Celebrate Earth Month at Whole Foods Market Film Festival

Whole Foods Market is sponsoring a nation-wide film festival to celebrate Earth Month. The travelling film festival will be showing in 70 cities across the US and the DFW screenings start next week.

The film festival is a collection of six provocative, character-driven films that focus on food, environmental issues and everyday people with a vision of making a world of difference. We are excited to have the film festival come to the DFW metroplex and hope to spark a dialogue about these issues.

All the movies will be shown at the Studio Movie Grills in Plano, Arlington and Dallas with each movie starting at 7:30pm on the scheduled night.  The festival schedule is below and you can read more about the movies and buy tickets at: Do Something Reel Tickets

The six films chosen for the inaugural “Whole Foods Market Do Something Reel” Film Festival support the company’s mission and cover a broad range of provocative topics. They include:

April 19th – Bag It

In this highly entertaining and eye-opening film, filmmaker Suzan Beraza follows Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic-reliant world. Jeb is not a radical environmentalist, but an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics. www.bagitmovie.com

April 20th – Lunch Line

This deeply affecting film from filmmakers Mike Graziano and Ernie Park follows six kids from one of the toughest neighborhoods in Chicago as they set out to fix school lunch � and wind up at the White House. Their unlikely journey parallels the dramatic transformation of school lunch from a patchwork of local anti-hunger efforts to a robust national feeding program. www.lunchlinefilm.com

April 21st – On Coal River

A compelling and transcendent narrative on the human costs of coal and strip-mining, this provocative film from filmmakers Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Woods follows the journey of a former coal miner and his neighbors, residents of Coal River Valley in West Virginia, as they transform from so-called victims to fearless and informed experts on mountaintop removal. www.oncoalriver.com

April 26th – Planeat

This visually stunning film from filmmakers Shelley Lee Davis and Or Shlomi tells the story of the scientists, farmers and chefs tackling one of the greatest problems of our age: Western culture’s love affair with meat and dairy. Through an extraordinary personal and mouth-watering culinary journey we discover the wide range of medical and environmental benefits of eating our veggies. www.planeat.tv

April 27th – Urban Roots

Filmmaker Mark MacInnis tells the powerful story of a group of dedicated Detroiters working tirelessly to fulfill their vision for locally grown, sustainably farmed food in a city cut off from real food and limited to processed fast food. This group has taken on the enormous task of changing this reality. www.urbanrootsamerica.com

April 28th – Vanishing of the Bees

Narrated by Oscar-nominated actress Ellen Page, this cautionary tale from filmmakers George Langworthy and Maryam Heinen reveals the mystery of the disappearing bees, and the links to industrial farming and our attitude toward the natural world. Starring in this real-life drama is a commercial bee farmer who sounded the alarm when his bee colonies collapsed and his business was decimated. www.vanishingbees.com

As part of the Festival, Whole Foods Market will also stream the documentary, “Dig It” on www.dosomethingreel.com on Earth Day, April 22. This energetic, call-to-action film features the members of the band Pearl Jam as they participate in tree-planting actions and beautification efforts in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

For additional information about the festival, a complete schedule of events in each of the 70 markets and details about the grant program, please visit www.dosomethingreel.com

A portion of the proceeds will be used to fund a filmmaker’s grant in partnership with the American Film Institute to continue supporting these types of documentaries.