling of Bizet’s opera about a strong woman “who lives by her own rules and discards men when she tires of them.” A well known singer, Bailey’s sexy, throaty rendition of the “bump bump bump” in the music is enough to get her grooving. She’s vibrant, powerful, and most importantly – confident.

A fantastic vision of an all-black world set on an army base in the South during World War II, Carmen Jones courted controversy for director Otto Preminger and star Dorothy Dandridge. Opinions weren’t sure the lead’s slatternly ways were a good role model for black women at the time. Then lady-like Dandridge showed up for her second audition with heavy makeup and asked screen test partner James Edwards to blow on her freshly-painted toe nails. Dandridge got the part, going on to become the first African-American woman to be nominated for Best Actress.

ExclusiveDocumenting beauty in nature: an EcoSalon exclusive with photographer Ben Canales and new “Finding Oregon” timelapse.

Sometimes we need reminders of who we are and what is important. Finding Oregon is one of those reminders. Shot in Oregon, and produced by Uncage the Soul Productions, the video is a composite of timelapses, giving us an intimate look at the day and night sky in some of the most remote places in this western state known for its natural resources and beauty.

This video is a fresh respite from our everyday, overloaded, technology dependent, lives. It reminds us of the natural rhythms that we have almost become unaccustomed to, reintroducing us to the power and routine of nature.

Photographer and Uncage the Soul team member Ben Canales knows a thing or two about timelapses, and in this EcoSalon exclusive behind-the-scenes he shares his inspiration and process, giving us a look into the reality of creating a magical 3 minutes.

Finding Oregon from Uncage the Soul Productions on Vimeo.

How long did you film for?

About 70% of the timelapse sequences were shot in one intense, week-long road trip going to all four of the furthest corners of Oregon, but the remainder was filmed throughout 2010-2011.

This is a great question, because we ourselves, didn’t realize just how much work is involved until we got serious about this project. It is shocking how much energy, time, and equipment goes into getting one, six second video clip. For instance, a glowing tent clip from Crater Lake demanded a dedicated three day trip out of town, location scouting in the day to find the perfect spot for the night, a three mile trek through the snow with all the equipment to the spot, setup for an hour and then wait for nightfall.

The actual filming takes 2-4 hours to record a good night timelapse of the stars moving, and then pack up, hike out, and drive home the next day. That is only the work done in the field! Then there are hours and hours of processing, editing, and polishing the final video sequence to get only six seconds of final video.

It is not an exaggeration to say one short, final clip may represent 20-30 hours of planning, driving, hiking, shooting, and processing- all that for mere seconds of video playback. It is a ridiculous labor of love.

The biggest challenge is the timing lining up to be in the right place at the right time. These starry night timelapses have a surprising amount of requirements to get the bright, beaming epic payoff. First, the moon should be around the New Moon phase (no moon) so as not to outshine the stars, so that means we get a window of about five days a month. Next, weather must be cooperative with a dependable expectancy of cloudless skies. Here in Oregon, only the summer months have a good chance of clear skies. So that means, we have three months in the year, with a 5 day window each month to plan, with fingers crossed, for epic star shooting conditions. That’s only 15 days in a year.

Then, you hope that something doesn’t come up in regular life to pull you away to other obligations on those few days. It is a maddening challenge to get all the factors to line up to be in the right place at the right time. But, when it does happen- it is such a satisfying feeling.

*Groan* Yes… it’s painful to think about. We had set up a motion controlled timelapse that lifted the camera over a boulder to reveal a desert arch framing the passing Milky Way and stars. It is a beautiful sight and not one I’ve seen anyone else capture in this location. We were really excited because this shot would be one of the top five sequences in the final video. We spent the first half of the night finding the spot in the dark, lugging the equipment up the hill to the location and then meticulously setting it all up. We were short on sleep, but pushed through the fatigue because the shot was more than worth it.

Finally, everything was set, the Milky Way was fast approaching and showing up in the arch. We fired off a few test shots, turned it on to run the whole night and then trudged back to camp for some desperately needed sleep. Hours later, we came back, excited to see the final result, but it turned out the power cord to the battery was loose and slight movement had disconnected the power source only 20 minutes after we left it. It was a complete loss.

Next summer the stars and Milky Way will line up there again through that arch like it has for thousands of years, and maybe we’ll be lucky enough to be back to get it.

We’ve filmed the Columbia River Gorge, Mt Hood and the surrounding area, Mt Jefferson, the Southwestern Coast, the Alvord Desert, Leslie Gulch, Blue Mountains, Crater Lake, Eagle Cap Wilderness, Deschutes River, and more. We’re proud to have touched all four corners of the state; however, Oregon is the kind of place that the more you see, the more you realize you’ve missed and haven’t seen yet!

Absolutely. We were inspired to make this film because of the personal experiences our team has individually had in Oregon. But, we would be honored to have the opportunity to capture and showcase the unique beauty of other regions through our cameras. Hopefully films like this will inspire and excite others to go beyond their normal routines and see some of the beautiful regions beyond their own backyards.

This is a question that each of our team members would probably uniquely answer in their own way, so I can only speak for myself in this moment. I am inspired to make this film to share the moments of beauty and awe in nature with those that don’t have the opportunity to see it themselves.

I go to great lengths to get far from the city, beyond its reach, to get to the wild and free places. For me, it is an honor and a joy to try to capture some of these moments and bring back something to share of my own experience. I am literally in awe of the wild beauty of snow capped mountains, immensely flat desert horizons, violently rugged coastal sea stacks, infinitely sparkling starry night skies, exploding colors of sunsets and sunrises, and so on. If there’s a chance I can capture some of that to share with others and/or bring awareness for the need to protect these special places, I find inspiration there.

