Films: In Conjunction with Sakonnet Growers

he Four Corners Arts Center is pleased to present two short films as part of their Wednesday Film Series in collaboration with the Sakonnet Grower’s Market.  Big River & La Riccolta, The Harvest will be shown on Wednesday August 8^th at 7:30 pm the Meeting House.  This event is free and open to the public.

Big River - Following up on their Peabody winning documentary, the King Corn boys are back. For Big River, best friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis have returned to Iowa with a new mission: to investigate the environmental impact their acre of corn has sent to the people and places downstream. In a journey that spans from the heartland to the Gulf of Mexico, Ian and Curt trade their combine for a canoe and set out to see the big world their little acre of corn has touched. On their trip, flashbacks to the pesticides they sprayed, the fertilizers they injected and the soil they plowed now lead to new questions, explored by new experts in new places. Half of Iowaʼs topsoil, they learn, has been washed out to sea. Fertilizer runoff has spawned a hypoxic “dead zone” in the Gulf. And back at their acre, the herbicides they used are blamed for a cancer cluster that reaches all too close to home.

La Raccolta, The Harvest - Written, produced and directed by Donna Lennard, La Raccolta (The Harvest) is a film that tells the story of the Pandolfi-Elmi family in Umbria that has been producing olive oil for centuries. Olga, Oriana, Luigi and Renato have been harvesting those olives for more than 50 years. A glimpse of the people, the landscape, and culture behind the harvest and the changing social fabric which threatens the future of this lyrical tradition. La Raccolta is more than just about the olive harvest, it is about the harvesting of a tradition and an art form, which Donna mirrors in her film and at il Buco in New York.

Immediately following the films Rosemary Melli of Olio di Melli and the Governor of Slow Food New England will give a presentation and tasting of some of their imported Organic, Artisan Olive Oils.

The Four Corners Arts Center film series is sponsored by Coastal Roasters.