BioBlitz: Discovering Nature's Neighborhood

Among the forests, swamps, tidal wetlands, and ocean waves of Narragansett, Rhode Island, more than 200 adult volunteers, school children, working scientists, and avocational naturalists scramble in early June to tally as many species as possible in one 24-hour period within a designated parcel of land. The event is called BioBlitz.

BioBlitz is an annual event in which scientists and citizen scientists spend one full day and night observing, identifying, and recording as many fish, birds, mammals, insects, fungi, trees, and plants as they can.

BioBlitz: Discovering Nature's Neighborhood chronicles the 2013 event in a half-hour documentary that makes its television debut on Thursday, July 21 at 8:30 p.m. 

A special event by any measure, this particular BioBlitz was made even more notable for the volunteers braving the elements after a tropical storm dumped 4 1/2 inches of rain overnight. The Narragansett project, which included Canonchet Farm, Narrow River, and the Pettaquamscutt Cove, located 1,265 species of life.

Hosted by the Rhode Island Natural History Survey annually since 2000 in various sites around Rhode Island, BioBlitz: Discovering Nature's Neighborhood was filmed by the Coastal Institute at University of Rhode Island.

Presented as part of Rhode Island Stories, BioBlitz: Discovering Nature's Neighborhood will encore on Saturday July 23 at 11:30 p.m. and Sunday, July 24 at 7:30 p.m.


WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) content over the air on 36.1; on Rhode Island cable: Cox 08/1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08/508HD, Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable: Comcast 819HD (Comcast SD subscribers check local listings for channel), Verizon FiOS 18/518HD; on satellite: Dish 36/7776, DirecTV 36. 

It Gets Better: Coming Out for Change

On April 14 at 7 P.M., WSBE Rhode Island PBS presents It Gets Better at URI: Coming Out for Change, a University of Rhode Island student-made film and phenomenon. The project started as idea by five members of the URI Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Queer (LBTQ) Women’s Group to make a small film to contribute to the national effort known as "It Gets Better," a support movement formed after highly publicized suicides of gay students.

But what started as an idea among women with no filmmaking experience blossomed unexpectedly to a full University-wide commitment to support students struggling with their sexual identity.

This URI Quadangles blog post provides the fascinating background story about the film and the phenomenon. Brown Daily Herald also writes about the film as a project.

It Gets Better at URI: Coming Out for Change airs as part of the ongoing WSBE Rhode Island PBS series, Rhode Island Stories. After its debut on April 14, the documentary will be rebroadcast on Sunday, April 15 at 11 P.M. WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on cable services: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon 08 / 508HD, Full Channel 08, Comcast 819HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36, Dish Network 7776.

Rhode Island Stories airs on WSBE Learn on Thursdays at 10 P.M., Fridays at 5 A.M., and Saturdays at 2 A.M. and 4 P.M. WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; on cable: Cox 808, Verizon 478, Full Channel 109, Comcast 294 or 312.

[Editor's Note: After this blog was published, we were informed the title of the film was changed to It Gets Better at URI: Coming Out for Change. Content has been updated, but to avoid breaking existing links in search engines, the blog title remains unchanged.] 

Rhode Island Stories: "Thinking Through the Drink" takes a creative RI look at drunk driving

Thinking Through the Drink

Last year, four classes of aspiring filmmakers were challenged to take new and fresh perspectives when creating short films about drunk driving. The challenge was part of a pilot project, Stay on the SENE... live well, drive safe and be creative! Thinking Through the Drink is the behind-the-scenes documentary about the project. WSBE Rhode Island PBS premieres the documentary on Saturday, January 15 at 7 P.M., with re-broadcast on Sunday, January 16 at 11 P.M., as part of its ongoing series, Rhode Island Stories.

The grant-funded pilot project was sponsored by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation Office on Highway Safety, the University of Rhode Island Transportation Center, SENE (Southeast New England) Film, Music and Arts, in collaboration with the Rhode Island Film Collaborative.

Filmed at the KLR Building, the University of Rhode Island, and Perishable Theatre in Providence, Kay Studios in East Providence, and The Artist's Exchange in Cranston, Thinking Through the Drink was produced by award-winning Rhode Island filmmaker Christian de Rezendes of Breaking Branches Pictures.


Here is more information about the project when the films debuted at RISD.

Photo Credit: Production photos courtesy of Christian de Rezendes