This year’s Environmental Film Festival, which runs from March 11-22, marks its 17th year in Washington, D.C. with an astounding diversity of films that capture the majesty of our world and address the ever-increasing threats to life on earth.
The 2009 Festival spotlights earth’s final frontier, the ocean, source of all life, covering nearly three-quarters of the globe but less known than the surface of the moon as seen through 130 films, enhanced with the perspectives and knowledge of 50 filmmakers and 72 special guests who will be on hand for the Festival.
Festival films also consider the vital connections between food and the environment. Potato Heads and Corn Dogs: Keepers of the Crop and The World According to Monsanto point to the need to protect and diversify food sources. Selections from “Slow Food on Film” promote awareness of food cultures and Nora! profiles Washington restaurateur Nora Pouillon, founder of the nation’s first certified organic restaurant. The mysterious disappearance of bees is the subject of a special sneak preview of Return of the Honeybee.
This year’s Festival also presents a retrospective of 11 environmentally-oriented films by renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog, including his most recent, Encounters at the End of the World. The Festival also features Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Hedrick Smith speaking on toxins in our waterways at the Newseum, and foreign policy expert Strobe Talbott proposing how the international community can best deal with climate change, at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
More at http://www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org.