Learn more about Uncage the Soul Productions work here.

Women hold only 3% of clout positions in mainstream media. What’s wrong with this picture?

Women and media are a common topic of discussion in my close circles, as it’s something that we all care strongly about. Be it the role of female filmmakers in a male dominated industry or the portrayal of women in television and film, when it comes to my gender and the media there’s never a lack of things to talk about.

Here at EcoSalon, where we are steeped in both worlds, things are no different. So when a good friend in the film industry posted a link to a trailer for Miss Representation - a documentary that explores the misrepresentation of women in culture and media and how that influences the under representation of women in other realms, like politics and business - it got my attention immediately.

Constantly inundated with all forms of media on a practically 24/7 basis, it is rare that something truly moves me. Call it desensitized, but in the era of short audio and video clips it’s easy to scan, fast forward and move on. But this trailer was different. It gave me chills. It left me staring at the screen frustrated. Some statistics that I couldn’t get over:

While women have made great strides in leadership over the past few decades, the United States is still 90th in the world for women in national legislatures, women hold only 3% of clout positions in mainstream media, and 65% of women and girls have disordered eating behaviors.

And yet there was a sense of empowerment to be garnered; the sense that rallying together we can make serious change.

That’s the idea that the film’s writer and producer, Jennifer Siebel Newsom wants to get across. In between dealing with her daughter’s bout of pink eye and breast feeding her 4-month old son, she took time to talk about the inspiration behind the film and why she is driven to work on this question of women and their portrayal in the media.

In the entertainment industry since the age of 28, Siebel Newsom knows what she’s talking about, having seen the portrayal of women and its effects early on. “I was [already] very very concerned about what it would be like raising a child in our modern culture… I had a daughter and my concern increased,” says Siebel Newsom.

That concern was fueled even more during the 2008 presidential campaign. “[I] witnessed all the campaigns directed against Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin and couldn’t help but recognize what was happening to them and what was happening to women aspiring towards leadership,” says Siebel Newsom, adding that those types of negative campaigns “would discourage anyone from aspiring to be a leader.”

Ultimately she saw the difficult cultural obstacles that women were up against, and tied them back to media. Why aren’t there more women in leadership roles? “It’s sort of a chicken and the egg, both the media and our culture don’t value women enough,” she says. That leads to an image that, as Siebel Newsom puts it, is ”disparaging and hyper-sexualized and ultimately relays to the culture that that’s what women are.”

Which means women are up against some very difficult obstacles when it comes to changing these embedded values. “97% of what you see and hear comes from the male perspective, I’m not saying that it’s wrong but it’s a limited perspective,” Siebel Newsom says.

Women’s portrayal in media, as well as their role in guiding it, is a multi-faceted issue, influenced by numerous factors. From education to commercialization of gender roles, women’s identities are shaped from a young age. As a mother, Siebel Newsom knows this all too well, “Disney is now selling to kids as early as newborns.” She adds, “your pink little onesie… reinforces gender.”

Start girls off with that role early, exacerbate it with an over sexualized image in the media, and the effects later in life aren’t pretty. Women end up “willingly thinking that it’s their role to please and satisfy,” says Siebel Newsom. With that idea drilled into our subconscious, it’s no surprise that we invest millions of dollars into making ourselves look better, going under the knife to attain a media defined ideal.

As the film highlights, the number of cosmetic surgical procedures performed on youths 18 or younger more than tripled from 1997 to 2007. Those are valuable dollars, and if we’re going to make change we need to rethink where our priorities lie. “Instead of investing that money in their own beauty and investing it in changing our cultural landscape, that would be huge,” says Siebel Newsom.

In the midst of a slew of disheartening statistics, it is easy to get overwhelmed, but if there’s one thing about Siebel Newsom, it’s that her energy and passion for this issue comes across loud and clear and it was hard to leave the call uninspired.

In the end, the answer may be as simple as joining forces. As Siebel Newsom points out, “We need a village of women supporting each other… to change the cultural landscape.”

I asked her if she were to give advice to three different generations of women, what it would be.

For younger girls, those like her daughter:

“[That] they’re each unique. Whatever is unique about us makes us special.”

For women in their 20s-40s:

“Figure out what you’re passionate about and go for it and don’t let anything stop you. Surround yourself with women that are like minded and supportive.”

For women in their 50s and 60s:

“Embrace your wisdom… empower younger women that need support.”

Siebel Newsom encourages people to take the Miss Representation pledge or host a screening of the film, as well as follow these five action steps:

1. Tell five people about the film and share one thing you learned from watching it.

2. Parents- watch TV and films with your children. Raise questions like “What if that character had been a girl instead?”

3. Remember your actions influence others. Mothers, aunts and loved ones- don’t downgrade or judge yourself by your looks. Fathers, uncles and loved ones—treat women around you with respect. Remember children in your life are watching and learning from you.

4. Use your consumer power. Stop buying tabloid magazines and watching shows that degrade women. Go see movies that are written and directed by women (especially on opening weekend to boost the box office ratings). Avoid products that resort to sexism in their advertising.

5. Mentor others! It’s as easy as taking a young woman to lunch. Start by having open and honest conversations with young people in your life.

Having already made the festival circuit, Miss Representation has its broadcast premiere this week. You can catch it on Thursday, October 20 at 9 p.m. on OWN.

Images: Miss Representation

Women on Film: Thelma and Louise helped us fully visualize the best way to deter street harassment.

Having someone leer at you on the street is like mixing a martini with olives and forgetting to put in the gin. It’s taking your sexuality and mucking it up with a sad, heavy aftertaste. Because isn’t getting leered at on the street really just a fundamental move of disrespect that leaves a bitter taste in your mouth?

