Barbara Ettinger and Sven Huseby of Niijii Films interviewed on KGO, ABC 7, just before the West Coast premiere of A Sea Change at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

This post would belong in the shameless self-promotion category, except that Wendy Rieger wrote the bulk of it; we're just quoting. Anchor of NBC4 in DC, and originator of the "Going Green" strand, she produced a lovely story on A Sea Change. Wendy decided the next day to attend our DC premiere in person, and here's what happened:

"I tried to see a movie on Saturday and couldn't get in.  I almost wept with joy.

I went to the Museum of Natural History in the Smithsonian to see the documentary,  A Sea Change, debuting at the D.C. Environmental Film Festival. I had just interviewed the filmmakers the day before and fashioned a story for our 5 p.m. news.

The director, Barbara Ettinger, had voiced some concerns about filling the 550-seat Baird Auditorium. I couldn't bear the thought of this beautiful and important filmechoing into an empty room and vowed to have my butt filling one ofthose seats. . . .

I arrived at the Baird to find a packed house. People were spilling out the door. The show was at 3:30. By 3 p.m. they had to announce standing room only. And by 3:15 they announced no one else could come in.   They were packed to the gills (pun intended). 

As I headed through the museum lobby, I saw people holding the film festival's program. My heart was full. People get it. We are at a critical time in our planet's history.  Unlike the previous 5 billion years,  this time we can have an impact. But we have to understand the problem. We have tolong to be a part of the solution. We have to come out on a rainy Saturday and fight for a seat. 

I never got to see A Sea Change.  But I feel like I'm witnessing one."

Thanks, Wendy; we think you're far more than a witness.

Read the rest of her blog here.

Ann Hornaday reviews A Sea Change in today's issue of The Washington Post (March 12). An excerpt:

"The story of a retired educator who becomes interested in, and finally consumed by, the declining state of the world's oceans, the film [A Sea Change] brings a crucial and little-known issue to the attention of filmgoers. The movie, which takes the audience to some of the globe's most attractive locales, brings to surprisingly absorbing life the subject of ocean acidification. That's what happens when carbon dioxide -- released by cars and other fossil-fuel-burning culprits -- ends up in the sea, thereby fatally changing its chemistry. . . .

"A Sea Change," which was co-produced by Huseby and directed by Barbara Ettinger, looks terrific, with lots of breathtaking footage of the natural world, from the tiniest pteropod (the fluttery, planktonic sea snail that is most threatened by acidification) to the most majestic Norwegian scenery. And, at a time when plenty of documentaries want to be the "Inconvenient Truth" of fill-in-the-issue, "A Sea Change" brings a genuinely important subject to the fore with a welcome lack of jargon and preaching."

Read the complete review here.