Valerie Cassity
Special to the Sun

The Living Green Festival Committee held an environmental film festival Sunday, Nov. 8, at the Reel Cinema in Wofford Heights. It is their first promotional event to spread the word about the 2010 Living Green in the KRV Festival. People from around the Kern Valley, as well as some from Bakersfield and Ridgecrest, came to learn about some of the world’s environmental problems, as well as solutions to keep our planet from the brink of destruction.

The movies shown included FLOW, an award-winning, feature-length documentary about the world water crisis, including identification of the problem, and what activists are doing to help the poor get potable water into communities that have been cut off from that resource from multi-national corporations. According to experts quoted in the film, more than two million people die each year from water-born diseases, most are children under 5 years of age. FLOW ended with a message of hope, showcasing different ways that the water crisis is being averted by people such as a man in India who invented a UV water filtration system that can give people clean water for $2 per year. And the rainwater collection systems that have been popping up in the third and first world alike. “This is the best water film out there,” said Wofford Heights resident and film festival attendee Susan Shepard. “I’m very happy to see that this festival is happening in our community.”

The second film, Food, Inc., dealt with the costliness of factory farming and how, with little federal oversight, it can taint the nation’s food supply. Included were many not-for-the-faint-of-heart images of feed lots and slaughterhouses, where animal abuse has been documented. The third film was a short documentary Trashed, which showed the route the country’s garbage takes after it is thrown out, from the garbage truck to the landfill; from the streets to the ocean.

Between films, Living Green Film committee member Katie Olivares led a short dialogue with the audience about ways that they can make a difference based on what they had seen in the film. She also encouraged people to submit suggestions for films to be shown at future film festivals. They can be sent to LivingGreen@mchsi.com.

“We’re not interested in scaring people,” said Olivares, “We’re looking for solutions.”

The Living Green Festival is an endeavor of Kern River Valley Revitalization. The second annual weekend-long event will take place in March 2010. In the meantime, the committee has two more film festivals planned, the next to take place on Jan. 10, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., again at the Reel Cinema, and will include five short documentaries that deal with a variety of environmental issues, while incorporating humor, truth, and solutions in their messages. For more information, visit their website at www.LivingGreenKRV.org.