Hackney to play key role in Green Film Festival

Still from Musicwood

Hackney will receive a boost to its green credentials early next month when it holds the opening and closing galas of the UK Green Film Festival.

Venues across the country are to screen independent documentary films from around the world that explore a range of environmental issues.

The opening night at Hackney Picturehouse on 1 June sees the UK premiere of The Last Catch, by German director Marcus CM Schmidt. The film looks at the how bluefin tuna are being fished to extinction and the increasingly ruthless fight among fishermen for the last of a valuable resource.

There will also be a screening of Musicwood, a documentary about a group of guitar-makers who attempt to stop Native American loggers from destroying a primeval forest, while the festival closes with a screening of Expedition to the End of the World, which follows the adventures of a group of scientists, artists and philosophers as they sail to the rapidly melting massifs of North-East Greenland.

In all, seven feature length documentaries will be presented at the festival, all of which will be preceded by an accompanying short film. Each film will be competing for the Palme Verte Award, as well as the UKGFF Audience Award.

UK Green Film Festival 2014
1-8 June