4th San Francisco Green Film Festival's opening night film, "DamNation" directed by Ben Knight and Travis Rumnel

Celebrating its fourth year, the San Francisco Green Film Festival returns May 29th through June 4th and will continue to distinguish itself as the West Coast's leading destination for films and events that spotlight the world’s most urgent environmental issues and most innovative solutions. The festival is excited to have the Roxie Theater in San Francisco as a new venue for their programming. The Opening Night Reception and Premiere will be at the Aquarium of the Bay, on the Embarcadero, to launch this year’s Festival theme: Water in the West. Additional films will be at the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch on 100 Larkin Street. For tickets and information please visit http://sfgreenfilmfest.org, email info@sfgreenfilmfest.org, or call (415) 552-5580.

With 60 new films from around the globe and 70 visiting filmmakers and guest speakers, the 4th Annual San Francisco Green Film Festival will make a splash with their water-themed programming. From a compelling documentary exploring dams and the landscapes they alter to an anniversary screening of a noir, drought-driven classic, the festival inspires and mobilizes audiences to take positive environmental action in the Bay Area and beyond. The festival highlights both established and emerging filmmakers, bringing to the Bay Area important environmental stories on a range of topics, including food security, oceans, healthy kids, livable cities and an overall spirit of activism.

Each SFGFF screening includes compelling post-film programs where audiences engage in discussions with filmmakers and activists. SFGFF's signature "Lights! Camera! Take Action!" program links festival attendees with leaders in local environmental causes to get involved. In addition to panels and workshops, the program provides attendees with take-away action steps, web resources, a video story booth at the venue, and group activities that promote tangible ways to stay involved in the issues of environmental justice presented in the festival's films.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS AND EVENTS:

OPENING NIGHT FILM: DAMNATION
The San Francisco Green Film Festival is proud to present DAMNATION as the opening night film. Crowned as an Audience Award Winner at SXSW 2014, directors Travis Rummel and Ben Knight focus on the nation’s shift in attitudes about dams. Through majestic cinematography and personal stories, Rummel and Knight show unexpected discoveries and how the removal of obsolete dams can bring rivers and their surrounding landscapes back to their natural state. The screening will appropriately take place at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco, following the Opening Night reception. (Thursday, May 29)

CLOSING NIGHT FILM: WRENCHED: THE LEGACY OF THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG
The festival concludes with filmmaker ML Lincoln's WRENCHED: THE LEGACY OF THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG, a documentary about the anarchistic and riotous eco-warrior Edward Abbey. Told through interviews with his friends, archival footage and re-enactments, we see his imprint on environmental activism including how in the 1970s he crafted a radical new blueprint for the environmental movement called "monkeywrenching". (8 p.m., Wednesday June 4)

CENTERPIECE FILM: WATERMARK
This year’s centerpiece film, WATERMARK, keeps in spirit with the festival’s "water" theme and reunites award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal and renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky. Screening on June 1st, the documentary weaves together diverse global stories that show our relationship with water. From California water shortages to massive abalone farms off China's Fujian coast to the water intensive leather tanneries of Dhaka, WATERMARK gives a cautionary look at our relationship with the world’s largest natural resource. The screening of the film will be followed by a panel discussion, "Water in the West", a lively conversation hosted by Earth Island Journal with leading local experts about how to balance lack of water with pressure from agriculture, fracking, and a growing population. (7:45 p.m., Sunday June 1)

40TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING OF CHINATOWN
In the 40th Anniversary year of this classic film, California faces its worst drought in decades. Based in part on real events that formed the California Water Wars, it is set during a serious drought in LA, where a private detective gets caught up in a web of deceit, corruption and murder. A benchmark in cinema history and starring iconic Hollywood actors Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston, the San Francisco Green Film Festival is excited to present a screening of the noir classic in honor of its anniversary. (9:30 p.m., Saturday May 31)

LOCAL FILMMAKERS:

COME HELL OR HIGH WATER: THE BATTLE FOR TURKEY CREEK
Bay Area filmmaker Leah Mahan follows the painful but inspiring journey of Derrick Evans, a Boston teacher who moves home to coastal Mississippi when the graves of his ancestors are bulldozed to make way for the sprawling city of Gulfport. Over the course of a decade, Mahan followed Derrick and his neighbors as they stood up to corporate interests and politicians and endured obstacles such as Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. (7 p.m., Saturday May 31)

TELOS: THE FANTASTIC WORLD OF EUGENE TSSUI
Emeryville-based architect Eugene Tssui is known for his unconventional and unorthodox style. As an eccentric visual artist and a maverick architect, Tssui questions traditional building standards and puts nature and the environment at the forefront of his designs. Bay area filmmaker Kyung Lee chronicles the fascinating life and work of Tssui, showing his influences from his childhood to his formal education (including three expulsions from architecture school) and his relationship with his mentor the "organic" architect Bruce Goff. Rejected by the status quo and embattled to defend his futuristic, yet naturalistic visions, Tssui finds unexpected allies in the small mountain town in Mount Shasta where he hopes to build his architectural fantasia. (4:45 p.m., Saturday May 31)

