It's not exactly the Oscars, but it is public recognition for achievement in film.
Or, more precisely, one little film.
A 41-minute documentary that was produced by an obscure air-quality district in California is getting kudos from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for promoting clean air.
The EPA has given its 2008 Clean Air Excellence Award to the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District for the film "AIR -- The Search For One Clean Breath," which the county auspiciously bills as "a guided tour of the story of air."
"Some people who have seen it have told me it's PBS quality," said Michael Villegas, the district's executive officer. "I think it is."
The documentary, narrated by Tony Award-winning actor Joe Mantegna and produced by the district's public information officer, Barbara Page, traces the history of air from the planet's birth to present day.
Five years in the making, the film starts with a baby's first breath and goes back in time to document the evolution of air, through pollution from the industrial age to the first use of the term "smog" in England to a deadly brush of bad air that killed 18 people in Donora, Pa., in 1948.
The crew traveled to Iceland, England, Utah and Harvard University to shoot footage. Shot in high definition, the film also uses animation and historical re-enactments and features segments on climate change, the health effects of air pollution, and grass-roots efforts for cleaner air.
"Our goal was to create a public outreach tool that kind of told the story of air, that looked at air as a resource, much like we look at clean water," Villegas said. "Air is not quite as tangible as water."
The EPA cited the film's "impact, innovation and replicability" in honoring it over more than 125 other applicants.
The film was financed with $106,000 from the EPA, another $45,000 from the county pollution control district and funding from other various sources.
The film has been shown on cable television in California and at public screenings in Kentucky, Indiana, Oregon, Arizona, North Dakota and Vancouver, Canada.
The district also is working to get it incorporated into the curriculum in classrooms in Ventura County. "It might be at the eighth-grade level, or maybe at the ninth or 10th," Villegas said.
Villegas said he has been pleasantly surprised by how well the film has been received.
"Here we are a moderately sized air pollution control district, not a whole lot of film knowledge," he said. But, the film "exceeded certainly my expectations."
On the web: www.airthefilm.org
E-mail Michael Collins of Scripps Howard News Service at collinsm(at)shns.com.
(Contact Michael Collins of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at collinsm(at)shns.com.)
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