THE FOURTH ANNUAL VALLARTA FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES ENVIRONMENTALIST SECTION (free viewings)
List of all Films to be shown.
The fourth edition of the annual Vallarta Film Festival, to take place from December 5th to 9th, will feature the Environmentalist Section, with a selection of documentary films that should promote among the audience both ecological conscience and the importance of caring for our planet.
This year the Environmentalist Section is comprised of five documentaries plus a special screening of Planet Earth –a BBC nature documentary TV series that consists of eleven episodes.
[youtube AcpJMBBUvys&rel=1 BBC’s Planet Earth]
One of the most outstanding films to be presented in this section is The 11th Hour, a feature film documentary created, produced and narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee actor Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic, The Aviator, The Departed).
The 11th Hour explores the impact of human beings in the ecosystems of the planet and includes interviews with over 50 leading scientists, thinkers and leaders; including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, physicist Stephen Hawking, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, and journalist Paul Hawken. The film documents the grave problems facing the planet’s life systems, such as global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the oceans’ habitats.
[youtube 7IBG2V98IBY&rel=1 The 11th Hour]
The rest of the Environmentalist Section is made up of the following films: Manufactured Landscapes (explores the effects of the massive Chinese industrial revolution in recent years); The Unforeseen (produced by Robert Redford and Terrence Malick, this documentary narrates the conflicts between real estate development and environmental protection in a town of Barton Springs, Texas); Maynard Dixon: Art and Spirit (on the life and works of this renowned American artist); and Oil on Ice (a documentary about oil exploration and development and its impact upon Alaska Natives).
Special emphasis is placed on the special screening of the eleven 58-minute episodes of the TV series Planet Earth; the documentary that focuses on each one of the Earth’s natural habitats and examines its indigenous features, along with the types of fauna found there. More than a few of these locations and the animals living therein have never previously been filmed. Narrated by David Attenborough and directed by Alastair Fothergill, Planet Earth was over five years in the making.
As in previous years, the official location of the Vallarta Film Festival will be in Cinemark Plaza Caracol, located in the heart of the Hotel Zone in Puerto Vallarta. It is important to emphasize that in an effort to promote ecological awareness among the audiences, Cinemark will set up an exclusive room for the Environmental Section of the Festival and the entrance will be free to access. The rest of the films will have a ticket price to be announced in the following weeks.
In addition to the already mentioned segment, the Fourth Annual Vallarta Film Festival will feature a selection of Latin American, Canadian, and American independent films, a university section, plus a variety of Hollywood studio films.
The details of the programming for this fourth annual edition, as well as the special guests and celebrities, will be announced within the next weeks. For more information and updates, please do not forget to check the website: www.vallartafilmfestival.com/.