Q&A: Trish Riley, Director of Cinema Verde Film & Arts Festival
By Chang Liu
April 10, 2013
Q: Hi, Trish, could you please introduce yourself and your organization to me?
A: Hi, I'm Trish Riley, director of Cinema Verde Film & Arts Festival here in Gainesville, Florida. We are in our fourth year now. And I started out as an environmental journalist. That is how I learned enough about environmental issues. I realize that it’s an essential vocation to help the public become more aware of it. And I find that in newspaper, magazines and books I’ve written, people won’t pick those up if they don’t already know that it’s important information that they need to care about. So I started to decide that the film festival would be a really good way to bring people in, have a lot of fun activities faced around the festival, and get them to come in and maybe learn a little bit. I'm trying to help them protect their future and future for the children.
Q:What's your expectation for this organization?
A:I expect this is a festival that the community really enjoys. I feel like we have the potential to become a long-term event here in this area, and perhaps to carry information around to provide a film component to other environmental conferences that might be going on in other places. Since I take time to review so many films and select the best ones that really got solid information, I can help those film makers as well to do the best of their jobs. I believe we can have a long-term and professional festival here if we keep going.
