About

The Eugene Environmental Film Festival believes in creating space to address critical issues facing our planet.
We support the work being done at local and global levels and share a deep connection and responsibility to protect the environment and work in solidarity with others in the struggle toward environmental justice.

The Team

Festival Co-Director

Michele Eggers Barison

Michele is interested in addressing the interrelated issues of environmental and economic exploitation, poverty, repression, and violence, which often force individuals and communities to leave their home countries. She has visually documented environmental rights abuses in Central and South America as well as coordinated speaking engagements and outreach for human rights delegations to help raise awareness about these issues. Her vision of creating the Eugene Environmental Film Festival is to bring people together across geographic boundaries to address critical environmental issues facing our planet and to acknowledge the people in the struggle for environmental justice.

Festival Co-Director

Marsha Weisiger

Marsha is the Julie and Rocky Dixon Chair of U.S. Western History and an associate professor of history and environmental studies at the University of Oregon. Her scholarship focuses primarily on the environmental history of the American West. She is the author of Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country (University of Washington Press, 2009) which won four awards, including the Norris and Carol Hundley Award and the Hal Rothman Book Award, and Land of Plenty: Oklahomans in the Cotton Fields of Arizona, 1933-1942 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1995), which won the Angie Debo Prize. She has also written on wolf reintroduction, gendering environmental history, environmental justice, and architectural history. Her work has received two faculty research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Burkhardt Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, and a King Fellowship from the Clements Center for Southwest Studies. She is a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians and co-founder and co-coordinator of the Cascadia Environmental History Collaborative.

Festival Organizer

Lisa Fragala

Originally, Lisa moved to Oregon to work for the Forest Service surveying threatened and endangered species like the Marbled Murrelet and Spotted Owl. She fell in love with the woods in Oregon and grew to understand what a precious resource it is; how important it is that we protect it. Now she understands that environmental politics are deeply about social justice issues. Communities of color & Indigenous communities are impacted at a much higher rate by environmental degradation and will be much more impacted by Climate change. As a citizen of planet Earth she feels a deep responsibility to not only protect the planet, but also to think about the people who are most impacted by what is happening. She is honored to work on the Eugene Environmental Film Festival and to bring our community together around these important issues.

Festival Graphic Designer/Marketing

Jesse Noone

Jesse naturally brings a humanistic approach to the CEF and JFI. Jesse’s work as Media GE for the CEF complements his work as a PPPM graduate student in Community and Regional Planning as well as a student in the Conflict and Dispute Resolution (CRES) Program (Environmental Conflict: Climate Change Specialization). Apart from managing technology for signature CEF events such as Interdisciplinarity 101, his interest in environment sustainability is informed by growing-up in Oregon and Hawai’i, and his own work in winemaking and photography. When not working he enjoys running, cycling, finding someone to play games with, and playing with his dog.

2022 Jury Members

Ana McAbee

Ana McAbee was one of the first organizers of the Eugene Environmental Film Festival... MORE

Ana McAbee

Ana has always had a spiritual connection to nature. Her connection strengthened when she moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Oregon, and was able to connect more with wilderness. Living in Oregon has given her humility and a great sense of appreciation for the natural environment not only in Oregon but globally. It is vitally important to her to advance the goal of a healthy planet by raising awareness of environmental issues and strengths. Art and film are highly effective ways to highlight critical issues and to draw focus to ongoing efforts making positive change. Art and film also provide some relief and rectification to the environmental damage already done. Ana is optimistic about our future and am compelled to do anything in her power to move towards a healthy future for our children and our planet.

Chris Wig

Chris Wig was elected to the board of directors of the Willamalane Park and Recreation District in 2019. He...MORE

Chris Wig

He received his undergraduate degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Toronto and his master’s degree from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. He has served as Chair of the Democratic Party of Lane County since 2014 and as a volunteer judge for the Eugene Environmental Film Festival since 2018. He volunteers because he supports ensuring every Oregonian has access to recreation opportunities in natural spaces like our National Parks, State Parks and local community parks. Chris and his fiancé, Celine, love living in Springfield and on the weekends you can find them enjoying coffee at the Washburne Cafe or walking Willamalane's 29 miles of paths and trails.

