Good Films: Colorado Environmental Film Festival
We thought we would get our fill of movies this week by going to see Warren Miller’s Dynasty. It turns out there’s another Good movie event taking place this week. Presented by the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, the Colorado Environmental Film Festival takes place November 5-7 at the American Mountaineering Center in Golden and features 34 films, six of which are from Colorado filmmakers.
Three films in particular attracted our interest:
Tapped
If you drink bottled water, you might not ever again after seeing Tapped, the festival’s feature film. We had the opportunity to take a sneak-peak at Tapped, and, quite frankly, we were blown away. Tapped takes a hard look at the bottled water industry—a very hard look. Focusing on three main areas, how companies get their water, the bottled water manufacturing process, and how bottles get disposed, Tapped argues well that the (unnecessary) multi-billion dollar bottled water industry is very bad for small communities, very bad for public health, and very bad for the environment.
One of the biggest fallacies in modern marketing, many believe, is the belief in a necessity for bottled water because tap water isn’t pure enough. Tapped argues that bottled water actually has a negative net effect on public health. The notion that plastic bottles have the potential to leach chemicals that are often correlated with higher cancer rates, reproductive system damage, and damage to fetuses into your body, the film argues, is probably reason enough to stop drinking bottled water. If that is not enough to convince you, the film takes you to towns where plastic manufacturing factories are accompanied by citizens with higher cancer rates and health problems, as toxins from factories are deposited in the air, ground water, soil, and eventually human bodies. Here, the point is: by not drinking bottled water, you’re not only looking out for your own health, but also for the health of people living by factories in small communities who you’ve never met.
Perhaps the film’s easiest task is to prove how the bottled water industry is harmful for our environment. Unfortunately, these days it isn’t hard to find ecosystems marred by pollution and plastic waste. Tapped visits floating plastic waste islands in the oceans and brings you to beaches covered with plastic bottles and tiny plastic pieces (the pieces that weren’t mistaken for plankton and introduced to the food chain of which we are members). Currently there are no bacteria that can break down plastics, but there are plenty that can be killed or harmed by eating them.
To put it simply, this film is a must see, and luckily it will be playing both on Thursday and Saturday night.
HomeGrown
HomeGrown follows the Dervaes family, a family that lives 130 feet from the freeway in LA, farms 1/10 of an acre of land, and is able to produce over 6,000 lbs of fresh produce a year. The family makes their own bio-diesel, gets power from solar panels on their house, and utilizes other sustainable techniques such as canning, low-flush toilets, and the “toilet lid sink.” The movie purports to give an honest portrayal of the positives and negatives of this type of lifestyle, which we’re told makes it that much more compelling. To learn more about the Dervaes’ “homestead,” click here.
Ingredients
Though there are more and more people in America, there are less and less farmers, and our food is coming from farther and farther away. Ingredients takes a look at some of the problems with our current food sourcing and how utilizing local and seasonal foods can have a profound impact on local communities. The film highlights communities that are getting local farmers, local restaurants, and local citizens together to enhance the quality of all life, health, and productivity of all three.
For more information on the Colorado Environmental Film Festival, click here.
For a festival brochure and schedule, click here.
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I may never drink bottled water again.