Environmental filmmaker to visit

An Emmy Award-winning producer, editor, and writer of environmental documentaries for television will give a free public lecture at 3:30 p.m. Monday, March 4, in Union South.

John De Graaf’s topic will be “Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic” — the title of a book he coauthored last year based on two of his popular public TV documentaries, “Affluenza” and “Escape from Affluenza.”

Affluenza is a tongue-in-cheek term for excessive material consumption, considered by some to be an unhealthy American obsession.

De Graaf, a public affairs producer for KCTS-TV in Seattle and KTCA-TV in St. Paul, also is an essayist for publications including Co-Evolution Quarterly, the Progressive, and Amicus Journal. He founded the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival and is an instructor at the University of Washington.

His PBS documentaries include “Garden Song,” “For Earth’s Sake: The Life And Times of David Brower,” “Circle of Plenty,” “On Nature’s Terms,” and many others. He has won more than 90 awards for filmmaking. De Graaf’s talk is sponsored by the Institute for Environmental Studies and Holstrom Environmental Endowment. For more information, contact Tom Sinclair, (608) 263-5599, tksincla@facstaff.wisc.edu.