Films Connect Food and the Environment

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

The 18^th Annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital will be held March 16-28 in Washington, DC and will feature 155 films. One of the main themes at the festival this year is the connection between food and the environment.  32 of the films will be part of the Food & Agriculture Film Series.

Topics include school food programs, the sustainable organic movement, biodiversity, the slow food movement, food security, migrant farm workers, and urban agriculture.  Bonus: The majority of the films are free!  

Below is a list of films that relate to our region.

If you haven’t seen Fresh, which features Virginia farmer Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, you can watch it on March 17 at 7:30pm at the National Geographic Society.  Following the screening, you can participate in a discussion featuring the filmmaker Ana Sofia Joanes, Ann Yonkers, Co-director of FRESHFARM Markets, and by phone, Joel Salatin.

Lunch is a short documentary co-presented by the Earth Day Network & Center for Environmental Filmmaking.  The film takes a look at school lunch programs, particularly within the Baltimore, MD public school system.  It will be shown with the film Potato Heads at American University with a discussion afterwards with the Potato Heads filmmaker and the Director, Avis Richards of Earth Day Network. The film can be seen on March 22 at 7pm and is free to the public.

NORA! A film about Nora Pouillon, DC’s pioneer in the organic and local-food movement and owner of the nation’s first certified organic restaurant. Following the film there will be a discussion with the star herself. The film can be seen for free on March 23 at 7pm and will be screened at the International Student House.

Who Killed Crassostrea Virginica: The Fall and Rise of Chesapeake Bay Oysters.  A whodunit film about the decline of the Chesapeake Bay oyster population.  Was it the watermen, the oyster farmers, or the scientists who study them? The film can be seen for free on March 21 at 1:30pm at the Carnegie Institution for Science and will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Michael Fincham and oyster biologist Ken Paynter and Captain Ed Farley.

There will also be films on global water issues, including a film on the restoration of the Anacostia River in Washington, DC (The Meaningful Watershed Education Experience), and a fifteen minute excerpt on chemical contaminants within the Chesapeake Bay (Poisoned Waters: Chesapeake Bay).

For a complete list, visit the film festival 2010 Films page.

Tags: agriculture, Aisha Salazar, Anacostia River, Baltimore, Chesapeake Bay, documentary, environment, Environmental Film Festival in the Nations Capital, films, food, food security, fresh, Gut Check, Joel Salatin, lunch, Nora Pouillon, Northern Virginia Magazine, organic foods, oysters, school lunch program, water