Animal Film Festival comes to Santa Cruz

Selected Films From the 2016 AFF Will be Screened at This Event

SANTA CRUZ — Films from around the world featuring animals and their stories will be screened at a special event hosted by the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter (SCCAS) and the Center for Animal Protection & Education (CAPE). Special guest Justin Zimmerman, the director of SMART will take the stage after his film screens for a discussion and Q&A.

The 2016 Animal Film Festival, held each year in Grass Valley, California, is bringing several of this year’s films including Audience Choice Awards to the Del Mar Theater at 1124 Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz on Tuesday May 17 from 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm. Advance tickets are now on sale at this link www.animalfilmfestival.org

Seven films will be screened:

• SMART is a ground-breaking documentary about highly trained, adrenaline-fueled professionals risking life and limb rescuing animals.
• Finding Shelter follows the Rowles family who pack up their lives in the United Kingdom, move to a small town in Bulgaria for a quiet life, where instead, they open a dog shelter and transform the community.
• You’ve Got a Friend in Me is about a young man and his friend, a turkey, who spend a sunny day doing fun things together in the city of Vilnius, Lithuania.
• The Ethics of Diet — a one minute film about the effects of food choices.
• Penelope — A Rescue Story portrays the rescue of a chicken from a brutal religious ceremony and the young couple who treat her as one of the family.
• David & Goliath based on a true story about David, a Jewish man running from Nazi soldiers, who finds refuge in a dog house where a German Shepherd becomes his savior.
• Spay & Neuter PSA — set in the black & white era of the 1950’s, our suburban housewife learns the importance of spaying and neutering!

“We received 115 films from around the world for this year’s Animal Film Festival during which we screened the 22 finalists,” JP Novic, executive director, CAPE. “Through our collaboration with the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter, we are happy this enables us to bring the top seven films to the Santa Cruz community. The films are entertaining, touching and thought provoking. People will be so glad they came to this event.”

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All proceeds raised from this event will benefit CAPE and the SCCAS. To purchase tickets and to learn about the festival, visit www.animalfilmfestival.org.