"Up! Up! Film Festival" to begin Wednesday in Decorah

The "Up! Up! Film Festival" will get underway in Decorah during the day on Wednesday.

The festival will be showing a collection of independently produced films and shorts, each exploring questions of farmland access, rural livelihoods and the sustainability of people and place.

The festival begins at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Oneota Food Co-op classroom with a showing of "Con Sontido: With Meaning."  The film follows two people trying to change the way Mate is grown in Argentina.  The earthy tea made from the plant now has been responsible for deforestation in Northern Argentina.   Guayakí and Alex Pryor are trying to get mate growers to return to the way the plant used to be grown--under the canopy of jungle forests.

Admission to the film festival is free.  The films are scheduled at a variety of times in a variety of locations.  A schedule of events is available by visiting www.upupdecorah.com.