UK Green Film Festival, City Screen, York

The festival will feature premiere screenings of films, documentaries and shorts that highlight climate change and other environmental issues.

Tonight, Peter Gay, of York In Transition, will lead a discussion after the 7.30pm showing of In Transition 2.0. Billed as an “inspirational immersion in the Transition movement”, director-producer Emma Goude’s film gathers stories from around the world of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

“From communities printing their own money and growing their own produce, to groups localising their economies and setting up community power stations, in a world that is awash with gloom, here is a story of hope, ingenuity and the power of growing vegetables in unexpected places,” says Emma.

Tomorrow afternoon’s film, Taste The Waste, exposes how, on the way from the farm to the dining-room table, more than half the food ends up in the landfill – most of it before it ever reaches consumers.

German director Valentin Thurn’s documentary about the worldwide destruction of food examines the widespread causes of this massive squandering, interviewing everyone in the food chain from consumers to food producers to politicians and administrators.

After the 4pm screening, Catherine Bamford, of York Rotters, a project of St Nicholas Fields, will host a discussion. Wildflower seeds will be given to all cinemagoers to help attract bees to their garden, courtesy of Friends of The Earth. In Sunday’s 3pm film, Greedy Lying Bastards, filmmaker and political activist Craig Rosebraugh presents a “searing indictment of the influence, deceit and corruption that defines the fossil fuel industry”. Rosebraugh documents the impact of an industry that has “continually put profits before people and waged a campaign of lies designed to thwart measures to combat climate change”. Simon Bowens, of Friends Of The Earth, will lead a discussion afterwards.

The UK Green Film Festival was launched last year when 30 environmental films were watched by more than 2,500 people over a May weekend in Leeds, London, Leicester, Cardiff and Glasgow. This year, eight more venues are taking part, including City Screen, York, Festival director John Long says: “We’re delighted to be in York this year. The 2012 programme brings some of the most inspirational and thought-provoking films from around the globe to audiences across the UK.

“We started this festival last year with no idea of quite how passionate and enthusiastic the film community of makers, venues and audiences would be, but before the first festival weekend was over, people around us were giving us ideas for the next one.

“Our aim is simple. We want to help people understand their impact on the environment, and what they can do to reduce it. Film has the power to do that; to provoke thought, to inspire, and to entertain. That’s what the UK Green Film Festival is all about.”

Dave Taylor, marketing manager of City Screen and Green Party city councillor to boot, says: “I’ve chosen films which should have a wide interest and will engage a number of local environmental groups, who are concerned about issues like energy and waste and who want to inspire us with better ways of living in York.”

Friends Of The Earth are delighted to be sponsoring the festival. “Films are a great way to inspire people to get involved in helping to tackle problems facing our environment, from protecting our countryside to keeping our climate and food supplies stable,” says executive director Andy Atkins.

This fledgling festival is produced by volunteers from sustainable investors Igloo Regeneration in collaboration with Washington DC Environmental Film Festival.

Tickets for the City Screen events can be booked on 0871 902 5726 or online at picturehouses.co.uk/york and the Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds is taking part in the festival too (hydeparkpicturehouse.co.uk).

Full details on the programme can be found on ukgreenfilmfestival.org or facebook.com/pages/UK-Green-Film-Festival/ and you can tweet about the festival on Twitter: @UKgreenfilms