Water on the Mesa: Filmmaker, Palmer Land Conservancy set to premiere documentary on agricultural crisis

By Rory Harbert | Managing Editor | Pueblo Star Journal | April 9, 2024

About 75% of the planet is covered in water, coming in the form of liquid or ice. The Earth cycles this water endlessly, a process that has churned for 3.8 billion years. The ocean, though, holds 97% of this water. The land that people rely on to inhabit, to propagate food and to look for to hold fresh water, makes up only 29% of the planet’s surface. With a faucet running water with ease, while looking out of kitchen windows, seeing large swaths of land that we stomp on, build on and claim easily, these numbers are hard to weave into reality.

The film “MIRASOL,” sponsored by the  Palmer Land Conservancy, aims to bridge this connection between a wider picture and individual perspective. The film revolves around The Mesa, Pueblo’s agricultural mainstay, where the experts and farmers of the area—neighbors—have a much different perspective as they look at an agricultural crisis face on.

According to a press release, the U.S. loses 2,000 acres of land every day to development, which prompted the creation of this film.

Familiar names in the community, Williams Farm & Seed Store, Musso Farms, Professor Mike Bartolo and Martellaro Family Farms, appear in the film to speak on how this rapid land development is contributing to water scarcity.

“This land should be like our only child,” Bartolo stated in the film. “ We should be protecting it with everything we have.”

The 36-minute documentary received a nomination for the 2024 Big Sky Mountain Film Festival. It was also selected for the 5Point Film Festival of the same year.

Award-winning director Ben Knight is impassioned by adventure and environmental filmmaking. His films include “DamNation,” which premiered at 2014’s South by Southwest conference and festival, produced with Patagonia; “The Last Honey Hunter,” in 2018’s Telluride Mountainfilm with National Geographic; and “Learning to Drown,” in 2021’s Tribeca with The North Face.

“‘MIRASOL’ has been a dream project for me,” he stated.

The producing organization behind MIRASOL is the  Palmer Land Conservancy, which manages over 138,000 acres of land in Colorado since 1977. According to the statement, Palmer has been working for the past eight years “alongside the local  Pueblo farmers” and other entities “to protect the Mesa in the face of an impending dry up.” Pueblo’s premier of "MIRASOL” starts at 5:30 p.m. April 25 at the Sangre De Cristo Arts & Conference Center, 210 N. Santa Fe. Ave. See more details on the film’s website: mirasolfilm.com.

Showings of 'Mirasol':

April 25 - Thursday
Pueblo Premiere
5:30 p.m., Sangre De Cristo Arts & Conference Center, 210 N. Santa Fe Ave.
Light refreshments, Cash bar, followed by after party.
More info at: palmerland.org/Mirasol-Pueblo.

April 28 - Sunday
Pueblo Film Fest - Festival Winner Screening & “MIRASOL”
10 a.m. - all day, Sangre De Cristo Arts & Conference Center, 210 N. Santa Fe Ave. tickets at: filmfreeway.com/pueblofilmfest/tickets.

May 9 - Thursday
Free Community Screening of MIRASOL
5:30 p.m. Rawlings library branch, 100 E. Abriendo Ave

Viewing with county commissioner Daneya Esgar.Registration requested, walk-ins welcome. More info at:palmerland.org/event/mirasol-free-pueblo-library-screening.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

https://pueblostarjournal.org/culture/2024/04/09/mirasol-looking-at-the-sun-documentary-agricultural-crisis/

Community Leaders and Investors in the Arts Tour Historic Colorado Theater in Downtown Pueblo

At the corner of 4th & Main in Downtown Pueblo and adjacent to the Historic Federal Building is the Colorado Theater. The theater sits atop the footprint of the former Pueblo Opera House which was designed by Adler & Sullivan and opened in 1890. It was their first project out of their home city of Chicago. Frank Lloyd Wright was also a junior draftsman for Louis Sullivan and is credited with the engineering and design of the single span mezzanines of the famed Opera House. Unfortunately after the Annual Grocers' Ball in March 1922 which had taken place in the upper event spaces, a fire started and destroyed the landmark building on a frigid winter day.

