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In 1981, filmmaker Matthew Barr wrote the script for the Wes Craven thriller "Deadly Blessing," which featured Ernest Borgnine as the leader of a murderous Amish gang.

Now, almost 30 years later, Barr is taking on the real-life horror of world hunger in his new short documentary "Hungry for Green: Feeding the World Sustainably."

The film premieres January 27 at UNCG with special guest speaker and former U.S. Senator George S. McGovern.

The title of the film comes from the name of the world hunger conference hosted by Senator McGovern at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota. The conference examined ways in which sustainable or green farming could end world hunger.

Barr was originally invited to Dakota Wesleyan University to host a screening of his 2007 documentary, "Wild Caught: The Life and Struggles of an American Fishing Town," which addressed sustainable fishing.

After Barr's invitation, the university also commissioned him to make a documentary about the conference and the issues addressed there.

"So basically we spent about a week in South Dakota a year ago November, filming with buffalo herds, and they lined up a bunch of interviews," Barr says.

The 26-minute film combines interviews with esteemed conference presenters such as McGovern and notable organic farmer Fred Kirschenmann, with wildlife shots of South Dakota's serene countryside. McGovern narrates the film.

Having voted for McGovern during his unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Presidency in 1972, Barr became a fan of McGovern's political stances as the Senator from South Dakota and the United Nations Ambassador for World Hunger.

"McGovern's interest in world hunger came from when he was a soldier watching citizens from war-torn Italy starve to death during World War II," Barr says. "He made it a point from that time on, he was going to do what he could to fight world hunger, and he's been doing this ever since, which has been like 60 years."

One major issue the film focuses on is mega-farming, which the film says may be more economically efficient for large food corporations, but smaller family farms could produce equal amounts of superior quality foods with a smaller cost to the environment.

The film also argues that if states and cities consumed more produce created in their own towns, they could greatly reduce energy needs to ship foods from around the globe.

"We can actually feed every man, woman and child on this earth with sustainable agriculture," Barr says. "But we got to move it away from where we're going, because we're not able to do it like that."

After the film's Greensboro premiere, Barr intends to submit it to various PBS affiliates across the nation.

"We're basically going to give it away," Barr says. "We're not going to make any money on this sucker, but the important thing is to get people thinking about this stuff because the more people who start thinking locally and going to the farmer's market, then that's what the film is about."

Contact Joe Scott at movieshowjoe@gmail.com.