Fairfield arts center to host outdoor film Saturday

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield Arts & Convention Center will host a free outdoor movie Saturday night, Oct. 23.

Eleven organizations in the area have collaborated to sponsor the showing of the documentary “The Need to Grow,” which they hope will be the first of many in a film series dubbed “Walkin’ the Talk” about “successful, healthy models for interacting with our planet.”

The film will be shown in the arts center’s parking lot at 7 p.m. Visitors can listen to the film through their car radio, or they can bring lawn chairs and watch the film outside. Guests are asked to bring dry goods to donate to The Lord’s Cupboard food pantry.

From 5-7 p.m., the food truck The Hungry Camel will serve its Middle Eastern cuisine, and the participating organizations will set up informational booths for the public to peruse.

“The 11 collaborating organizations have a shared vision of a thriving future for our community and our world,” stated a news release from the group. “Making that vision a reality will not happen on its own. This film series is part of an effort to hasten understanding and adoption of positive technologies and methods that can really make a difference in improving our natural and human resources.”

John Loin, acting president of the Fairfield Rotary Club, said he hatched the idea to show “The Need to Grow” after watching the film and being inspired by it. The documentary follows pioneers of cutting-edge technology as they fight to localize sustainable food systems and regenerate the earth’s dying soils.

Loin said Rotary has five areas of focus, and one of those, polio eradication, is nearly complete, so the parent organization has added a sixth area of focus: the environment. Loin contacted Southeast Iowa Sierra Club’s President Anne Walton about hosting a film series on the environment, and she loved the idea. Walton was also inspired by the film “The Need to Grow,” so she and Loin reached out to the Fairfield Public Library about showing the film publicly. Library Director Rebecca Johnson suggested holding an outdoor film at the arts center.

Walton loved the idea of an outdoor film, especially while the weather still is nice enough to be outside, and to accommodate fears over COVID.

Before long, the organizers had received sponsorships from 11 local organizations: the Southeast Iowa Sierra Club, the Fairfield Rotary Club, the Fairfield Public Library, The Fairfield Arts and Convention Center, The Fairfield Farmers Market, Soil Technologies Corporation, the Sustainable Living Coalition, AgArts, the MIU Regenerative Organic Agriculture program, the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust and the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce.

The Sierra Club’s Margaret Dwyer said the groups would like to hold another public showing in the near future, probably at least a month away. They haven’t decided if the next film will be shown indoors or outdoors.