WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Images Cinema presents their inaugural Earth Week Film Festival Friday, April 19 through Thursday, April 25. 

 

An expansion upon the long-standing Fresh Fest: A Food and Farming Film Festival, which usually ran one weekend, the Earth Week Film Festival will run a full week and engage in a variety of topics that range from regenerative agriculture, the plastic pollution, and metal extraction from the ocean floor. 

 

The festival includes 10 films, 13 screenings, 7 with discussions with experts in their field, local farmers, activists, and more. A full list of films follows below, and can also be found at www.imagescinema.org/earth-week-film-festival. 

 

Images Cinema is located at 50 Spring Street, Williamstown, MA.

 

Earth Week Film Festival is sponsored by the Williams College Office of the President, The Green Pastures Fund, Williams College Center for Environmental Studies, Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives, 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.

 

Dan Hudson, Executive Director of Images Cinema, emphasizes the festival's alignment with Images' values.

 

"Our Earth Week Film Festival is an outgrowth of our passion to save the planet. Not only do we have a concessions stand that features many local and regional producers, with 99 percent of our materials free from single-use plastics, we have been sending our uneaten popcorn to the pigs at Cricket Creek Farm for nearly 20 years. We also have plans to further reduce our carbon footprint," he said.

 

Managing Director at Images Cinema, Janet Curran, reflects on the long history of this festival. 

 

"In 2007 in partnership with a local farmer, we had a potluck and film event to celebrate the Slow Food Movement. In collaboration with Storey Publishing and the Center for Environmental Studie, the seed of this initial idea grew into the first Food Film Festival in 2010, which continued for fourteen years as Fresh Fest. In this form Images featured films that explore issues relevant to local food producers and local farmers, and created the opportunity for conversation with the community about the things important to this farming community," she said. "It's exciting to expand the festival to have broader conversations, while also celebrating the beauty of our planet."

 

In addition to highlighting the immediate necessity for environmental stewardship, the Earth Week Film Festival represents a broader vision held by Images Cinema: to re-establish and nurture an accessible, inclusive "Third Place" for the local community across all ages and backgrounds. In a society where such communal spaces have dwindled, Images Cinema stands as a deliberate outreach effort, inviting diverse communities to come together to learn, share, and engage with one another on a deep and meaningful level. This work is further enabled with the opening of their new gathering space adjacent to their lobby.

 

Earth Week Film Festival Schedule:

 

 

Friday, April 19

 

6-7pm: Opening Reception

 

7pm: Common Ground followed by panel discussion, including Gabe Brown, partner in Understanding Ag and co-owner of Brown's Ranch

 

 

Saturday, April 20

 

1:30pm: "Wall-E"

 

4pm: Five Seasons: "The Gardens of Piet Oudolf" w/ discussion

 

7pm: "Deep Rising" w/ Alison Cross Carter of the World Wildlife Fund

 

 

Sunday, April 21

 

1:30 PM: "Woman at War"

 

4:00 PM: "Motherload"  w/ discussion

 

6:00-7:00 PM: Reception

 

 

Monday, April 22

 

4:30 PM: "Common Ground" (encore screening)

 

7:00 PM: "Songs of Earth"

 

 

Tuesday, April 23

 

4:30 PM: "Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf" (encore screening)

 

7:00 PM: "The Story of Plastic" w/ Deb Burns

 

 

Wednesday, April 24

 

4:00 PM: "Confronting Climate Change" (Short) w/ Elizabeth Kolbert and Maxine Burkett

 

 

Thursday, April 25

 

4:30 PM: "Songs of Earth" (encore screening)

 

6-7 PM: Closing Reception

 

7:00 PM: "Manzanar, Diverted" w/ Aly Corey, Associate Director of the Davis Center

 

Sponsors:

 

The Earth Week Film Festival is supported by a consortium of community-minded sponsors, including:

 

Williams College Office of the President

 

The Green Pastures Fund

 

Center for Environmental Studies at Williams College

 

The Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives

 

Berkshire Bank

 

Berkshire Environmental Consultants