Fifth annual film festival to benefit Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership’s educational programming

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Photo courtesy Craig Leeson
“A Plastic Ocean” won Best Feature Film at the 2017 Colorado Environmental Film Festival. The Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership will show the adventure documentary at the Liberty Theatre at 3 p.m. on April 8.[/caption]

By Sally High

Special to The PREVIEW

Has it really been five years? The Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership (GGP) began fulfilling its educational purpose by bringing environmental films to Pagosa Springs in 2013, shortly after its incorporation as a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Now the organization is operating its Education Dome, preparing for outdoor landscaping and planning the construction of the Community Garden Dome. The GGP continues to “grow food and community with local energy.”

The GGP will again bring a full day of first-run environmental films to Pagosa Springs’ Liberty Theatre on April 8 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Colorado Environmental Film Festival (CEFF) partners with the GGP to bring a caravan of feature-length and short films to southwest Colorado each year.

“A Plastic Ocean” won the 2017 Best Feature Film at the CEFF in Golden earlier this year. The beautifully filmed and impactful adventure documentary is earning numerous “Best” awards at major film festivals in St. Petersburg, Waimea, Sedona and Barbados, as well as in Colorado.

The film follows ocean investigators to 20 locations around the world for four years. It explores the fragile state of our oceans and exposes alarming truths about plastic pollution. Like any good environmental feature, it also reveals working solutions that can make an immediate effect.

Pagosans can see “A Plastic Ocean” at 3 p.m. on April 8.

The GGP and Borde Rio Restaurant will host a special premiere night Friday evening, April 7, from 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets to the premiere night are $50 and include a 2017 GGP membership, the exclusive viewing of a film, a full day of Saturday’s films and a buffet dinner.

Premiere night supporters will see the feature length “The Memory of Fish” and the very short “The Private Lives of Salmon.”

Tickets for the special premiere night and Saturday’s mini-film fest are available at www.pagosagreen.org, at the GGP’s Education Dome each Tuesday and Saturday mid-day, at Exit Realty, and at the door of Borde Rio and the Liberty Theatre during the Film Festival.

Tickets to Saturday’s lineup are $10 for GGP members and $15 for nonmembers. A wristband will allow ticket holders to come and go Saturday.

An annual individual membership is only $25 at www.pagosagreen.org. Becoming a GGP member means that you become a partner in building the park and receive discounts in all Lifelong Workshops and special events, starting with the 2017 Environmental Film Festival.

The GGP is an educational nonprofit building a botanic park in Centennial Park on the Riverwalk. The Town of Pagosa Springs leases the site and geothermal water to the GGP. The first of three greenhouses is operational, educating youth and hosting volunteers and visitors. The Education Dome “borrows” the heat from the geothermal water to grow year-round. Join this dynamic and creative partnership today.