Ever thought about doing something for the environment? Well you can start tonight by simply seeing a movie.
Green Drinks is screening “A Fierce Green Fire” at 6 p.m. as a part of promotion for the environmental film festival Cinema Verde. The movie is about the history of the environmental movement and directed by Mark Kitchell.
The movie will be screened at Gators 4 Cinema, in the Oaks Mall Plaza, as part of monthly film screenings leading up to the film festival that will take place on the weekend of Feb. 13-16. The event tonight will also include a dinner before the movie. So, if you’re wondering where to take that environmentally conscious girl you just asked out on a date, look no further.
I got a chance to catch up with the founder and director of Cinema Verde, Trish Riley, to talk a little bit about the festival and environmental issues.
She said she’s been involved with environmental issues most of her life, writing as a journalist about the topic for 20 years.
“I arranged a neighborhood cleanup for the first Earth Day,” Riley said.
While at a green business conference in San Francisco in 2009, she said she saw a number of films that pertained to the environment. She thought, why not bring these sorts of films to Gainesville?
So in August of 2009, the first planning for Cinema Verde began. The first festival was held in 2010. Since then, the festival has been held every year, usually bringing in about 3,000 each year.
Holding the festival is an excellent way to spread awareness about environmental issues, since Riley says getting newspaper and magazine coverage on such issues is usually pretty difficult.
So if you’ve got $10 ($12 if you’re not a student), why not go educate yourself on the history of the environmental movement tonight? Keeping the planet healthy is vital to keeping yourself healthy. If you don’t have time tonight, another film screening will be held on Nov. 7 and a party for the fifth anniversary of the local Green Drinks chapter will be held on Dec. 5. At that party, the film names for the festival in February will be released.
If you want to get more involved, contact Cinema Verde and see if you can volunteer (Riley said the volunteers are the “blood of the organization”). If you’re part of a student group, Riley said the festival is always looking for sponsors, since all the other funding comes from donations and a couple of grants.
So if you’re trying to educate yourself about the environment or if you’re just trying to educate yourself, check it out.
Photo courtesy of: Chris Sonksen