Street catcalls usually arrive as a whistle or a shout or a kissing sound flung at you across the street. If you react, you risk more harassment. If you ignore it, you feel like you’re condoning the behavior. If you get upset, then you’re an uptight prude who doesn’t understand that it’s really just a compliment. Because romance is all about a sucking, shrill kissy noise thrown at you by a teenager leering at you from a car before speeding off into oblivion. Right? Don’t overthink it.

And to the leerers of the world, we ask the truth. In your experiences of throwing aforementioned kissy sounds, has a woman ever turned on her heel and rushed into your arms? When you’ve asked a woman to fellate your genitals while speeding down Sunset Boulevard, has she ever lept after your car? When you startle a woman off her iPod with shouts about her derriere, have you ever gotten more than a middle finger thrust in your direction?

Street harassers of the world, please imprint this on your brains. If we’re decked out in short skirts and platform shoes, that doesn’t mean we have a flashing sign over our heads pointing that our breasts are open for comment.

Or maybe you should just know that this is how some of us would like to respond to your endless collective windpipe of harassment.

In 1991, “Thelma and Louise” showed us perhaps the best way to lean hard into street harassment. We salute you, Sassy Thelma and Dame Louise. We salute you.

Image: “An American Girl in Italy” c. 1952. Photo by Ruth Orkin

SeriesWomen we love on film who inspire and motivate the rest of us.

Many of us are all about those times when we get to rise above the cacophony of everyday life, even if it’s just for the time it takes to watch a Youtube clip. Be they feminist or girlie or green, these are the moments when you realize that life is really this complex, wonderful thing. We’re riding its wave, occasionally bumped into our own realities by some spectacular moments of clarity.

Joyce Carol Oates once wrote, “It is only through disruption and confusion that we grow, jarred out of ourselves by the collision of someone’s private world with our own.” For many of us, our motivation comes from many places – including film. After all, what more than film gives us the illusion that we’re “colliding” with someone else’s private hopes, dreams, dramas and triumphs?

This is just the kind of thing you might need in the morning with your coffee and multi-grain toast points. And so, we’ve decided to offer up a series of cinematic heroines for your viewing pleasure. These are the characters who have had us out of our seats through the years. Whether we’re cheering, weeping, applauding, or laughing alongside them, we’re always routing for them to succeed.

So who better to kick off our series than our first feminist heroine, Norma Rae? The Academy Award-winning 1979 film of the same name stars Sally Field, fearless textile worker and young mother. Norma Rae Webster is a minimum wage cotton worker who agrees to help unionize her mill despite threats and intimidation. Already angry by the terrible conditions of her work place, she meets New York union organizer Reuben Warshowsky (Ron Leibman). Despite pressure at home from her husband Sonny (Beau Bridges) that she’s neglecting her young children, Norma Rae preserves.

“Norma Rae” is based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton, who in 1973 took a real-life stand on a table to protest the deplorable conditions of a textile factory in North Carolina. As The New York Times reports, “Ms. Sutton (then Crystal Lee Jordan) was a 33-year-old mother of three earning $2.65 an hour folding towels at the J. P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., when she took her stand.”

Low pay and deplorable working conditions motivated Sutton, who was fired after months of efforts to improve conditions. Because of her stand, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union won the right to represent her former co-workers. Sutton eventually became a union organizer herself.

Life imitating art or art imitating life?

Regardless, after seeing Norma Rae, women everywhere started walking into work a little taller.

Image: The Best Picture Project

Interview9/11 survivor Manu Dhingra sought comfort and peace in the simple act of preparing food to cope with his PTSD.

If I am stressed, you can probably find me in the kitchen. For me, cooking is a way of downloading, processing and dealing on a conscious level with daily challenges.

But I have nothing on Manu Dhingra.

Working in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, he survived the terror attacks but suffered second and third degree burns to 40% of his body. As in many traumatic experiences, physical healing takes less time than the emotional, and after years of physical therapy, Dhingra was confronted by the harsh reality of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“After 9/11, everyone was so supportive and so loving and I felt that… so you don’t even realize what the PTSD does and how it impacted a lot of people. You slowly but surely know that you’re not getting back to your normal life. You feel that things will never get better. You think ‘I’m just in a rut’ but years pass and nothing has really changed. You can be happy and enjoy moments of life but you drift back to the moment of ‘I’m not really happy,’” says Dhingra.

Then came food.

Enrolling in culinary school and discovering a passion for cooking, Dhingra found a way to deal with his demons, and his inspiring story is being told in the upcoming short film Asha, premiering in New York City and online on September 11, 2011.

Dhingra is open and honest, willing to talk about an emotional transition that most of us could never imagine, but opening up with his story, especially in a film, isn’t easy.

“It was really hard, just to talk about it… it was a hard thing to admit to yourself that you went through a lot of the PTSD stuff. It was very therapeutic also. You don’t even realize how much stuff you had to deal with until you have to talk about it,” he says.

With the heavy realization of spiritual discontent weighing on his shoulders, Dhingra’s recovery began with taking a serious look at what he could do to make positive changes. He tried to go back to the finance world, but realized that what he really wanted was to simplify.

“I was a little lost. What I really enjoyed about life when I was growing up and a lot of my memories were around, were socializing, food and family and friends. I always enjoyed that environment,” Dhingra says, adding that after his realization, he decided to see if food could in fact be an avenue for change, and enrolled in culinary school. He soon had a newfound passion, and with it a way to deal with his PTSD.

But what is it about food that can help someone that has undergone serious trauma come out on the other side, alive, functioning and moving forward? For Dhingra, cooking is now a way to not only deal with the inner emotional scars of PTSD but also the outer ones. “[I had to] create something and constantly look at my arms and hands, which was something I had avoided,” he says of the grafts covering him.

