“A festival of wisdom!”

– Bill Bigelow, Rethinking Schools

“Everyone should see this film!”

-Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods

“Play Again is an excellent and thought-provoking evaluation of how to promote a biologically and spiritually sustainable future for the next generation.”

– The Midwest Book Review

Not a cliché repetition of the dire consequences of too much screen-time, Play Again brings home the real stories of six teenagers experiencing nature for the first time. Bouncing seamlessly between a Pacific NW campsite and commentary by noted academics Play Again makes a convincing argument for exposing kids to nature.

– The Joy Trip Project, March 2011

“I believe this is one of the great challenges facing us today. The consequences of our estrangement from nature will be devastating for us as individuals and for society. Well done and may your film have a big impact!”

– David Suzuki, world-renowned Canadian science broadcaster, geneticist, and author, The Sacred Balance

“I did not expect the documentary, “Play Again” to be fun.  I expected to learn more dire statistics about the effect of technology and media on kids. The film does not sugar-coat the situation, but I learned about the resiliency of kids and the miracle of the instinctual human response to nature.  It’s a brilliant exploration of the effects of a childhood removed from nature…this film is inherently hopeful.”

– Robbie Knight, Denver Green Streets

“Play Again vividly demonstrates the damage that ungoverned electronic media is doing to children. By drawing kids away from the natural world and face-to-face contact with other people, excessive screen time is preventing them from learning the skills and dispositions required to interact with the real as opposed to virtual worlds.”

-Greg Smith, Lewis and Clark College, Author, Place-Based Education

“It is a powerful film, revealing that we are allowing our young people to be so profoundly disconnected from the natural world and denying them the opportunity to fully develop their senses. How uplifting to see these young adults grow before our eyes under the nurturing and stimulating effects of their wilderness experience. We are left with the redeeming message that it is not too late! We can and must unplug our children, give them the access to the natural world that is so essential to their development, and restore childhood!”

-Robin Mann, President, The Sierra Club

“Instead of making a hysterical film about the loss of childhood, Schei’s insightful interviews with education leaders and environmental thinkers like Juliet Schor and Bill McKibben offer perspective on how we can combat media overload and addictive technological behaviors in young people.”

-Brittany Shoot, Bitch Magazine

– Her Royal Highness, Princess Irene van Lippe-Biesterfeld of the Netherlands

“Play Again is a giant step in the movement for reintroducing children to the benefits of play and nature and alerting adults to the health, learning, and developmental consequences of their absence. Active play and work in nature builds brains and bodies and lays the experiential foundations for later learning.”

-Joe Frost, Professor Emeritus, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Texas, Author, A History of Children’s Play and Play Environments: Toward a Contemporary Child Saving Movement

“The film tells its story effectively by letting children speak…The focus remains on contemporary children’s experience in their own words…Play Again can serve as a compelling catalyst for discussion and action to limit both screen time and the commercialization of childhood and to increase children’s free play outdoors and access to nature–not just through distant wilderness adventures but also through schoolyard gardens and nearby nature in neighborhoods.”

-Louise Chawla, University of Colorado, Children, Youth and Environments Journal

“The film captures the helplessness of a generation hooked on virtual life, and the freedom the children taste when that cord is cut, even momentarily. Interspersed between the kids’ adventures, we hear from an impressive lineup of leading experts on childhood play, the neurology of screen-play, wilderness education, nature deficit disorder and childhood creativity.”

-Tobin Hack, Portland Tribune

“Powerful and deeply moving…  The goal of a film like this is to awaken viewers in new ways that stay with them over time, and that you’ve done!”

-Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Lesley College

“We are thrilled to be able to screen Play Again…It looks at how we are raising the next generation to be involved or sadly, not involved, in the planet’s struggles. By showing parents and other film goers the benefits of unplugging their kids, hopefully we will help hatch the next generation of Artivists.”

-Diaky Diaz, Founder, Executive Producer, Artivist Film Festival

“Exceptional…Fascinating viewing…Play Again is unique in that it makes a strong connection between excessive media viewing and environmental degradation in that media viewing increases consumption and consumption has damaging effects on the environment. The film is consistently compelling in both the story of the teenagers and the interviews with media experts.”

– Tom Ipri, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Educational Media Reviews Online

“Pose[s] a crucial question: Will children raised without contact with the natural world work to protect it? …demonstrates[s] the essential fact that the risks of raising a generation of children away from nature are much larger–for the young, society, and the planet–than those that await them in the great outdoors.”