About this project

Fresh Asheville presents the Asheville Food & Environmental Film Festival (AFEFF). The issues we face in our food systems and the environment worldwide have brought about a worldwide movement towards making positive changes. The AFEFF is to serve as a platform for film and community participation and as an impetus for this change. This Kickstarter project gives the opportunity for anyone who pledges to participate in co-creating the AFEFF. Each dollar pledged will assist in getting films to the AFEFF to spread the knowledge of important issues and to inspire actions that will positively affect our health and the environment. The funding goal must be met entirely for any pledges to be given to the project, so your spreading the word is essential! Thank you for participating in the creation of the AFEFF!

About Fresh Asheville:
Based in lovely Asheville, NC, Fresh Asheville is a grassroots organization focused on educating and inspiring people to action through film and community participation. Fresh Asheville focuses on solutions and the importance that daily choices have on the health, environment, and sustainability of our community and the world. Fresh Asheville has teamed with the Dutch Environmental Film Festival to bring the latest and top quality related documentaries to the AFEFF. Fresh Asheville was inspired by the movie FRESH, making it the headliner of this year's festival.

About the Asheville Food & Environmental Film Festival 2010:
22-25 September in Asheville, NC, USA
Participating restaurants will host an Opening Dinner at Eyes of Blue Farm featuring locally produced delights with proceeds to benefit this year's community project. This will be followed by three days of citywide screenings, lectures and workshops, and a closing dinner at Eyes of Blue Farm catered by Food Experience. This will be an opportunity to have a local farm fresh meal with the attending Directors and Producers of the festival film selection. Collaborative efforts are being made with the University of North Carolina Asheville (UNCA) and Slow Food Asheville to include students in the festival program, and to launch UNCA's own chapter of Slow Food International during the festival, which will empower students to become more involved in solutions. We are planning to implement new programs for students' service learning through hands-on experience of fresh local food at farms and community gardens. Although the community project is serving the community of Asheville, the festival will serve all who attend, and everyone is welcome from anywhere in the world.

Three key films of the AFEFF participating in this project:

FRESH
More than a movie, it’s a gateway to action. FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

BAG IT
Is your life too plastic?
Our story follows Jeb Berrier, an average American guy who is admittedly not a "tree hugger," who makes a pledge to stop using plastic bags. This simple action gets Jeb thinking about all kinds of plastic as he embarks on a global tour to unravel the complexities of our plastic world. When Jeb's journey takes a personal twist, we see how our crazy-for-plastic world has finally caught up to us and what we can do about it. Today. Right now.

DIVE!
Inspired by a curiosity about our country’s careless habit of sending food straight to landfills, the multi award-winning documentary DIVE! follows filmmaker Jeremy Seifert and friends as they dumpster dive in the back alleys and gated garbage receptacles of Los Angeles’ supermarkets. In the process, they salvage thousands of dollars worth of good, edible food – resulting in an inspiring documentary that is equal parts entertainment, guerilla journalism and call to action.

YERT
YERT(Your Environmental Road Trip) is a groundbreaking adventure and a celebration of the American spirit in the face of adversity - a thought-provoking, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious, documentary about the courageous and creative individuals, groups, businesses and leaders of this country who are tackling the greatest environmental threats in history. Called into action by the ever increasing threats of planetary catastrophe (from climate change to toxic pollution, from water scarcity to habitat destruction), the three of us - Mark Dixon, Ben Evans, and Julie Dingman Evans - upended our lives, pooled our collective life-savings, and set off on a first-of-its-kind, 50-state, year-long journey of discovery to personalize sustainability and to answer a critical question: ARE WE DOOMED?