It could also be the inherent connection that we all have to eat food. “I never met anybody that doesn’t enjoy amazing food experiences. Whether it’s creating it themselves or they’re taking part in someone else’s creation,” he adds.

After a restaurant attempt that almost took the passion for cooking out of him, Dhingra started gluttNY, a smaller venture that now allows him “to socialize more and plan one-off events,” like pop up dinners. The business’ debut feast was titled Eat It Before It Eats You.

Ultimately, the moving part of Dhingra’s story is his desire to help other people, no matter what their traumatic experience. “I think you can substitute 9/11 with a lot of things, any shock to the system – a tsunami, hurricane… you can substitute many different experiences and you might end up where I am.”

The film, beyond showing his passion for food and its ability to help him tackle PTSD, is a courageous tale about moving forward. “You’re pushing your boundaries and you’re getting out of your comfort zone and you have to keep going forward. You hope that some good comes out of it and somebody sees it and says ‘I am going through something similar and I can relate to it.’”

That is something we can all connect to, no matter what our experiences.

Check out the trailer for Asha here and learn more about Manu Dhingra’s story at www.ashathefilm.com.

ColumnWhere celebrity becomes conscious.

Like the hair standing up on the back on your neck just before a thunderstorm, you can feel it coming.

You’re sitting in a movie theater, temporarily blinded by the pyrotechnics on-screen. The Earth is being saved by some strapping Everyman. Evil has been defeated.

Everyman stretches out his toned arm to grab the hand of the grateful female companion, who falls into his arms weeping. They kiss as she clings to his arm, fulfilling her role as an accessory to the hero. Meet the Pointless Female Character, that female lead who exists for pep talks, inspiration, and long-drawn out cinematic kisses. Only after being saved by the male lead, naturally.

True, Pointless Female Character (PFC), also known as “insert hot chick for obligatory shallow romance scenes,” tends to show up in male-dominated audiences looking for more mass explosions than mass marketing. And we realize it is our choice to watch these movies, if by choice you mean it’s the only movie playing on an island and you’re just looking for something to do with your in-laws that doesn’t involve talking about when you’re going to finally have a baby. But that doesn’t mean we can’t reclaim our flighty sister from movie screens.

And so, here are eight Pointless Female Characters most in need of a decent character arc. Or crossbow. Even a pair of roller skates to escape?

Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) of Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Perhaps Queen of the PFCs, the gorgeous Ms. Banes is best known for her excellent posing skills over a hot rod and her ability to clutch her boyfriend’s hand while running in heels. (Try it, it’s impossible.) Co-star Shia LaBeouf peddled the rumor that director Michael Bay found Fox “too feminist” for the franchise. Consequently, Bay replaced her in the third Tranformers film with supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whitley. An actual lingerie model. Point taken, Michael Bay.

Jessica Simpson: Collected Works
We refer you to Simpson as Daisy Duke in The Dukes of Hazard reboot and Amy in Employee of the Month. But Ms. Simpson, who had peddled her name into a billion dollar fashion brand, is likely the last one laughing.

Mary Corleone (Sofia Coppola) of The Godfather, Part III
When one character can almost single-handedly sink a masterpiece franchise, you wonder if she was really necessary. When Francis Ford Coppola cast his daughter Sofia in the role of Mary Corleone in his final Godfather movie, he redefined the destructive power of nepotism on film. (SPOILER: Think I exaggerated? Did you want to cheer at the end when Mary fell victim to her father’s legacy of crime? I thought so.) We will never know for sure if it was Coppola’s portrayal of Miss Corleone that led to her PFC status or simply her character arc. But finding out the truth is an offer we can refuse.

Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz) of Gangs of New York
Miss Everdeane of the Martin Scorsese classic knew how to flip a bedraggled flounce like the sassy Irish-bred lass she set out to be. Sure, she created some cinematic tension for hero Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio). But we wanted to see more of Jenny and her Dickensian ways.

Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) of The Fast and the Furious
When we first met Mia, she was the verging-on-jailbait younger sister in the Toretto car-racing crime family, whose felonies were masked by many hearts-of-gold. But really, she just served as a prop to fall into the arms of G-man turned wild card Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker).

Grace Stamper (Liv Tyler) of Armageddon
Stamper supported her father (Bruce Willis) and boyfriend (Ben Affleck) as they flew off into space to literally save the planet. We get it, Grace, you’re noble and self-sacrificing. So why didn’t you get to save the Earth with the rest of your rag-tag compatriots? Because posing heroically in vintage dresses against swells of patriotic soundtracks just looks better.

Sam (Natalie Portman) of Garden State
She’s quirky! She’s lovable! She’s gorgeous! She’s also a completely unrealistic fantasy of morose guys everywhere who think that pouting their way through North Jersey is endearing. Yes, adorable Sam is everything a hipster would like to find visiting his forgotten homeland. But she seems to have a perfectly lovely life before she meets Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff). Any girl worth her Shin’s subscription would know to keep clear of him. And yet…does she?

Lily (Mila Kunis) of Black Swan
I know, I know, technically Lily wasn’t completely pointless. Her sex scene with Nina (Natalie Portman) gave men an excuse to see a ballet movie. (Lest you doubt me, see Portman’s statement to Entertainment Weekly: “I remember them being like, ‘How do you get guys to a ballet movie? How do you get girls to a thriller?’ And the answer is a lesbian scene. Everyone wants to see that.”) Okay, sure, Lily was also the dark side of Nina which may or may not have eventually consumed the tragic ballerina, depending on how many cocktails you had before you saw the movie. So really, wasn’t Lily just a PFC in a tutu? Or did she just use a stunt PFC? We will never know for sure.

