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.
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