An environmental film series sponsored by two UC Davis programs kicks off on Oct. 16 and 17 in downtown Davis with presentations of a documentary about land artist Andy Goldsworthy.

"Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time" will be shown at the Varsity Theatre, 616 2nd St., at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 16 and 17. Tickets are $7.50 general admission and $5.50 students and seniors.

A previous screening of "Rivers and Tides" at the Varsity last fall sold out.

Made by German documentarist Thomas Riedelsheimer, "Rivers and Tides" won the Golden Gate Award Grand Prize for Documentary at the 2002 San Francisco International Film Festival. It has been praised for its sensitive and in-depth portrait of the taciturn and private Goldsworthy and of his elusive art.

Working almost exclusively out of doors, usually in his native Scotland, Goldsworthy's pieces involve complex arrangements of natural materials such as rocks, sticks, leaves and ice into intricately beautiful, often monumental creations. Goldsworthy's pieces are intentionally temporary, some lasting only hours before natural forces and elements reclaim them.

The Muir Environmental Film Series is sponsored by the John Muir Institute of the Environment and the Landscape Architecture Program at UC Davis. Tickets may be purchased at Armadillo Music, 205 F St., Davis, (530) 758-8058.