This is the latest installment in Katherine Butler’s column, Shade Grown Hollywood, where celebrity becomes conscious. “Shade grown” refers literally to shade grown coffee, a farming method that “incorporates principles of natural ecology to promote natural ecological relationships.” Shade Grown is our sustainable twist on Hollywood.

Image: zunami, David Jones

ColumnWhere celebrity goes conscious.

The lump in your throat is the first sign it’s happening. You look around to see if anyone is watching you, but since you’re in a dark theater it’s hard to tell. And then it hits – tears are streaming down your face and you need a tissue. Actually, make that a box of tissue. You’re stuck in the dangerous drag of a tearjerker, designed by Hollywood to dig at all the unresolved issues and emotional land mines you’ve got buried in your subconscious.

Though it doesn’t sound so fun, this emotional purging, the fact remains, many of us love a good cinematic cry. After all, Titanic’s doomed love story brought on tears and a worldwide gross of $1.8 billion. And yet, some of Hollywood’s biggest players feel the tearjerker is in decline. Lynda Obst, producer of Sleepless in Seattle, points out that movies today are made for young men who aren’t so interested in weeping their way through the price of a $16 movie ticket. As Obst told CBS News, “[Young men] go the most often, and they go in droves. And most significantly, their taste mirrors the international market because they require the least dialogue and the most explosions! And our foreign market is the biggest portion of our business right now.”

So what about the rest of us who are less inclined to robots smashing buildings while chasing down Victoria Secret models? Film critic Leonard Maltin explains our position. As he told CBS News, “There used to be an expression about movies: ‘Oh, go to this movie and you’ll have a good cry.’ Meaning, that you won’t leave the movie dejected or depressed. You’ll leave the movie feeling almost sort of refreshed in an odd way because you’ve had an emotional experience.”

We couldn’t agree more. So in support of the tearjerker, here are some of our favorite films that had us reaching for tissues and seeking support after for those unresolved emotional land mines that we embraced post film.

Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Vittorio de Sica’s masterpiece has a home in both film school classrooms and our tear ducts. The story of a man searching for his stolen bicycle critical to his job seems simple. And yet, the emotional complexities spilling from this man to his son are memorable enough to make this film a classic for generations.

Top Tissue Moment: When Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani), and his son Bruno (Enzo Staiola) fade into the crowd, clasping hands, resigned to their fate.

Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Not all movie tears are sad ones. The classic from Ang Lee gives us Miss Elinor Dashwood’s stoic, common sense love juxtaposed to Miss Marianne’s “He lifted me as if I weighed no more than a dried leaf” life-or-death passion.

Top Tissue Moment: It’s Elinor Dashwood, played by Emma Thompson, who wins us in the end when her stoic, common sense exterior crumbles to reveal a mending heart. As Mary of Huntington, New York, shares “When Hugh Grant proposes to Emma Thompson and Emma Thompson covers her mouth to stifle a sob…I want to die.”

Terms of Endearment (1983)
Have a mother? Have a son? Have a heart? Basically, this ultimate tearjerker covers every point of entry possible for its audience. Shirley MacLaine gives a tour-de-force performance as Aurora Greenway, whose tumultuous relationship with daughter Emma Horton (Debra Winger), eventually leaves us all a collective emotional wreck.

Top Tissue Moment: When a dying Emma says goodbye to her children, only a heart of stone can resist crumbling.

The Notebook (2004)
Move over Romeo and Juliet, because star-crossed lovers Allie and Noah might hold the contemporary reigning title for tragic love. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams play lovers whose commitment to each other spans disease, war, and Joan Allen’s icy snobbery. (Well played, Joan Allen.)

Top Tissue Moment: When Allie and Duke lay entwined in a loving embrace on their death bed. It’s visible only if you can see it through the tears flooding out of your already bloodshot eyes.

Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009)
This film from Lasse Hallstrom tells the true story of an abandoned dog and the professor (Richard Gere) who saves him. After Professor Gere dies, Hachi holds a vigil for his lost master, fruitlessly waiting to greet him every day at the train station. A remake of Hachi-ko, a 1987 film from Japan, this movie brings the ever-tearful animal genre to a whole new level. (Also see: Old Yeller, My Dog Skip, Marley and Me, Seabiscuit, Where the Red Fern Grows)

Top Tissue Moment: As if there can ever be an ending to any animal-centric movie that doesn’t involve tears?

Field of Dreams (1989)
This baseball classic tells the story of Ray Kinsella, beleaguered post-hippie farmer, who carves out a baseball diamond in his cornfield for some ghostly childhood heroes. Ultimately Kinsella, played by Kevin Costner, offers us all a chance to ruminate on redemption and closure.

Top Tissue Moment:

John Kinsella: Well, goodnight Ray.

Ray Kinsella: Good night, John.

They shake hands and John begins to walk away.

Ray Kinsella: Hey…Dad? John turns.

Ray Kinsella: You wanna have a catch?

John Kinsella: I’d like that.

Ray and John toss the ball, as we pull back on an Iowa sunset, trembling from happy tears.

Starring Meryl Streep: The Drama Years
Yes, this isn’t technically a movie. But since the mere mention of Meryl is enough to get some people tearing up like they’ve just been pepper-sprayed, we thought she deserved her own mention. Picture these clips.

Top Tissue Moments: Kramer versus Kramer (1979), as Joanna Kramer realizing her son’s true home is with his father. Sophie’s Choice (1982), as the titular Sophie forced to choose which of her young children will go into the arms of a Nazi to certain death. Out of Africa (1985), as Karen Blixen unable to throw a handful of dirt onto her lover’s open grave. The Bridges of Madison County (1995), as Francesca Johnson leaving her great love for the good of her family.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Frank Capra’s holiday classic first debuted to a war-weary nation and has continued to play on our emotions ever since. George Bailey (James Stewart), feels life isn’t worth living when he’s about to lose it all. But angel-in-training Clarence shows him just how important his life has been to the people of Bedford Falls.

