Alien Invaders: Invasive Species and the Threat to Biodiversity

OK, this tape has won an NEMN Gold Apple Award and a CINE Golden Eagle Award. How then can a humble school librarian give it a mediocre rating? Because I wouldn't buy it for my school's collection and I don't recommend it for yours, either. The big deal is that it was produced by junior and senior high school biology students from Cleveland High School in Portland, Oregon. The students worked with The Portland Art Museum Northwest Film Center's (take a breath) Filmmakers-in-the-Schools Outreach Program. The video's conceit is a science-fiction thriller where Whiny Teen Girl of The Future goes back in time to 1997 and decides to save the environment in a week. After wasting most of the production on the sci-fi storyline, we're treated to some Real Scientists conducting Real Research, but only briefly. In its favor, the visual effects and detail are top-notch, but hey, this is not supposed to be a feature film. It's supposed to be educational, and it's pretty darn slim on the factual scale given the weight of the topic. The young filmmakers should have considered their national audience, spending less time on Whiny Girl and more time on the various invasive species that threaten many regions (water hyacinths in Florida, Africanized honey bees in Texas, zebra mussels along the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, etc.). There is a perfectly hilarious send-up of 1950's horror movies at the very end that's a treasure--a rogue strand of English ivy breaks up a black-and-white soda-shop scene by twining around and capturing a screaming maiden. That was cute; if only the students had limited themselves to one or two quick spoofs and spent more time on facts. Optional, except in Portland. Aud: J, H. (R. Reagan)