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:

EMPTYING THE SKIES
Based on Jonathan Franzen’s New Yorker essay, this powerful documentary explores the wonder of migratory songbirds in the Mediterranean, millions of which are unlawfully slaughtered each year for large sums of money on the Black Market. Directed by Douglas Kass and executive produced by Franzen, the film follows an intrepid squad of pan-European bird-lovers who risk their lives waging a secret war against the poachers. Jonathan Franzen is expected to be in attendance. (6 p.m., Friday May 30)

ONCE UPON A FOREST (IL ÉTAIT UNE FORÊT)
The director of the Oscar-winning MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, Luc Jacquet, takes a spectacular journey with renowned French botanist and ecologist Francis Hallé into the tropical rainforests of the Peruvian Amazon and Gabon. Including beautiful animation, and drawing on extensive research, this is an expedition into the very heart of life on earth. (5:30 p.m., Sunday June 1)

PREMIERES:

U.S. PREMIERES
WAY BEYOND WEIGHT (MUITO ALÉM DO PESO) (2012), dir. Estela Renner

WEST COAST PREMIERES
ANGEL AZUL (2013), dir. Marcy Cravat
EMPTYING THE SKIES (2013), dirs. Douglas & Roger Kass
MONDO BANANA (2013), dir. Ryan White
ONCE UPON A FOREST (IL ÉTAIT UNE FORÊT) (2013), dir. Luc Jacquet
PROJECT WILD THING (2013), dir. David Bond

CALIFORNIA PREMIERES
SEEDS OF TIME (2013), dir. Sandy McLeod
WRENCHED: THE LEGACY OF THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG (2013), dir. ML Lincoln

SAN FRANCISCO PREMIERES
AMAZON GOLD (2012), dir. Reuben Aaronson
COME HELL OR HIGH WATER: THE BATTLE FOR TURKEY CREEK (2013), dir. Leah Mahan
DAMNATION (2014), dirs. Travis Rummel and Ben Knight
THE GREAT FLOOD (2013), dir. Bill Morrison
LUNCH LOVE COMMUNITY (2013), dir. Helen DeMichiel
TELOS: THE FANTASTIC WORLD OF EUGENE TSSUI (2014), dir. Kyung Lee
URANIUM DRIVE-IN (2013), dir. Suzan Beraza

AWARDS
Each year, SFGFF honors a number of films and filmmakers with a SFGFF Award, including Best Feature, Best Short, Audience Award, Inspiring Lives Award and the Green Tenacity Award. The awards are 3-D printed by Type A Machines in the theater during the Festival from green, non- toxic, recyclable and compostable materials. The awards use a zero waste process and are 100% locally produced.

VENUES
The 4th Annual Green Film Festival is proud to partner with the Roxie Theater in San Francisco as a new venue for their programming. The festival will also hold events at the Aquarium of the Bay on the Embarcadero at Beach Street, and the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch on 100 Larkin Street.

SPONSORS
SFGFF is proud to and honored to have exceptional support in from 2014 Lead Sponsors Earthjustice, Kaiser Permanente, Recology, and Wells Fargo. Opening Night is sponsored by Earthjustice and Aquarium of the Bay. The Festival welcomes back Galleria Park Hotel as the official Festival Hotel. Additional support this year includes Roxie Theater, Type A Machines, Blue Heron Catering, Inc., and Full Circle Fund.

ABOUT THE SAN FRANCISCO GREEN FILM FESTIVAL
SFGFF is the Bay Area's leading festival for films and discussions about people and the planet. Launched in 2011, (SFGFF) presents an annual film festival each Spring, along with year-round community screenings and events in the San Francisco Bay Area. Attendees discover new films from around the globe and hear stories from people facing the world’s most urgent environmental issues and creating the most innovative solutions.

SFGFF brings critical and contemporary environmental issues to local audiences and, in the process, highlights the vital work of their many partners, including local businesses, schools, and non-profit organizations. Since 2011, they have partnered with over 50 community organizations, produced over 90 programs with 225 films, and inspired over 8,000 attendees.

SFGFF is a member of the Green Film Network, an association of the leading environmental film festivals worldwide that aims to support the diversity and strength of documentary work around the globe.

For more information please visit http://sfgreenfilmfest.org, email info@sfgreenfilmfest.org, or call (415) 552-5580.

San Francisco Green Film Festival

San Francisco Green Film Festival

The San Francisco Green Film Festival is the West Coast’s leading destination for groundbreaking and compelling films on the urgent environmental issues of our time. As global temperatures skyrocket and media coverage of climate change vanishes, our mission is to educate and connect communities through forward-thinking programs of environmental films and discussions. Launched in 2011, SFGFF presents an annual film festival each Spring as well as year-round community screenings and events in the San Francisco Bay Area. Find out how you can get involved and take action!

More from San Francisco Green Film Festival