Top Tissue Moment: When the grateful townsfolk of Bedford Falls chip in to pay George’s debt while war-hero brother Harry shares, “A toast to my brother George, the richest man in town.”

Glory (1989)
Based on the true story of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer infantry of the Civil War, this film tells the tale one of the first formal units in the United States Army to be made up on African American men. It’s portrayed largely from the surviving letters of Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick), who led the men into battle.

Top Tissue Moment: When Sergeant Rawlins (Morgan Freeman) tells a young boy in occupied South Carolina, “That’s right, Hines. Ain’t no dream. We runaway slaves but we come back fightin’ men!”

Late Spring (1949)
This critically-acclaimed film from Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu tells the story of 27-year old Noriko (Setsuko Hara), who lives happily in post-war Japan with her widower father. But when society demands she must marry, Noriko’s life dissolves into a conflict marked by duty, selflessness, and familial love.

Top Tissue Moment: When Noriko’s father, played by the celebrated actor Chishu Ryu, explains to Noriko his own simple yet starkly truthful idea of what is means to be happy.

Good Will Hunting (1997)
Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a gifted MIT janitor who has the world at his feet, if he can only get his life together. Robin Williams is Sean, his stoic psychologist with some unresolved issues of his own.

Top Tissue Moment: As Scott of Tiburon, California, shares, “The scene where Sean finally breaks through to Will, repeating over and over again, “It’s not your fault, it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault,” tears me up every time I see it. It’s speaks to everything any one of us has wrongly carried on our shoulders throughout our lives.”

Up (2009)
Some might infer that animation can’t move an audience – some who have never been traumatized by Bambi or Dumbo. Pixar upped the Disney tradition of animated tears with the story of an elderly widower named Carl and young friend Russell, who fly to South America via Carl’s floating house.

Top Tissue Moment: The first montage of this movie should really be known as the Montage of Unstoppable Tears. Young Carl meets Young Ellie, both young adventurers. We see them grow up, marry, and endure the heartbreak of childlessness. Carl rallies to cheer Ellie by starting an adventure fund, which gets used up by life’s typical woes. Then Ellie dies, leaving Carl bereft. He sails away to a new life  – but you can’t help but wish a house of over-stuffed balloons for anyone like Carl.

We know how we feel about these tender flicks – do you agree? Tell us what we missed.

This is the latest installment in Katherine Butler’s column, Shade Grown Hollywood, where celebrity becomes conscious. “Shade grown” refers literally to shade grown coffee, a farming method that “incorporates principles of natural ecology to promote natural ecological relationships.” Shade Grown is our sustainable twist on Hollywood.

Image: dno1967b

ColumnWhere celebrity goes conscious.

Walking onto a film shoot, you’ll first notice trucks. A lot of them. It’s like a five-year-old boy’s Dr. Suessian dream – there are big trucks, little trucks, blue trucks, red trucks. They are there to transport cable, food, sets, props, and sometimes people. And carbon footprints be damned, much of the time they are turned on, idling for hours.

Then there’s the craft services. This usually entails a delicious abundance of food carefully laid out for consumption. Not so bad, until you see the piles of plastic cutlery and plates, the water bottles forming a giant pyramid of waste, the reams of unrecycled paper scripts and the actors and executives arriving by private jet.

This may not seem like a big deal – so a scrap of paper goes unrecycled, a bottle of water gets consumed – but then you multiple these by the thousands of movies shot each year, and it seems like well, a tremendous waste.

The good news is that there’s lots of greening going on and it has nothing to do with special effects. At the forefront is an upbeat environmental consultant, Lauren Selman. Lauren is the CEO and Producer of Reel Green Media, an organization designed to “help green the entertainment industry both on and off screen and create a new culture of entertainment that is committed to environmental protection and sustainability.”

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Lauren, who took me through the greening of Hollywood and the weirdest thing she ever had to recycle on set.

Lauren Selman from Miranda Bailey’s “Greenlit.”

So tell us about Reel Green Media.

When I was in college, I studied Conservation Resource Management and Theater Performance Studies. And I began to see the amount of waste produced in production. I wrote my thesis on the environmental impact of entertainment. The result was Reel Green Media, an environmental consulting company to support the entertainment efforts to “go green.” The company started with me going out and talking to people about what I had learned. Then I started going on set to see what I could do. From composting to product placement, I have tried to do the best I can to help green production.

From a layperson’s standpoint, film shoots just look one big black hole of waste. Trucks idle spewing exhaust. Generators hum. Actors arrive by private jet. Craft Services purveys a seemingly endless parade of water bottles and wasted food. How do you perceive this changing and what steps, if any, are studios doing to green their shoots?

Yes, from the outside it seems that way and also from the inside. People in production will be the first to admit how wasteful it is.

I believe there are two things to consider in terms of next steps. Firstly, production is a temporary system. You set up a group of people and you have very little time to complete a project. So the solutions have to fit that model. Can we produce alternatives that match the speed of film production? We don’t keep normal business hours and we needed everything yesterday so what are the fast, convenient solutions?

Secondly, productions for the most part tend to be mobile. So unlike a concert that may put out a couple sorting stations and a trash monitor and call it a day, productions are moving. They are going inside houses, into rivers, over mountains and are spread out. Base camp and set may be two miles away, so the question becomes, how can you set up sustainable system and support staff that is fast moving and can pack up and go just like production? The group of people move from location to location, bringing with them all of the things they will need.

What I see is the possibility of vendors providing better alternatives for production to use. The “stuff” they use is going to change a lot faster than the way they do things. The studios are being very active in trying to green their shoots. From employing environmental PA’s to supplying recycling bins, there are definitely positive steps in the right direction.