Hannah Cutting Jones

Kevin Danaher

Kevin Danaher is an author, anti-globalization activist, and co-founder of Global Exchange.. MORE

Kevin Danaher

Author, activist, speaker and co-founder of GLOBAL EXCHANGE, Kevin is the author of 11 books, including Democratizing the Global Economy, and others such as, Corporations are Gonna Get Your Mama and 50 Years is Enough: The Case Against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Dr. Danaher has traveled widely in Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, North America and Ireland. He is familiar with the problems and prospects of economic development in many countries in the global south. His articles have appeared in The LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The International Herald Tribune, The Financial Times of Zimbabwe, Africa News, TransAfrica Forum, Harvard Educational Review, The Progressive among others.

Lara Damiani

Lara Damiani cut her teeth in one of Australia’s toughest industries – fishing. At 23, she was that industry’s you...MORE

Lara Damiani

At 23, she was that industry’s youngest female executive officer. In 1997, she left to travel overseas and write and later worked for some years as a freelance writer and editor. In 2006, she made the transition into the world of filmmaking. Her first production, Tibet’s Cry for Freedom, screened in Australia, NZ, the US, the UK, Europe and Asia. It was also broadcast in the Czech Republic and New Zealand for three and four years running. It included exclusive interviews with the Dalai Lama and a Tibetan independence activist who broke a three-year silence to be involved. Lara’s focus is on using her skills for social good and helping to create social change. She works both in Australia and overseas with the communities she works with being central to the process. Lara has worked for UNDP, The World Bank, Relief International, Sight For All, CUFA and others. She works with individuals and organisations such as: People With Disability Australia; STRIDE Foundation; Zero Waste SA; The Migration Museum; Adelaide City Council; Carclew; LeeAnn Buckskin & Associates and many more. She runs Think Films – a specialist media production studio whose focus is on creating content that is purpose driven.

Marilyn Myers

Marilyn Myers is an endangered species biologist... MORE

Marilyn Myers

Marilyn's love of nature began with annual family camping trips to National Forests and Parks beginning before she can remember. She began backpacking in the Sierra National Forest in 1968 with a church group and continued to explore the Sierra’s both through jobs with natural resource agencies based in Bishop, CA and on long solo backpacking trips. After completing her Ph.D. at U.C. Berkeley, she began her career as a Threatened and Endangered Species Biologist; first, working on listed fish and invertebrates in NM for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and then transferring to AK where she currently works towards the conservation of listed marine mammals for NOAA. Marilyn is passionate about the conservation of our public lands and natural resources whether on land or sea. Nature, and especially wilderness areas, feed, nurture, and rejuvenates her soul.

Michael Peterson

Michael Peterson is a documentary film director living in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. ...MORE

Michael Peterson

Michael's love of the outdoors and passion for the preservation of the land, animals and those who live in it lends the imagery he captures to be timeless and relevant. Prior to directing Dammed to Extinction Peterson directed The Rapid Decline of the Lower Deschutes River. This short film depicts the recent environmental tragedy taking place on this Oregon waterway. Peterson spent 20 years working in film and television in Hollywood. His visual effects film credits include Independence Day, Armageddon, Contact and Star Trek First Contact. He has worked on dozens of music videos and national broadcast commercials.

Pradnya Garud

Pradnya Garud is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona. She...MORE

Pradnya Garud

She received her Master of Science in Environmental Sciences from the Institute of Science, Mumbai, and completed a Post-Graduate Diploma in Disaster Preparedness and Response at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Prior to starting her Ph.D., Pradnya worked in a research and advocacy capacity with a Delhi-based human rights organization, through which she conducted fieldwork in several post-disaster contexts across India. Her doctoral research focuses on exploring the dynamics of caste and gender environmental issues, and she is particularly interested in analyzing environmental justice movements in India through an anti-caste perspective.

Audience Choice Awards

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Audience Choice Awards

Audience Choice Awards have closed. Thank you for your participation.

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