Earth Week Film Festival at Images Cinema
April 19 through 25
Hi, my name is Janet Curran and I’m the managing director at Images Cinema.
I’ve worked for Images Cinema for over twenty years, and a festival engaged with food and farming has been a part of Images’ programming for 17 of those years. Our annual Fresh Fest: A Food and Farming Film Festival has been expanded this year to a full week of programming organized around the theme of Beyond Sustainability (which still includes farming!). Sustainability is a buzz word these days, but can imply doing the bare minimum. We seek to go beyond that, to explore the ways we can move into the anthropocene and make the world a better place.
As an organization, one of our values is sustainability. In addition to presenting this film festival, Images is dedicated to reducing environmental harm as much as possible. Our concessions counter is 99% single-use-plastic-free: the popcorn bags, candy packaging, cups and napkins are all compostable; our drinks are all in aluminum cans or glass, which are recyclable. Additionally, we bring unused popcorn to local farms for animals to eat, and we source a number of our concessions offerings locally.
The Earth Week Film Festival is sponsored by the Williams College Office of the President, The Green Pastures Fund, Williams College Center for Environmental Studies, the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives at Williams College, Storey Publishing/Hachette Book Group, Berkshire Environmental Consultants, and Berkshire Bank. Thanks to the generosity of these underwriters, all Earth Week Film Festival screenings and events are free to the community! Advance tickets are available and recommended; most films will screen just once.
Our opening night film, Common Ground (Friday, April 19 at 7pm), is a documentary about regenerative agriculture, a way of farming that incorporates traditional Black and Indigenous approaches that are healthier for humans and the environment, and actually create carbon sinks. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with Morgan Hartman, a local farmer, Gabe Brown of Understanding Ag, and will be moderated by Sarah Gardner, Associate Director of the Williams College Center for Environmental Studies.