The Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Josh Fox will host a screening of his work focusing on environmental and social justice.

Fox said he recognizes New Orleans as a site of environmental injustice, because the city is in danger of a drastic change in the coming years, as a result of climate change.

“If anyone knows what it’s like to experience extreme weather, it’s New Orleans,” Fox said. “It is the most vulnerable place in the United States. Future generations will look back at this moment and realize that this was the moment we lost our coastal cities.”

Fox believes New Orleans should be at the forefront of the country’s climate fight.

Craig Hood, director of the environment program said that having Fox at Loyola opens up discussion about the environment on several levels.

“Bringing him here in part is because environmental issues that exist from the local to the national to the global scale are really interdisciplinary issues.”

Hood said that the interdisciplinary nature of Fox’s films will appeal to non-science majors too.

“His coming here is not just for the benefit of environmental studies and environmental science students, but really for just about anybody,” Hood said. “We have a big mass comm program, we have a developing video filmmaking program, and so there’s a lot of students and faculty and staff from those programs who benefit too.”

Hood described how the pertinence of this event’s focus on environmental and social justice increased through the country’s current political climate.

“We started talking to him before the election about coming here. He cares a great deal about environmental and social justice movements and so especially now in these troubled times we’re living in, it takes on new urgency now.”

Hood also wants students to know that the subjects of Fox’s films uphold some of the main tenets of Loyola’s Jesuit values and hopes that this event will help universalize environmental justice outside of an academic environment.

“He is not an academic; this is not bringing an academic to campus. This is trying to do something broader, a little out of the ordinary.”

Fox hopes that this event will spark a change, not just at Loyola, but in the greater New Orleans community.

“We need to get a protest movement going in the city of New Orleans,” Fox said. “It’s the citizens of New Orleans, especially the young people, who have to speak up right now. The most important thing that needs to be said now is that silence will not protect you.”

The presentation by Fox will take place in Nunemaker Auditorium from 7-9 p.m. on Feb. 10. He will present on his films as well as his involvement to improve environmental policy in the United States and globally.