Pie Ranch popcorn at Rural Routes Film Fest at Red Vic tonight and tomorrow

The Red Vic Movie House and Pie Ranch Join Forces in Presenting

the San Francisco Premiere of : RURAL ROUTE FILM FESTIVAL

The Red Vic will serve organic popcorn grown locally

February 5 & 6, 2008

At the SF premiere of the Rural Route Film Festival, the Red Vic Movie House will sell organic popcorn grown at Pie Ranch, a educational non-profit farm located south of Pescadero on the San Mateo Coast. Students from Mission High School have been helping to grow and shell the corn (remove the kernels from the husk).

The Rural Route Film Festival was created to highlight works that deal with rural people and places. The festival, which showcases rural themes in an urban environment, features award-winning narrative, documentary and experimental films, as well as music video. Based in New York City - one of the world's largest urban centers - the festival brings selections to other cities and small towns all around the world. This year, the Rural Route Film Festival makes its San Francisco debut at the Red Vic Movie House which is screening two programs: Rural Route Tour on Tuesday Feb. 5th and Go Organic! on Wednesday Feb. 6th.

Pie Ranch is a center for education and social change. Through hands-on learning about the full cycle of food production - from seed and shoot to scrumptious meal to steaming compost - it inspires people to build a healthier food system. While much of its activity is based on the farm, the Ranch also works in the city with individuals, organizations, businesses and public agencies to foster stronger relationships between urban and rural communities. A city-based pie shop, Mission Pie, has grown in the Mission district of San Francisco, serving as the urban link to Pie Ranch and to other local farms. Motivated to be a supportive business collaborator with Pie Ranch, the shop provides the youth employment development part of the program by hiring 9 Mission High students. Information about Pie Rance will also be provided at these showings.

The Rural Route Tour program contains both fun and serious pieces from around the world. Included are films concerning Arctic owls in Montana (Snowies, Dir. Elliot Kennerson, US); Canadian lawnmower racing (Wanderlust 2: Thunder on the Track, Dir. Walter Forsberg, Canada); vignettes of life in a small village in the Carpathian Mountains (Pictograph, Dirs. Miso and Lida Suchy, Ukraine); and the story of a plastic lawn doe who finds herself lost on the gritty streets of Brooklyn, NY (Dear Deer Dir. Alan Webber, US).
Total running time is 97 minutes.

The Go Organic! program is a new component to the Rural Route tour and is essential viewing. These films provide a refreshing education on the current state of agriculture, and point out sustainable and organic practices that we all can take part in. The Meatrix (Dir. Louis Fox, US) and Frankensteer (Dirs. Ted Remerowski & Marrin Canell, US) expose the ways of unethical farming, while Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (Dir. Faith Morgan, Cuba) and Back to the Land…Again (Dir. Gretta Wing Miller, US) provide us with inspiring role models. Also included is Academy Award Winner for Best Student Documentary, Ladies of the Land (Dir. Megan Thompson, 2006).
Total running time is 110 minutes.

SHOW TIMES:
Rural Route Tour: Tuesday: 7:15, 9:20; Go Organic! Wednesday: 2:00, 7:00, 9:20

TICKETS:

Available starting January 28 on-line via http:www.redvicmoviehouse.com. Also available 20 min. before each screening at the Red Vic box office. $8.50 regular; $6.50 for 2:00 matinees; $5 for seniors (62 and over) and children (12 and under) at all times.