2013 Wild and Scenic Film Festival

Filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia attended the Wild & Scenic Film Festival the weekend of January 11th and won the John de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award for her body of films on agriculture, genetically modified food and sustainability.

Wild and Scenic Film Festival Official SelectionDeborah’s newest feature-length documentary, Symphony of the Soil, screened twice at the festival, once immediately after the awards ceremony to a packed house and received a standing ovation.

The film looks at the importance of soil to life on this planet and tells the stories of scientists and farmers developing alternatives to chemical agriculture to replenish instead of kill the soil used for planting.

It was one of the highlights of Wild & Scenic’s 11th annual film festival, which featured over 100 documentary films on environmental themes screening at six different theaters over four days along the main strip in the small mountainous town of Nevada City.

Each day, crowds of people passed through sidewalks of Broad Street, and small lines formed to get into packed houses showing films about topics like delta and river conservation, environmental activism, water use, climate change and urban sustainability.

Considered one of the nation’s premiere environmental and adventure film festival’s, Wild & Scenic combines stellar filmmaking, beautiful cinematography and first-rate storytelling to inform, inspire and ignite solutions and possibilities to restore the earth and human communities while creating a positive future for the next generation.

More information on Wild & Scenic is available here. For more information on Syphmony of the Soil, click here.

National Heirloom Expo a Success!

Symphony of the Soil shows at the National Heirloom Expo

Symphony of the Soil played to a packed house at the National Heirloom Expo in Petaluma on Sept 14th. The Fair gathered some 10,000 farming and food enthusiasts over three days. Lily Films was well represented, with both Symphony and The Future of Food playing, as well as a separate speech by Deborah Koons Garcia.

The folks at the fair were the first individuals to be able to purchase Symphony of the Soil for consumer viewing. We brought it in hot off the press and that made for an even happier crowd.

Last Pre-Screening

Last night we concluded the last in a series of pre-screening events. Scientists, agriculturalists, editors, and directors came together at the Saul Zaentz Media Center in Berkeley to lend us their eyes and ears for the evening.

With enthusiasm, they patiently waded through the latest version of the film- saving their comments until the end, when we handed out questionnaires and pens.

Last Pre-Screen of Symphony of Soil

Last Pre-Screen of Symphony of Soil

– By Jessy Beckett