Green on the screen

So the running order for the village's mini eco film festival has been finalised. Four films screening over about six weeks with talks afterwards.

Deciding on which films proved difficult and I realised that it's difficult to get this right. You don't want to be too worthy; you don't want to be too obscure but you want to offer something a little different.

I read The Guardian's review of The Road which will be coming out soon and I recall George Monbiot saying what an important but depressing book it was. Both sound amazing; but I'm not sure I want to be depressed. I think I'd like to be motivated.

For what it's worth here is our line up. A mix of the popular, the local and some retro horror. Among those films which didn't make the cut where Erin Brokovitch and Big River Man. Did we get the mix right. Was there something obvious we missed?

Thursday October 29, 8pm: Age of Stupid
Starring Peter Postlethwaite this film, which was released this spring, is set 2055 as one citizen looks back on how inaction led to the wrecking of Planet Earth.
It will be followed by a discussion on how people in Colerne can contribute to December’s climate change conference in Copenhagen
Cost: £3.50 per head (which buys you a glass of wine and nibbles)

Thursday November 12, 8pm: Bringing up Baby
Award-winning Wiltshire-based wildlife film maker Mark Fletcher shows his film which explores the new science of animal emotions. It becomes clear from the footage that not only do many animals feel emotions as we do, but that all mammals and many birds are conscious, aware of their feelings and themselves. It will be followed by a discussion on the issue raised.
Cost: £2.50 per head (which buys you a glass of wine and nibbles)

Wednesday November 25, 8pm: The End of the Line
Released this summer, this documentary is powerful indictment of modern fishing practices and has proved a global hit. It will be followed by a talk and discussion led by a speaker from the Chippenham-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.
Cost: £3.50 per head (which buys you a glass of wine and nibbles)

 

Thursday December 3, 8pm: Doomwatch
This 1972 film is a spin-off from the television series of the same name. It stars Ian Bannen as a government investigator of ecological mysteries. He is sent to a remote Scottish island where an oil tanker spill has caused unexpected side effects.
This event doubles as ecolerne’s December meeting and Christmas party. All are welcome.
Cost: £2.50 (which buys you a glass of wine and nibbles)

If you want to come along you'er more than welcome. We'll be showing them at the back room of the Fox & Hounds pub in Colerne.

Comments

[Sarah]

Looks like a good running order. Bringing Up Baby reminds me of a heartbreaking moment in a book called Mother Nature by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, primatologist and anthropologist. At one point, discussing data on maternal behaviour in monkeys reared without a mother, she mentions that all the experiment subjects were "recruited" by removing them from their mothers - who pined, devastated, for their lost children. In a book full of infanticide and neglect, that was the bit that left me tearful.

Have a good festival!