(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Project Native will host its 6th annual Environmental Film Festival at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center and the Triplex Cinema on Saturday and Sunday, March 12 and 13. The festival will showcase 25 feature and short films on a range of current environmental topics. Each selection is intended to educate, inspire, enrage, and engage the audience. Admission is free and open to the public.

“Embracing the Greatest Challenge of Our Time,” a special event at the Mahaiwe on Saturday, March 12, at 7pm, will include a screening of two short films, “Joanna Macy and the Great Turning” and “The Wisdom to Survive: Climate Change, Capitalism and Community,” followed by a panel discussion featuring Maia Conty, Senator Ben Downing, Chris Landry, Quincy Saul, Bruce Winn, with Barry Shapiro as moderator. Project Native is encouraging middle, high school and college students to attend and bring their friends.

In “The Great Turning”, Joanna Macy, PhD, eco-philosopher, scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology, shares her understanding of these times we live in, when everything we treasure seems to be at risk. The Great Turning is the shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization. It is the third major revolution of human existence, after the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Macy will be in attendance.

“The Wisdom to Survive: Climate Change, Capitalism and Community” accepts the consensus of scientists that climate change has already arrived, and asks, what is keeping us from action? The film explores how unlimited growth and greed are destroying the life support system of the planet, the social fabric of society, and the lives of billions of people. The film features thought leaders and activists in the realms of science, economics and spirituality discussing how we can evolve and take action in the face of climate disruption. They urge us to open ourselves to the beauty that surrounds us and get to work on ensuring it thrives. Among those featured in this film are Bill McKibben, Joanna Macy, Roger Payne, Richard Heinberg, Gus Speth, Stephanie Kaza, Nikki Cooley, and Ben Falk.

The festival will continue on Sunday, March 13, at the Triplex Cinema with films running from 10am to 9pm.

 

 

Official Selections for Project Native’s 6th Film Festival

 

1000 Cuts

36 Inches

The Accidental Environmentalist

American Lawn

Bluebird Man

The Burden

A Dam Problem

Doeville

Dryden: The Small Town That Changed the Fracking Game

Exposed: USDA’s Secret War on Wildlife

Forget Shorter Showers

Gambling on Extinction

I Bought A Rainforest

The Important Places

Joanna Macy & The Great Turning

Mixing Oil & Water

Nature RX

Our Daily Dose

Overburden

Return of the River

Silent River

Slow Season

This Changes Everything

The True Cost

Unbranded

White Earth

Wisdom to Survive: Climate Change, Capitalism & Community