MOVIES: It’s easy seeing green

  Being green and seeing green hit the screen starting later this month, when the four-week CineVegas Green Film Series gets under way at the Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd.
  The film series, which takes place every other Saturday starting Jan. 24 in the Big Springs Theater, will feature environmentally themed features, including the acclaimed documentary "Flow: For the Love of Water" and the award-winning "Still Life."
  The program represents "the perfect partnership between CineVegas and the Springs Preserve," according to CineVegas' artistic director, Trevor Groth, noting that it "allows CineVegas to have a presence in Las Vegas throughout the year, and it also reflects the Springs Preserve's dedication to sustainability."
  "Flow: For the Love of Water," a picture from the film at right, kicks off the series Jan. 24. Director Irena Salina's documentary (which had a brief theatrical run here last year) investigates the world water crisis and the growing privatization of the planet's dwindling fresh water supply.
  The series continues Feb. 7 with "Still Life." Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke's documentary-style drama (which recently won Los Angeles Film Critics awards for best foreign film and best cinematography)  focuses on two people searching for their spouses in a Yangtze River village about to be submerged by the giant Three Gorges dam construction project. (The same thing happened in Nevada when Hoover Dam was built, creating Lake Mead — and submerging such small towns as St. Thomas.)
  Next up, on Feb. 21, is the documentary "Manufactured Landscapes," which focuses on renowned artist Edward Burtynsky, who creates large-scale photographs of quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams. Director Jennifer Baichwal follows the artist to China as he photographs evidence of that country's massive industrial revolution.
  The series concludes March 7 with a sneak preview of a new environmentally themed movie, to be announced at a later date.
  The screenings start at 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $10; "Food and a Flick" packages, which include pre-movie dinners at the Springs Preserve Café, are $25. Four-movie ticket packs also are available at a 10 percent savings.
  But the Green Film Series isn't CineVegas' only screening series.
  The festival's free monthly "CineVegas From the Vault" series, spotlighting past festival selections, returns at the Clark County Library at 7 p.m. Feb. 5 with "4th and Life," a documentary about a championship football game between two penitentiary teams that screened at the 2003 festival. At 7 p.m. March 7, the 2007 festival premiere "The Living Wake" returns, chronicling the final hours of its quixotic protagonist.
  Additional information on both programs is available at www.cinevegas.com.
 
 
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