As part of Kern River Valley Revitalization, Living Green KRV put on the second Living Green Film Festival at The Reel Cinema movie theater in Wofford Heights, showing three films on “green” issues for free on Nov. 8 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The three documentaries shown were “Flow,” “Food, Inc.” and “Trashed.”
KRVR communication coordinator and 2010 Living Green KRV coordinator Richard Rowe and Co-chair of the 2010 Living Green Film Festival Committee Katie Olivares were there to introduce the movies and lead discussion on the issues presented in the films and what people can do to help.
The first film, “Flow,” was about the world’s water crisis and the problems that arise when a necessary resource is capitalized on and sold. “Food, Inc.” uncovers the world of the food industry and shows that although consumers are often painted a picture of their meat coming from a happy farm, most of it comes from a less desirable mechanized farm. It also touched on the problems that these farms create and what the government’s food regulation agencies are, or aren’t, doing about it. The last film was “Trashed,” which is about the country’s increasing amount of trash and how it affects both people and the planet.
Despite the nature of these issues, all the films provide solutions that everyone can adopt to fix these problems before it is too late. This is something that Olivares and the other members of her committee look for when choosing documentaries for the film fest. They encourage film suggestions for future film festivals, but solutions are a must. Films for the festivals must also be recent.
“We’re looking for a broad number of topics,” said Olivares. “We want films that relate to our community specifically, what we can do specifically, and what we can do now.”
“It’s important for us to provide solutions, instead of just being ‘The sky is falling!'” added Rowe. “Not everyone can buy a Prius or solar panels, but there are little things we can all do.”