One thing to consider is that studios have varying levels of participation with a production. If a production is filming on the [studio] lot, a studio has more control over the services they can offer the production to help them be green. But when a production goes out on location, those services become less controllable. A production will then need to look to the city and local services to support their efforts.

Lauren on the set of “The River Why.”

I understand you’ve been working to green Hollywood since 2007. Tell us about what it was like promoting a green agenda in Hollywood in the earlier years?

Yes, things are different. The overall awareness about the impact we have on the environment has increased and people want to make a difference. It is still not the norm, but we are moving in the right direction.

Can we all go green? Yes, but it does take effort. In the early days, I spent a lot of time trying to convince people or explain the situation to people. Now the conversations are more solution based. Sometimes crews would say, “Oh, we went green on a set last week.” Then they would start sharing what they did with me. It was great to hear that efforts were spreading from set to set. And that’s how this is going to continue to spread. Teach the crews and have them engage in the process. As they move from set to set, they will bring what they learned with them.

You produced a documentary called “Greenlit” displaying the trials and tribulations of greening the film shoot, “The River Why.” What was the hardest green hurdle to overcome during that shoot?

A lot of the information [used during that shoot] is from my thesis. In addition to being the subject, I was one of the producers on the film. Miranda Bailey was the director and I absolutely loved working with her.

There were many hurdles. First, I didn’t have a vehicle on set the whole time. So a lot of what I did was coordinating with other people to transport items and haul things away. Second, people had their preferred vendors for many things. So when I would make a request or a suggestion that a certain vendor didn’t provide, it was difficult because the crew wanted to use the vendors they were comfortable with.

Third, being out in a rural situation was challenging. Just like backpacking in the outdoors, you need to prepare, plan and pack all of your stuff with you. The same goes for water and trash. In a studio, it’s easy to have 10 five-gallon jugs on water on standby for the crew. But it is a different conversation to lug that water out to a field and have it be clean, healthy and if you can get power, cold! The convenience of having a cooler of ice with water bottles is hard to compete with. You have to choose your battles.

Hollywood, like any business, is motivated by dollar greens. Do you find it is easier to green a film shoot with a smaller budget or a larger one?

Lauren: I would say bigger budget is easier, but it is also up to the line producer to itemize with environmental considerations. You can have a very green small budget film depending on the choices that are made. Is there room in the budget to hire a consultant? Is there space to hire an additional dishwasher to clean plates? Can you hire people who already have green practices?

What I have seen is that smaller budgets tend to stretch their resources more often and “make do” with what they have more than what I see for big budgets. For example, imagine a college film and the impact that a group of people with a camera is going to be compared to a 120 person crew with a dozen trucks. Just by the size of your production you decrease your impact. I think the big thing is to have the environment in mind when making financial decisions and also see where you are wasting money when you aren’t being environmentally friendly. Re-route that money and now we’re talking!

That’s great. But then how does the crew generally respond on either set to green initiatives?

Depends on their experience with a “green set” and where you are shooting. I have found that making it fun and educational often works well. Oh, and throw in a free reusable water bottle and that helps too. Basically, just make it seem easy and part of the production.

It seems like you’ve seen it all. So what’s the strangest thing you’ve ever been asked to recycle on set?

From pumpkins to gels, duvatine and electronics, I think I’ve recycled some weird things. But what I love is that often times recycling requests becoming donating opportunities. It’s the good ol’ saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

Want to know more about what it takes to green a film in Hollywood? Check out Lauren in Greenlit. From director Miranda Bailey, it’s a fun, educational foray into what it takes to conserve on set. You can watch it on Hulu or purchase it on Amazon.

This is the latest installment in Katherine Butler’s column, Shade Grown Hollywood, where celebrity becomes conscious. “Shade grown” refers literally to shade grown coffee, a farming method that “incorporates principles of natural ecology to promote natural ecological relationships.” Shade Grown is our sustainable twist on Hollywood.

Photos courtesy of Ambush Entertainment

ColumnWhere celebrity becomes conscious.

