UNM Honors College Eco-Art Short Films
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM
Students interviewed environmental stakeholders in the community, and with the assistance of filmmaker Christi Bode, created short documentary films. The student films serve as a catalyst to start a community discussion about the climate crisis and demonstrate how art can be a tool to engage the larger community.
EcoArt: Using Art to Reconcile with the Climate Crisis, was co-taught in spring 2023 in the Honors College at the University of New Mexico. Professor Megan Jacobs and honors student, Kineo Memmer, co-developed and taught the course in partnership with the Land Witness Project with the objective to teach students about the intersection of local environmental issues and the use of art as a tool to reconcile with the climate crisis and as a form of activism.
©Christi Bode
Wildfires in New Mexico featuring Heidi Honegger Rogers
UNM Student Filmmakers: Madelyn Gomez, Taryn Herrera-Lau, Tessa Hernandez, Leanne Baca
Bio: Heidi Honegger Rogers
Heidi is a first generation New Mexican, family nurse practitioner, advanced practice holistic nurse and a clinician educator - associate professor at the University of New Mexico (UNM) College of Nursing. She is the Director of Interprofessional Education for the UNM Health Sciences Center and has developed an interprofessional education honors program as well as an integrated curriculum and experiential content around climate change and public health, systems thinking and planetary health,and socio-ecological approaches to population health. Heidi is leading the American Holistic Nurses Association Planetary Health Task Force, and is active with the Global Consortium for Climate Change and Health Education and the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. She has been a member of the US working group for the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change since 2020, and is on the Board of the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine. She has a secondary appointment with the UNM Sustainability Studies Program, the College of Population Health.
"In general, there's just a sense of sadness & grief, losing so many sacred and special nature spaces."
"Communities that have more connection to each other, actually do better."
-Heidi Honegger Rogers
©Christi Bode
"Los Jardines Institute is an intergenerational organization that's part of building a movement, not only here in Albuquerque, but throughout the state and the country.'
"We've got to first believe in each other. We've always got to remember who's shoulders we stand on and who's giving up their lives to make it possible for us to be here."
-Richard Moore
Food Justice in New Mexico featuring Richard Moore
UNM Student Filmmakers: Constanza Kremer, Gloria Torres, Jiaju Cheng, Kameryn Lentz
Bio: Richard Moore
Richard currently serves as the Co-Chair of the inaugural White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. Richard has also served on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, where in 1993 he was the first elected Chair. Richard is the Co-Coordinator for Los Jardines Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and national Co-Coordinator of the Environmental Justice & Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, advocating for stronger, safer, and just chemical policies. He is also Co-Founder and Board Member of Just Transition Alliance and a Board Member of Coming Clean, Incorporated.
©Christi Bode
Nuclear Colonialism featuring Dr. Myrriah Gómez
UNM Student Filmmakers: Juliana Byrd, Renata Gonzales, Ian Hutchinson
Bio: Myrriah Gómez
Dr. Myrriah Gómez is from the Pojoaque Valley in northern New Mexico. She earned her Ph.D. in English with an emphasis in Latina/o Literature from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and is a 2011 Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow. She joined the UNM Honors College in 2016, and directs the Conexiones-Spain study abroad program. Myrriah is also a faculty coordinator for the UNM Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program. Myrriah’s monograph, Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos, demonstrates how earlier eras of settler colonialism laid the foundation for nuclear colonialism in New Mexico.
"I'm now an ancestor and I don't want my kids to grow up in an environment in New Mexico that has been so polluted that there's no turning back."
"There is hope through education, through younger generations, through coalition work, that we can put an end to this period of nuclear colonialism."
-Myrriah Gómez
Water Rights in New Mexico featuring Steve Glass
UNM Student Filmmakers: Constanza Kremer, Gloria Torres, Jiaju Cheng, Kameryn Lentz
Bio: Steve Glass
Steve Glass joined the Board of Supervisors for the Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District in January 2003. Steve holds an MS in Environmental Science from NMSU, and has 45 years of experience in natural resources protection. As a retired municipal wastewater biosolids composting and stormwater management programs manager, and the former local government representative on the NM Water Quality Control Commission, he is familiar with a wide range of natural resource and conservation issues. He currently represents Bernalillo County on the Water Protection Advisory Board and represents Ciudad SWCD on the Mid Region Council of Governments Water Resources Board. Steve is a Distinguished Faculty member in biology and environmental science at Central NM Community College, and was named recipient of the Environmental Education Association of New Mexico's 2016 Dr. Richard W. Becker Award of Excellence in Environmental Education.
"We need to pressure our elected officials to make good decisions and pass legislation that contributes to a reduction in the production of CO2."
"I can't commit myself personally to give up. I think humanity has so much potential for doing good and learning to live within our means and enjoying the beauty that is here."
-Steve Glass
