Eco-Movie Fest 2012! - Irving

Fresh (the Video Project) 
1:30 – 2:40 p.m. | Running time: 70 minutes

“Fresh” celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.Learn more about this movie.

Vanishing of the Bees (the Video Project) 
3 to 3:53 p.m. | Running time: 53 minutes

Honeybees, a keystone species vital to sustaining our ecosystem, are mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives. This movie follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capitol Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees. Narrated by Ellen Page. Learn more about this movie.

Garbage: The Revolution Starts at Home (the Video Project) 
4:10 to 5:26 p.m. | Running time: 76 minutes

“Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home” is a feature documentary about how the family household has become one of the most ferocious environmental predators of our time. Concerned for the future of his new baby boy, Sebastian, writer director Andrew Nisker takes an average urban family, the McDonalds, and asks them to keep every scrap of garbage that they create for three months. He then takes them on a journey to find out where it all goes and what it’s doing to the world. From organic waste to the stuff they flush down the potty, the plastic bags they use to the water they drink out of bottles, the air pollution they create when transporting the kids around, to using lights at Christmas, the McDonalds discover that for every action there is a reaction that affects them and the entire planet. Learn more about this movie.

King Corn (Bullfrog Films) 
1:30 to 3 p.m. | Running time: 90 minutes

King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In “King Corn,” Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the East Coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm. Learn more about this movie.

Play Again (Bullfrog Films) 
3:15 to 4:08 p.m. | Running time: 53 minutes

One generation from now most people in the U.S. will have spent more time in the virtual world than in nature. New media technologies have improved our lives in countless ways. Information now appears with a click. Overseas friends are part of our daily lives. And even grandma loves Wii. But what are we missing when we are behind screens? And how will this impact our children, our society, and eventually, our planet? At a time when children play more behind screens than outside, “Play Again” explores the changing balance between the virtual and natural worlds. Is our connection to nature disappearing down the digital rabbit hole? This moving and humorous documentary follows six teenagers who, like the “average American child,” spend five to 15 hours a day behind screens. “Play Again” unplugs these teens and takes them on their first wilderness adventure— no electricity, no cell phone coverage, no virtual reality. Learn more about this movie.

Kilowatt Ours (the Video Project)
4:20 to 4:55 p.m. | Running time: 35 minutes

This film traces electricity from your light switch at home to the source, exposing the consequences of energy production, global climate change, air pollution, and mountain top removal coal mining. “Kilowatt Ours” reveals an optimistic message, introducing viewers to individuals, businesses and schools that have cut their energy use (and bills) in half. The benefits of energy conservation and renewable power to the consumer, the environment and the economy, empower viewers to become part of the clean energy revolution. Winner of several awards including: Best Documentary Feature – South Dakota Film Festival 2007, and Best Environmental Film – Southern Appalachia International Film Festival 2007. Learn more about this movie.

Mama Earth – Her Destiny, Our Hands (the Video Project) 
5:05 to 5:26 p.m. | Running time: 21 minutes

With humor and compassion, “Mama Earth” provides an inspiring introduction to the concepts of environmental economics, sustainability and new paths to healthier communities and protecting natural resources, all while attaining a more profitable bottom line. Employing concepts of sustainability, ecological economics, and natural capital, the film shows how conventional economics encourages exploitation of our natural resources, ignoring the value of critical goods and services like clean air and water, fertile soil, and other natural assets. This film won Best Sustainability Film at the Pine Film Festival, the Calypso Award at the Moondance Film Festival and the Aurora Platinum Award - Environmental Protection. Learn more about this movie.