January 29-30, 2010 – Friday and Saturday
at
Macey Center on the New Mexico Tech campus in Socorro, NM.

The RioFest Environmental Film Festival board of directors has announced the list of films selected to be shown at its 2010 event.

The lineup includes 25 cinematic productions, ranging from a series of shorts to a trio of highly acclaimed feature-length films, Food, Inc., The Music Tree and King Corn.

“Riofest seeks to empower its patrons by educating them and then providing them with opportunities to engage in sustainable practices,” said Frances Deters, the film festival’s executive director.

“This year’s theme is ‘Solutions,’ and we’re proud to offer a wide variety of films that can inspire people to seek solutions to the environmental problems we face.” Deters said film is one of the best ways to raise awareness for environmental issues and educate people about what opportunities are available.

“Cinema has the unique ability to engage emotions through communal relationships between individuals and communities,” she said. “At Riofest, we want to expose people to those communities and healthy ways to get involved with their ideas. The lineup of films for our 2010 event achieves that goal.”

Festival tickets are priced at $25 for a two-day pass and $15 for one day.

Tickets for the Saturday night showing of Food Inc. are $5.00.

Featured Films:

Friday night
The Music Tree (2009) from Brazilian director Otavio Juliano.
Premiering earlier this year, The Music Tree examines the plight of the Pernambuco tree in Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest. The wood from the Pernambuco is considered the finest for the manufacture of violin, viola and cello bows and has been used since Mozart was composing masterpieces 250 years ago. The film documents efforts to save the trees and the music that depends on it.

Saturday matinee
King Corn (2007), a documentary about two college buddies who move to America’s heartland to find out where their food comes from. With the help of neighbors, genetically modified seeds and powerful herbicides, they produce a bumper crop on one-acre of Iowa land. But later learn some troubling lessons about the how we farm and the food we eat when they follow their corn they produced into the food system.

Saturday night
Food Inc. (2008)
Robert Kenner
Exposeing the forces driving the food industry in America, the affect they have on the health and welfare of the consumer and the risks to farmers and the environment. Filmmaker Robert Kenner reveals shocking truths about the food we eat, where it came from and how some forward-thinking entrepreneurs are offering solutions to problems plaguing America’s food industry.

“These films provide a strong foundation for the 2010 RioFest Environmental Film Festival, but there are many others that serve to empower individuals to engage in sustainable practices for the betterment of humankind and the environment in which we live,” Deters said.

Other feature-length films to be shown include:

Chaparri, the Seven Bears of the Sacred Mountain (2008), The Greening of Southie (2007), Addicted to Plastic (2007), Affluenza (1997) and its sequel, Escape from Affluenza (1998). Both with a running time of about an hour, the former explores the social and environmental consequences of materialism and over-consumption, while the sequel profiles people and organizations working for solutions that bring our lives in better balance with the environment.

The festival will also include the Meatrix series of short animations.

Spoofing The Matrix movies, The Meatrix (2003) is a creative and humorous approach to educating viewers about factory crop and dairy farming. The Meatrix II, Revolting and The Meatrix II ½ (both 2006) expand on the original’s theme, while promoting social action.

Several films focus on water, including Rio Grande, River of Connection , a documentary produced as an educational film for students by Alexis Rykken of San Antonio, NM.

Reviving a Watershed and Mixing: A Dialogue on Wastewater are two other films that focus on water-related issues.

“It’s important that we all recognize and understand the value of our limited resources and what we must do to preserve them,” Deters said.

RioFest Environmental Film Festival is a 501-3C non-profit entity established in 2007 under the fiscal sponsorship of
Friends of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge .

Tickets for the event may be purchased by check or money order.

Checks should be made to Friends of the Bosque and sent to:
RioFest Environmental Film Festival
P.O. Box 508
Socorro, NM 87801

For more information:

visit the RioFest website: The RioFest Environmental Film Festival

Movie Schedule for Riofest 2010