Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information or to customize your cookie preferences.

Trish Riley

Founding Director

, Cinema Verde

Trish is founding director of Cinema Verde, an environmental film and arts festival held in Gainesville, Florida, since 2010. She has been dedicated to helping the world understand environmental issues and sustainable solutions since childhood, when she had the good fortune to grow up playing in the forest, then watching it torn down to make way for houses and pavement.

Trish is a national award-winning investigative and environmental journalist and author, with work published in major newspapers and national and international magazines. Her books include The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Greening Your Business (with Heather Gadonniex, Penguin 2009); The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Living (2007); Palm Beach, Miami, and The Florida Keys: A Great Destination (Norton 2009); and The Explorer’s Guide to South Florida (with Sandra Friend, Norton 2009).

She is a past board member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, and an honorary member of the Golden Key International Honour Society.

She is the founder of GoGreenNation.org, a website designed to promote green jobs, resources, and businesses; and GoGreenGift.com, an eco-starter kit. She also founded Green Drinks Gainesville, a local chapter of an international networking group open to anyone interested in sustainability issues.

Instagram

Original Reporting

Cinema Verde Newsletter April 2025

Check out these Cinema Verde films and more!

We are delighted to announce that we have selected 45 new films to be presented in our 2025 Cinema Verde film festival! As we celebrate the selection of this year’s films, we also face turbulent times. Like so many others in the environmental justice field, we face an uncertain future. We are a team of committed volunteers working eagerly toward a festival to be held in 2025. As an independent nonprofit, we're currently facing a shortage of funding and support, and we need a community more than ever. If Cinema Verde has inspired you, informed you, or sparked your curiosity, we invite you to contribute. Your support—big or small—can bring these stories to life. At this time we are working to produce Cinema Verde 2025 a virtual festival and we hope to open on Earth Day, April 22. We also hope to present some of our official selections in person in the coming year. Please stay tuned for details. Donation Page Featured Films: Now Playing Explore the Cinema Verde channel for a selection of thought-provoking films like the ones below—and so many more! Dive into powerful stories that inspire change and raise awareness about our planet's future. Cinema Verde Channel Mayday Terranean Mayday Terranean is a documentary film portraying the problems of the Mediterranean Sea as well as the beauty it still has to offer. Scientists, conservationists and activists from countries around the Mediterranean Sea talk about the topic, their relationship to ocean conservation and shed light on the story of this wonderful but endangered place. Watch Trailer TUPUNGATO - empathy In Death Tupungato - empathy in death, follows Rafael Pease’s six year obsession of visibilizing a threatened area. A winter expedition to the highest peak, Volcano Tupungato 21,555ft, evolves into a fight for conservation. In hopes of creating a national park, containing 340,000 acres in one of the worlds biodiversity hotspots, as well as a significant source of water for 40% of Chile’s population. Interviews with renowned scientists and activists unveil a web of corruption in the government and multinational corporations, stemming from imperial religion and a dictators constitution. This explosive film is set against the backdrop of historic protests, as the people of Chile rise up for social and environmental rights. Watch Trailer Confessions of An Ecoterrorist A feature length documentary film. A unique look at eco-history from one who was there for 40 years: Peter Jay Brown, and a humorous examination of the word “eco-terrorist” in today’s reality. Watch Trailer Get Involved Today! We’re currently seeking sponsors, partners, advertisers, and small businesses to collaborate with! Fill out the form below to place an ad on our Roku channel and support our mission of showcasing powerful films that inspire action toward a more sustainable world. Let’s work together to create lasting impact. Contact us Copyright (C) * 2025 All rights reserved *

Ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge is power

Cinema Verde provides environmental education to the public to help ensure that students, their parents, our political leaders and the titans of industry can learn about the problems we are facing so we can all work together to solve these problems. We all want our children to have the best possible future and to be able to enjoy happy, healthy lives. Students in Florida - and everywhere - have a resource to learn essential information about the environment and the challenges we face.

The Florida Department of Education has agreed to suppress knowledge about environmental issues that are visibly threatening our future - essentially disabling our children from solving the problems that our generation and our parents’ generation have created. What parent would want their children to perish in fires like those in Maui and California or floods such as those in Maine and Vermont? When we send our children to school, we want to educate them so they can lead better lives - we are arming them with knowledge to build a safe and prosperous future for themselves and the world. What value is there in providing them with false information that will prevent them from that brighter future? Fossil fuel companies profit from poisoning our planet and they literally pay some of our government leaders to keep their profits flowing. Cinema Verde provides environmental education to the public to help ensure that students, their parents, our political leaders and the titans of industry can learn about the problems we are facing so we can all work together to solve these problems. We all want our children to have the best possible future and to be able to enjoy happy, healthy lives. Students in Florida - and everywhere - have a resource to learn essential information about the environment and the challenges we face. Cinema Verde offers a discount program for professors and students to access our films via our website at www.CinemaVerde.org. [More info: Discount for Professors and Students] Or anyone with a Roku tv or roku device can access our films for free. The films are organized in both places by category - you can search for water films or films on Florida, etc., to see what you want. https://www.cinemaverde.org/roku We gather articles from reputable sources around the world to provide environmental news on our GoGreenNation environmental news page: https://www.cinemaverde.org/news We’re not like Nazi’s, as the propaganda being fed to our children under the guise and sanction of education in Florida suggests. We at Cinema Verde are dedicated to helping and protecting our children and all children - even those of fossil fuel company executives and sold-out politicians who continue to spew lies - they’re trading our lives to fill their pockets with cash. We don’t have to allow this. Knowledge is power. Tune in to Cinema Verde - we are powering the planet for a successful future. – By Trish Riley, Director of Cinema Verde and award-winning investigative environmental journalist and author.

Local Candidates on the Environment

Cinema Verde invited local candidates to share their positions on environmental concerns.