Culebra Windfall

Through a serendipitous series of events, we, meaning Culebra, are fortunate enough to be getting a cutting edge documentary on the reality of wind turbines, on land, people and air.

I posted the trailer for Windfall a little over a week ago, not imagining we'd actually be able to get the whole film here, but that's just what has happened. It began when Nancy told Lolly about my interest in wind power and its effect and hooked us up. Lolly, working for distribution of the film, wrote me about the documentary and possibilities. I wrote about it. Molly, a maker of films and involved in that world, read about it, and could get it and bring it down to us, down to little ol' Culebra from the Big City! I love it when things like this happen; I get inordinately hopeful  that other, powerfully good things can follow. Thank you, Nancy, Lolly and Molly, for all you did and do! And thanks, Claire, for use of the Cine!

On February 23rd, Windfall will be shown at the Cine, 7:00 p.m., admission free! There isn't room for many at our jewel box of a cinema, so it will be first come first seated. There are all sorts of rules in showing a first run movie, so we are limited to one showing only, unless we want to pay a lot of money we don't have (so if anyone feels inclined to ante up about 300.00 bucks? Let me know! Then we can show it all we like until it must go home to New York).

Lola and Lucy enjoying their Treat of the Day last year

The woman actually bringing the documentary down, Molly, has two girls, who have shown up in this blog a few times, Lola and Lucy. Lola, the older daughter, viewed the movie with her mother and sent me this review. I could write a whole lot and not say what she managed to figure out right away, so take it away, Lola!

Dear Island Women,

Can?t wait to see you and taste some good fresh bread. I am also excited about seeing beaches and Dingy Dock. 

  I saw the movie about the wind turbines. I thought it was interesting. I want to tell you what I think about it and what dangerous things could happen if they were built on Culebra.

What I think is they are not a smart thing to put up any where. Especially on a beach or even worse a popular beach like Flamenco. Also lots of bad things could happen. For example, they could be really bad with high winds or big storms and they could fall down but the chances of that are not likely to happen. But do you get what I am saying? It is not a good idea. They are 600 hundred feet in the air. It is not smart. That brings me to another thing. 

On M.L.K day at our school there was a western Indies turtle salvation. It is about how turtles and other animals are confused about which way the water is because most peoples light are on. They go toward the houses instead of the water and die. The wind turbines will just make that worse with their light and noise. Also the shadows have made people move and they can affect people and make them sick. I think the wind turbines will not help global warming and will cause other problems. 

  Thank you,

Lola 

P.S. Check out this picture on your blog: 

While Victor Gonzalez doesn't plan on 600 foot tall windmills for Flamenco, they would be tall enough to do damage in what we all know is a sensitive environment, one he has already damaged severely in ways that even if started immediately, would take many years to return to what, only a few years ago, was a beautifully balanced environment. Let's not give him the option to do anymore damage (directed at the public as well as Fish & Wildlife and the Department of Natural Resources, who allowed the travesty of his 'improvements' despite hard science and a number of laws being in place to prevent the damage. Yes, I am accusing F & W and DRN of being complicit in breaking laws, both local and federal, for reasons I can only guess at).

Oh, MJ, you might be saying, can't you just ease up and get back to those pretty shots? Well, unless we ALL don't ease up, those shots may last awhile longer (even though the landscape has already changed), but deep, deep pockets, unhindered, will change the future geography of Culebra forever, so since I'm around and happen to love this place, once in awhile I just gotta go on with it!

You'll be seeing a great poster around town to remind you of the day and time. Hope to see you at the Cine (which is at the Library, in case you don't know). Sneak preview below, taken from the website Covering Media. 

WINDFALL, a beautifully photographed feature length documentary by Laura Israel about the impact of industrial wind turbines on a rural farm community. A First Run Features release. All rights reserved.

Have a wonderfully serendipitous Wednesday! Do something that works.