Pop Kite, who was the beloved barber in the basement in the Opera House, pledged that the building would be rebuilt and he would return with his business as a symbol of resilience and solidarity. The city was devastated the year prior in June 1921 by the Great Flood, so Pop became the cheerleader for the rebuilding effort which was completed in 1926. Pueblo has an extraordinary legacy of theater and entertainment establishments and in the early 1900s had over 80 theaters dotting the city and its neighborhoods which presented everything from vaudeville to "talkies". As the second largest city in Colorado, Denver and Pueblo were the stops for Hollywood actors as they did their rounds to promote their films (most stayed in the Vail Hotel in Pueblo).

The Colorado Building & Theater have been closed for over 15 years, but there is renewed interest in restoring the historic theater for film and visual & performing arts. There is also an opportunity to convert the upper floors (2, 3 and 4) of the commercial building into housing and mix use. The recently established Pueblo Regional Film Commission has made the restoration and renovation of one of Pueblo's historic movie houses part of its mission. Pueblo is also fortunate to have Eric Gubelman as the new director of Southern Colorado Economic Development District (SCEDD) and he brings some of the best experience in the the operations and management of historic movie houses. His background includes owning and operating small market first run movie theaters, and stacking capital to get difficult deals done. For much of the last decade, he lived in Knoxville, a city slightly larger than Pueblo. Their downtown includes a vibrant entertainment district that has a historic theater that does a mix of live performance and film, a repurposed movie theater catering to music acts, an eight-screen first run theater, and a single screen retro movie house that creatively programs film series and avant garde fare. He has an interest in helping the film commission and promoting downtown development. We had a wonderful group of citizens yesterday who are interested in helping Pueblo bring back one of its historic gems. I have also included images of the Opera House including some of the original drawings that Puebloan Margi Grund discovered while she was in Minnesota conducting research on the Nuckolls Packing Company and the architect Hans Peter Henschien. #thefutureofthepast

Pueblo Regional Film Commission Takes Over Instagram Account of Office of Film, TV & Media

Follow us from May 4 to 8, 2020 as we take over the Instagram account of the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media (COFTM). Look for @filmincolorado and you will find images and stories of the best kept secret in the film industry - PUEBLO • COLORADO • USA.

New Pueblo Regional Film Commission Meets with Mayor of Pueblo

The Pueblo Regional Film Commission Development Team met with the Mayor at City Hall on January 22, 2020 to discuss the launch of this new commission and to secure support from the City of Pueblo. From left: Dustin Hodge, Cathy Valenzuela, Gregory Howell, Mara Alexandru, Mayor Nicholas Gradisar, Alan Lamberg, Tyler Shown, Sam Ebersole, Perry Perkins. Not shown is Laura Solano and Jeff Madeen.

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The Pueblo Regional Film Commission aims to help foster the growth, sustainability, competitiveness and business attraction of Pueblo’s film, television and digital media industry. This in turn supports rural economic development, promotes tourism, employs Puebloans and brings diversity to our regional economy. The film industry directly employs skilled local workers, with many other businesses being impacted by production-induced spending, such as hotels, caterers and lumber companies.

The Pueblo Regional Film Commission is comprised of industry professionals with experience from Los Angeles to New York City and just about everywhere in between. The Commission enjoys the support of the Mayor’s Office and the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media (COFTM).

The interest in filming here is at a pitch fever for many reasons, including the state's location diversity, its overall cost productions savings, its proximity to New Mexico and the professional support you'll receive from the Pueblo Regional Film Commission. We are here to help. Our team is well versed in these matters, and we’re happy to guide you through this process. Whether you are still considering Pueblo or have already decided to shoot here in Southern Colorado, you'll get red carpet treatment.

Valuable information about filming in Pueblo is available on our website. If you have further questions, just e-mail us or give us a call at 719.299.1492. To send us more detailed information about your project, please complete the Contact Form so we can better serve your needs.

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Pueblo Regional Film Commission