The Mindful Eating Film Festival is an annual gathering bringing together changemakers, celebrities, and the public to raise funds and address the issues surrounding food and animal agricultural systems. The event will make an expanded return for its third year to the Marin Center and Fairgrounds on August 6th and 7th for a weekend of film screenings, plant-based tastings, and exclusive conversations with filmmakers and celebrities.
Hosted by Rancho Compasión, an urban farmed animal sanctuary in Nicasio, the festival will feature a two-day program including an exclusive VIP reception, intimate film screenings, and an expo with over two dozen plant-based brands from around the world. Over 3,000 guests are expected to attend.
The film festival will kick off with a VIP reception with celebrities, filmmakers, athletes, and industry leaders from around the world on the evening of August 6th, followed by an exclusive screening of The Smell of Money, a cutting edge documentary produced by actress Kate Mara that follows one woman and her rural North Carolina community as they take on the multi-billion-dollar pork industry. Following the screening, guests will be treated to an intimate Q&A with filmmakers, CEO of Miyoko’s Creamery and founder of the festival Miyoko Schinner, and other industry leaders.
“The Mindful Eating Film Festival was launched to be a world’s gathering for sustainable food system advocates in film, entertainment, and industry,” Schinner explains. “We are here to create the Sundance of climate action — and there is no better place to bring this conversation than Northern California, a world renowned region facing crucial climate and wildlife habitat destruction challenges.”
The festival will feature five feature-length films and filmmaker discussions focused on the food system, including executive producer and actor Kate Mara’s The Smell of Money, executive producer Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Game Changers, executive producer Rooney Mara’s The End of Medicine, and executive producer Richard Branson’s Eating Our Way to Extinction. Directors, producers, and actors from around the world will join for these discussions, including Oscar winner Louis Psihoyos and US Olympian Dotsie Bausch. Eating Our Way to Extinction producer, Mark Galvin, will join from the United Kingdom.
Executive producer of The Smell of Money and actor Kate Mara shared, “We hope the film infuriates people for the factory farming industry’s blatant disregard for animal and environmental welfare, and for the underserved communities in which the industry sets up shop and destroys their way of life. We cannot continue with our current food system and ignore the environment racism that plagues these communities.”
The festival will also feature a controversial new film, Elk Water, focused on the ongoing political battle at Point Reyes National Seashore involving the native threatened species, Tule Elk, and the local dairy and cattle industry. The film is expected to draw national attention, as two lawsuits currently challenge the National Park Service’s controversial management plan for expanding private agriculture at California’s Point Reyes National Seashore, one of a handful of national parks that permits cattle grazing.
In addition to the film screenings and conversations, the festival will feature exciting plant-based brands from around the world, including Miyoko’s Creamery, MeliBio, and Nowadays. The two-day event will benefit Rancho Compasión, a 501c-3 charity with a mission to provide a loving, lifelong home for rescued farmed animals and to change public perception about animals typically viewed as “food”. The sanctuary promotes a compassionate and sustainable lifestyle for the sake of non-human animals, the planet, social justice, and our physical wellbeing.
The festival opens with a VIP reception on Saturday, August 6th, at 5:00 p.m. at Dominican University and the West Coast premiere of The Smell of Money at 6:30 p.m.; the rest of the screenings take place Sunday, August 7th at the Marin Center and Fairgrounds. Attendees can purchase tickets to the VIP reception and premier, a general admission one-day pass with access to all the Sunday films, or individual film tickets. Entrance is free of charge for the plant-based food festival and many of the speaker panels. For more information and tickets click here.
Event is sponsors include:
- Miyoko’s Creamery
- Atlas Monroe
- Mercy for Animals
- Souley Vegan
- Animal League Defense Fund
- Creekside Pizza & Taproom
- Stanford Inn by the Sea
- Elephant Mountain Investments
