Events & Exhibits:

RURAL ROUTE FILM FESTIVAL
May 1, 2, & 3

King Corn Press Kit >
Best of RR Film Listings >
Go Organic Film Listings >

The Danforth Film Festival will present a new kind of film series this spring by hosting the “Rural Route Film Festival” May 1 – 3, 2008.  The “Rural Route Film Festival” was created to highlight works that deal with rural people and places around the globe.

Founded in 2002, the New York City-based festival is the brainchild of two independent filmmakers from Iowa who became friends after moving to the Big Apple and missed the slower, simpler life of the Midwest. After the main event in New York, each year, the festival takes highlights from its program and tours them around the United States and other countries, giving communities—both rural and urban—a chance to view the latest submissions.

While the term "rural" relates to the country, people living in the country, or to farming, according to Webster’s Dictionary, the programmers of the Rural Route Film Festival leave it to the film and video artists to find their own definition of "rural." Whether it’s a documentary about an organic turnip farm in West Virginia, a fictional backpacking drama set in Peru, a personal/experimental work, or an examination of life and love in a small town, the Rural Route Film Festival wants to see and hear what these artists have to say.

“By bringing the Rural Route Festival to Livingston, our community gets the chance to see world-class films that typically bypass smaller towns,” said Brad Bunkers, board member for PCFA. “In a rural town like Livingston, the eclectic themes of these films should resonate with the locals.

In addition to sponsoring the festival, the Danforth Gallery and the Park County Friends of the Arts, have reached out to local organic and sustainability experts to host a “Go Organic” panel discussion before Saturday’s screening. Bunkers encourages those interested in the panel to “come early to ask questions and learn more about organics in our back yard.” The discussion panel starts at 6:00 pm on Saturday.

All films will be screened at 7:00 p.m., at the Elks Lodge, located at 130 S. 2nd St. This location is a new one for events sponsored by the Danforth, which usually screens films at the Empire Theater. “We wanted to mix it up and concentrate our efforts to bring a more thematic festival to town,” explained Bunkers. “We hope to generate a lot of cinematic buzz by showing 16 films over three nights. We have amazing community support this year, our downtown businesses have really stepped up to help us bring this festival to Livingston.”
Ticket prices for the event are $20 for a 3-Day Pass; $8.00/night for General Admission; and $6/night for PCFA Members. There are no advance ticket sales. For more information and a complete listing of films, check the PCFA website at www.pcfadanforth.org.

Rural Route Festival Highlights:

King Corn: Thursday, May 1, 7:00 PM
King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends who move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from.  With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil.  But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.

Best of Rural Route: Friday, May 2, 7:00 PM
The best films from New York’s annual Rural Route Film Festival. This world-class program includes short films about Arctic owls in Montana, Canadian riding lawnmower races, films about light pollution, a Ukrainian poetic peasant masterpiece, dancers in the snowy Norwegian tundra, plastic lawn deer lost in Brooklyn, a man’s captivating search for his ancestors in Lithuania, and some good, ol’ banjo playin’ at a Kentucky old folks home. (9 films, total running time 97 minutes)

Go Organic: Saturday, May 3 - discussion panel at 6:00 PM, films at 7:00 PM
These films provide a refreshing look at the current state of agriculture, and point out positive sustainable and organic practices. The Meatrix and Frankensteer expose the ways of unethical farming, while other films provide us with role models through CSAs, Cuban community, sustainable lemon farms, organic choices, and a new wave of female farmers leading the way. Includes Ladies of the Land, Academy Award Winner for Best Student Documentary.  (6 films, total running time 110 minutes) COME EARLY for a panel discussion with local organic farming and sustainability experts.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:
Insty Prints, Reed Lehman Pottery, The Grand Restaurant & Hotel, Grace Studios, Montana Watch Company, Pine Creek Cafe, Sax & Fryer, Timber Trails, Farms For Families and Food Works