2015 Green Film Festival Event Information Overview

The 2015 Green Film Festival is here! We invite you to watch films and expand your knowledge together. 6 selected films, including 2 Taiwan premieres, take you on a close look at the relationship between people, food forests and public space, and the sustainable life that the interweaving of the three can create.
Yang Ju-men, the White Rice Bomber, Professor Peng Ming-hui of National Tsing Hua University, and Professor Hou Chih-jen of the University of Washington will passionately introduce the films! Welcome to sign up!

Plant This Movie Plant This Movie (Taiwan premiere) 2014/USA/83 min/general audience
Screening time: December 1, Tuesday 7 – 9 pm
Post-screening discussion: Yang Ju-men | founder of 248 Agriculture Market
Film summary: Worried about food safety? Why not take matters into your own hands? Growing vegetables is no longer the exclusive work of rural farmers. The urban vegetable-growing trend is sweeping the globe, from San Francisco to London, North America to South America, New York to Shanghai, and Africa to India. You too can enjoy free, chemical-free food while greening the city. This film takes you to visit urban vegetable gardens around the world and grow vegetables like crazy together!
Sign up: http://www.wutong.org.tw/tw/event/635-food-forest-film-plant-this-movie.html

Microtopia Microtopia 2013/USA/52 min/general audience
Screening time: December 2, Wednesday 7 – 9 pm
Film summary: Grand mansions are impressive, small homes are warm. The larger the living space, the more energy it consumes. Just how much space is enough? This film invites you into the ideal micro-homes of designers and artists around the world, to see how they create small, sustainable private spaces, shed the burden of large floor areas, and trade it for more green space, as well as opportunities to produce food and enjoy community fun.
Sign up: http://www.wutong.org.tw/tw/event/636-food-forest-film-microtopia.html

Save The Farm Save The Farm 2011/USA/30 min/general audience
Screening time: December 3, Thursday 7 – 9 pm
Post-screening discussion: Peng Ming-hui | professor emeritus, Department of Power Mechanical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University
Film summary: When the last remaining green space in the city is sold off behind closed doors, what we lose is not just a place for growing vegetables and resting. The largest organic farm in the southwestern district of Los Angeles, USA, supports the livelihoods and healthy food sources of 350 households, yet it was secretly sold by the government to a land developer. This film prompts you to think about the challenges urban public land faces when it is slated for change, to understand the value of land beyond money, and to stop similar situations from happening around you and me.
Sign up: http://www.wutong.org.tw/tw/event/637-food-forest-film-save-the-farm.html

Paldang Paldang 2013/South Korea/89 min/general audience
Screening time: December 4, Friday 7 – 9 pm
Film summary: The South Korean government's 2009 "Four Major Rivers Restoration Project" wiped out 210,000 pyeong of organic farmland in one stroke to make way for canals, dams and sightseeing bike paths. Suddenly, 80% of Seoul's organic agricultural products lost their source, farmers' basic rights were plundered, and the environment and health were repeatedly ignored. This film walks you through the course of events and prompts you to think about the value of land. Using this case as a lesson from others, it asks whether Taiwan, China's public land "development and construction" might have more sustainable possibilities.
Sign up: http://www.wutong.org.tw/tw/event/638-food-forest-film-paldang.html

Growing Cities Growing Cities (Taiwan premiere) 2013/USA/60 min/general audience
Screening time: December 5, Saturday 2 – 4 pm
Mid-screening discussion: Hou Chih-jen | professor and chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Washington, USA
Film summary: Imagine urban greening is not just planting flowers and grass, but growing vegetables and fruit trees, cultivating the land and also carefully cultivating relationships between people. Rooftops, downtown, daytime, nighttime - fresh food can be produced anytime, anywhere. Let us follow the energetic footsteps of the young directors, learn from the cultivation actions of major American cities, and pick up simple, feasible examples to put into practice. You and I can also create change and make the whole city our food forest!
Sign up: http://www.wutong.org.tw/tw/event/639-food-forest-film-growing-cities.html

Elysium Elysium 2013/USA/109 min/restricted
Screening time: December 5, Saturday 7 – 9 pm
Film summary: In the future world, people are left with only a polluted and depleted Earth to live on. Only the wealthiest elite can live high in the sky city and enjoy the greenery, clean food and health that money buys. The person who changes the unjust system is an ordinary little guy just like you and me. Starring Jodie Foster and Matt Damon, the closing film of the Green Film Festival prompts you to reflect on the current state of social wealth inequality and the future of the Earth.
Sign up: http://www.wutong.org.tw/tw/event/640-food-forest-film-elysium.html