This film is part of the Richmond Environmental Film Festival and is free of charge

BUGS

A Gastronomic Adventure with Nordic Food Lab

Insects as food are a hot topic. Particularly over the last few years, since the UN recommended edible insects as a resource to combat world hunger, they have been heralded for their taste by cooks and gastronomes, their low ecological impact by environmentalists, and their nutritional content by public health scientists. It would seem that insects are the new superfood that will fix all our problems of global food security.

For the past three years a team from Copenhagen-based Nordic Food Lab, made up of chefs and researchers Josh Evans, Ben Reade and Roberto Flore, has been travelling the world to learn what some of the two billion people who already eat insects have to say. In BUGS, film director Andreas Johnsen follows them as they forage, farm, cook, and taste insects with communities in Europe, Australia, Mexico, Kenya, Japan and beyond. During their journey, they encounter everything from revered termite queens and desert-delicacy honey ants to venomous giant hornets and long-horned grasshoppers. By using powerful floodlights to temporarily blind the insects, the film captures impressive images rarely seen.

The 2017 RVA Environmental Film Festival (EFF) is proud to announce that, with the support of Slow Food RVA as a sponsor, there will once again be no charge for admission to a spectacular showcase of over 20 films. Between February 6 and 18, these amazing documentaries will help raise awareness of environmental issues relevant to the Richmond region, our nation, and our planet.

There is a variety of films for both children (The Lorax and Planetary) and adults with titles likeHow to Let Go of the World and Love All of the Things Climate Can’t Change, Bag It, NY Times Critic Pick - The Messenger, Beautiful Swimmers Revisited, Catching the Sun, and Disney's Oceans.

The award winning Catching the Sun takes viewers on a voyage across five oceans and to 50 different worldwide locations to hear environmentalists’ thoughts on solar energy.

Another compelling film is How to Let Go of the World and Love All of the Things Climate Can’t Change, produced by Oscar-nominated documentarian Josh Fox (Gasland). It is described as a highly entertaining, imaginative, and often emotional road trip that reveals the effects of fossil fuels on the Earth — from superstorm Sandy to Greenland’s melting ice sheet to urban China’s toxic levels of air pollution to oil spills in Ecuador.

These are just two of the many films brought to Richmond for the public’s enjoyment and education which will take place at six locations in the Richmond metropolitan area. See complete film descriptions, locations, and times.