Dallas’ first environmental film festival, EARTHxFilm, kicks off April 20, as part of the sixth annual Earth Day Texas event at Fair Park.

“Creating EARTHxFilm within Earth Day Texas is an opportunity to use the power of film to greatly enhance our mission to educate the public about the reality of our planet’s environment, as well as to better illustrate the possibilities going forward further inspiring people to take action in a personal way,” Earth Day Texas CEO Ryan Brown said.

“It’s about different parties getting in a room that don’t necessarily agree with each other,” Michael Cain

Creators of the festival, Michael Cain, Trammell S. Crow, and Ryan Brown, Earth Day Texas’ new president, told D Magazine that in three years, EARTHxFilm will not only be one of the most well-attended film festivals in Dallas, but will grow to become the largest environmental impact film festival in the world.

“It’s about different parties getting in a room that don’t necessarily agree with each other,” Cain told D Magazine. “[EARTHxFilm] allows film to set the context. Make the focus, the movie. And we felt like we would be wasting an opportunity if we didn’t take advantage of the 150,000 people coming or the hundreds of organizations and speakers. How do we make it so we have full theaters and top filmmakers, and then align them with the scientists and presenters? A key piece of this is these strategic alliances with top organizations.”

Cain has been working for the past year to extend alliances between the festival and the film world. He said that when people think of the film festival, many assume it will be held in Austin, which gave him more of a reason to plant it in Dallas. topics such as the state of the oceans and rivers, food and water sources, clean energy, GMOs, sustainable farming, overwhelming plastic pollution, threats to our national security due to rising sea levels, and more

The goal is to prove that film can change the world, even in Dallas. 

“People are seeing us in a different way,” Cain told D Magazine. “The largest environmental exhibition event in the world is in Dallas. They don’t know that we are drinking the Kool-Aid in Texas.”

Pre-festival events start April 17. More information about the festival can be found here. 

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