Hollywood is a land of contradictions. An extra serving of ice cream can send people into hysterics while no one bats an eyelash at a starlet on her fifth arrest. But when it comes to abortion politics in film, everyone generally joins together to dive under high-end Egyptian cotton sheets, refusing to come out until someone yells “big opening weekend.” Even torture porn flicks such as Saw can cause less controversy than a pimpled teenager walking inside an abortion clinic. While the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize abortion occurred in 1973, the debate has continued to rage. Take issues near and dear to people, nicely steeped in the American zeitgeist, and you have a political fire starter no one wants to touch. With such impassioned supporters on both sides, you would think Hollywood would have been quick to carry over the argument on film. Controversy breeds ticket sales, after all. Right? In a word: No. Abortion in cinema has become as popular as discussing abortion at a family reunion. No one wants to touch the subject for fear of reprisal. When films and television shows do deal with abortion, they generally employ the following ten rules of portrayal. While some of these rules walk the thin gray line, all seem determined to leave you confused and uncertain about the state of abortion politics in America. If your character goes through with her abortion, be prepared to fight the studio to keep it in. Dirty Dancing, 1987’s wildly popular tribute to 1963 Catskill dance moves, reminds us that abortion was once completely illegal in America. Penny Johnson (Cynthia Rhodes) is forsaken by her bad-guy boyfriend and will lose her ability to earn a living as a dancer. She almost dies after seeking a back-alley abortion, and is saved by kindly Dr. Houseman (Jerry Orbach). Eleanor Bergstein wrote the script for Dirty Dancing. The Daily Beast reports that when the studio saw the final version, they urged Bergstein and director Emile Ardolino to edit out all references to the abortion. As Bergstein tells The Daily Beast, “I explained that it was integral to the plot…and if we cut that out, the rest of the story would collapse. So we kept it in.” According to Bergstein, the lesson is clear. As she further expounds, “What movies are saying now is that if you are of fine moral fiber, you make the opposite decision and decide to have the baby. And everything turns out beautifully. The girls never end up in a shelter, as girls in real life often do.” If your character is thinking about abortion, she will likely back out of it or experience an unfortunate miscarriage. Several television shows have addressed the issue accordingly. The original Beverly Hills: 90210 (1990-2000) explored abortion when brainy Andrea became impregnated by her boyfriend, Jesse. Jesse breaks up with Andrea over the decision, only to realize the error of his judgmental ways. In the meantime, Andrea has decided to back out of the abortion. Happiness reigns. No judgment! Sex and the City (1998-2004) similarly dealt with abortion a decade later. Miranda finds herself pregnant by her sometimes boyfriend, Steve. She initially chooses abortion, but backs out when confronted with the realization that, at aged 36, this may be her last chance at motherhood. While this episode explored the myriad issues surrounding abortion, it inevitably gave us a main heroine, Carrie Bradshaw, who has admitted to having an abortion. Further, Carrie truthfully acknowledges the uncomfortable feelings she still has over the procedure. And if your character is still undecided? She can always fall back on the conveniently-timed miscarriage. In Party of Five (1994-2000), teenager Julia (Neve Campbell) chooses abortion, backs out, chooses it again, and then succumbs to a miscarriage. If your character decides to go through with an abortion on a TV show, make sure it is on premium cable. Abortion issues on the small screen almost always coincide with a premium cable bill. We’ve already mentioned HBO’s Sex and the City treatment of the issue. The same network also gave us Claire Fisher’s procedure on Six Feet Under (2001-2005), as well as with the HBO produced movie If These Walls Could Talk (1996), which looked at three women dealing with abortion over a span of forty years. But abortion issues on network television? Keep looking. In 1972, Bea Arthur’s Maude decided to have an abortion after becoming pregnant at age 47. This episode of Maude, which was on CBS, is one of the only times where a character on network TV actually went through with an abortion. European producers or financiers are more likely to back a film with an abortion plot line. The Yellow Handkerchief (2008), written by Erin Dignam, features an abortion plot line. William Hurt is a recently released convict who went to jail after being incited into a criminal rage by the revelation that ex-wife Maria Bello has an abortion. As Dignam has said, finding financing for the film was extremely hard. Eventually the film was produced by Europeans, Arthur Cohn and Lillian Birnbaum. According to Digman, “The producers backed me. I’m sure the fact that they are European helped.” Your character should be played by Laura Dern.If you want to discuss abortion in the most satirical way possible, cast Laura Dern. Dern wickedly plays the titular character in Citizen Ruth (1996), the worst possible candidate for motherhood. Ruth is a stupid, often inebriated drug addict who already has lost custody of her four children. When she is arrested, the judge offers to lighten her sentence if she has an abortion. Pro-life and pro-choice sides are inflamed, nonsense and hilarity ensues. It’s rather like watching political debates on abortion today. To avoid social moralizing in 1982, your unwed pregnant character must have the abortion. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) had Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Stacy Hamilton getting an abortion after an ill-fated hookup in a pool shed. The procedure was done quickly and without judgment, aside from the ire heaped on her hookup’s head for bailing out on Stacy. To avoid social moralizing today, your unwed pregnant character must not have the abortion. In 2007’s Juno, teen Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) considers an abortion and even visits an abortion clinic. But she backs out after a classmate points out her unwanted baby already has fingernails. Also in 2007, Knocked Up’s Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) is an ambitious, career-oriented young woman who gets pregnant after a one night stand with a slacker. She doesn’t even consider abortion as a viable option. Of course, neither film would have had a story if they had. In the meantime, both films were appropriated by the pro-life movement as a testament to the right to life. But there’s also the point to be made that both heroines were merely exercising their right to choose not to have an abortion. If your character has an abortion, make sure she is impregnated by a really bad guy. In The Godfather: Part II (1974), Kay Corleone (Diane Keaton) aborts a male heir to the Corleone crime family. Penny Johnsons’ aforementioned lover in Dirty Dancing is a shady rich boy who is sleeping with wealthy married women. In The Cider House Rules (1999), Rose Rose (Erykah Badu) is raped by her father. Who she then murders. Because he’s a really bad guy. After her abortion, your character will likely pay for her choice in some negative way. The Cider House Rules walks a fine line of moralizing about abortion rights. Michael Caine’s Dr. Larch is a charitable abortionist in 1940s Maine who treats women while taking in their unwanted children. He ends up dead. Tobey Maquire plays Homer Wells, his uncertain protégé, himself an unwanted child. Homer’s ambiguity over abortion is challenged by two women. Charlize Theron is Candy Kendall, whose abortion is seemingly consequence-free until her boyfriend turns up from war paralyzed from the waist down. Candy is now likely permanently childless. Coupled with the grim fate of Rose, who wins in any of these scenarios? No one. Even Homer Wells, who returns home to Maine to take up where Dr. Larch left off, is left to provide medical care to women in desperate situations in a barren, frozen landscape with a young Paz de la Huerta making eyes at him over the staircase. And finally, if your character is going to have the first legal abortion on television, make sure the aborted fetus “reappears [decades later] fully grown after having been miraculously saved by the unscrupulous doctor who had performed the initial procedure.” In 1973, All My Children’s Erica Kane had the first legal abortion on television. Which one would think is a landmark event, no? Until said fetus, now fully grown, showed up year later in Pine Valley. Just this April, ABC canceled All My Children after decades on the air. Tough break, fetus. Welcome to show business.