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2009-2010 Films
Big River | Division Street | The Garbage Warrior | Goldfish | The Good Life Parable | Grand Canyon | Homegrown Revolution | Hotel Charley 3 | King Corn | Last Descent | Losing the Elephants | The Last River Lost | Lynx | Papiroflexia | Red Gold | Sand Dancer | The Sharp End | The Story of Cap and Trade | Zoologic
Big RiverFollowing up on their Peabody winning documentary, the King Corn (see below) boys are back. For Big River, best friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis have returned to Iowa with a new mission: to investigate the environmental impact their acre of corn has sent to the people and places downstream. In a journey that spans from the heartland to the Gulf of Mexico, Ian and Curt trade their combine for a canoe––and set out to see the big world their little acre of corn has touched. On their trip, flashbacks to the pesticides they sprayed, the fertilizers they injected, and the soil they plowed now lead to new questions, explored by new experts in new places. Half of Iowa’s topsoil, they learn, has been washed out to sea. Fertilizer runoff has spawned a hypoxic “dead zone” in the Gulf. And back at their acre, the herbicides they used are blamed for a cancer cluster that reaches all too close to home. Curt Ellis (US, 2009 27 minutes) www.bigriverfilm.com
Division StreetSponsored by Trade Winds
This is not your father’s road trip. Roads and cars have fragmented wild landscapes, ushered in urban sprawl, and challenged some of the bedrock values we once took for granted. But as the transportation crisis appears to be spiraling out of control, a new generation of ecologists, engineers, city-planners, and everyday citizens are transforming the future of the American road. From pristine roadless areas to concrete jungles, follow filmmaker Eric Bandick as he tours North America, dodging Yellowstone’s grizzlies and Miami’s taxicabs, and highlighting sustainable road projects and wildlife corridors for the 21st century. Eric Bandick (US/CANADA, 2008, 53 min) www.divisionstreetmovie.com, www.transalt.org
Sponsored by Dr. Dorit Eliou
What do beer cans, car tires and water bottles have in common? Not much unless you're renegade architect Michael Reynolds, in which case they are tools of choice for producing thermal mass and energy-independent housing. For 30 years New Mexico-based Reynolds and his green disciples have devoted their time to advancing the art of "Earthship Biotecture" by building self-sufficient, off-the-grid communities where design and function converge in eco-harmony. However, these experimental structures that defy state standards create conflict between Reynolds and the authorities, who are backed by big business. Frustrated by antiquated legislation, Reynolds lobbies for the right to create a sustainable living test site. While politicians hum and ha, Mother Nature strikes, leaving communities devastated by tsunamis and hurricanes. Reynolds and his crew seize the opportunity to lend their pioneering skills to those who need it most. Shot over three years and in four countries, Garbage Warrior is a timely portrait of a determined visionary, a hero of the 21st century.
Earthship n. 1. passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials 2. thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization. 3. renewable energy & integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with little to no utility bills.
Biotecture n. 1. the profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their sustainability. 2. A combination of biology and architecture.Oliver Hodge (UK, 2009, 86 min) www.garbagewarrior.com
GoldfishTwo girls. One Mission. A lot of fish. Many awards, including Audience Award, Austin Film Festival (US, 2007, 13 min) www.goldfish-movie.com
The Good Life Parable
An MBA Meets a Fisherman. A businessman and a fisherman on a small island. He tries to teach the fisherman about business but the fisherman teaches him about life. Mark Albion and Free Range Studios (US, 2008, 3:06 min) www.makingalife.com, www.freerangestudios.com
Grand Canyon Adventure: A River at Risk (shown Oct 31, 2009)
Sponsored by OARS
As if a guided tour down the Grand Canyon narrated by Robert Redford, one of America's most beloved voices weren't enough, Dave Matthews Band provides some original music. This adventure, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Wade Davis, features goosebump-inducing aerial photography--the cameras swoop and fly over the mighty rapids of the Colorado River. The Grand Canyon, the Colorado River that runs through it and the larger Southwest region, is under threat of changes on a geologic scale. Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which supply drinking water to the region, could dry up within years, in part due to a decades-long drought that could persist for decades more, in part due to global warming and the melting of mountain snowpack that supplies the Colorado River with water, and in part due to chronic mismanagement and over-reliance on the river for multiple competing uses: agriculture, drinking water and wildlife. Greg MacGillivray (US, 2008, 45 min)
Homegrown Revolution (shown Oct 31, 2009)
Sponsored by Sol SierraIn the midst of a densely urban setting in downtown Pasadena, radical change is taking root. For over twenty years, the Dervaes family have transformed their home into an urban homestead. As a family for this new paradigm, they harvest nearly 3 tons of organic food from their 1/10 acre garden while incorporating many back-to-basics practices, as well as solar energy and biodiesel. Jules Dervaes (US, 2007, 16 min) www.freedomgardens.org
Sponsored by Weiss Associates
Hotel Charley 3 features first descents of wild, free flowing rivers from the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, the extremely remote Twang Region of India, and a descent down the soon to be dammed inner gorge of Brazil's longest river, the Rio San Fransisco. In search of this proverbial Lost World that exists in the world's last unseen gorges are film producers and 2006 National Geographic Adventure Heroes Ben Stookesberry and Jesse Coombs.
Along with Jesse and Ben is a cast of characters that is as diverse as the locations in the film. From the ultra talented paddlers of Team Jackson including Eric jackson, Dane Jackson, Nick Troutman, Joel Kowolski, Chris Korbulic, and Darin McQuoid pushing the envelope in roadless Northern Newfoundland; to the stories and supper smooth of Indian/ Nepally Kayaker Lama Kundan in the farthest off corner of India situated between China and Bhutan.(US, 2008, 55 min; please note that the full 124 min. film will not be shown) DVD available at http://www.jacksonkayak.com/store/product.cfm?product=hotelcharley3
King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm. Aaron Woolf (US, 2009, 90 min)
The Last Descent (shown Oct 31, 2009)
Sponsored by Dr. Dorit Eliou
Join a group of world class whitewater kayakers to some of the world's most amazing rivers ... descending them possibly for the last time. The Marsyangdi River of Nepal, the Brahmaputra River in India and the White Nile River in Uganda are all threatened or are in the process of being destroyed by large scale hydroelectric projects. The film closes in California with the Tuolumne River and the growing movement to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. Kathryn Scott, Charlie Center, Scott Ligare (US, 2009, 50 min) www.thelastdescent.com
Losing the Elephants (shown Oct 31, 2009)
Sponsored by Weiss AssociatesThey are big, beautiful, smart, social, and throughout Asia they are facing their own mortality. It is estimated that by the early 2050s, there will no longer be a viable population of Asian Elephants left. The Elephant Nature Park is doing what they can. Disturbing Footage. Singer Rankin, Peck Euwer (US, 2008, 25 min) www.swellpicturesinc.com
In 1979, a young environmental activist named Mark Dubois put his life on the line to save the Stanislaus River, threatened by a huge dam. He won the battle, but lost the war: the Stanislaus was drowned. Thirty years later, he and his fellow "river warriors" share how their youthful idealism, decisions and actions influenced the course of their lives, and the history of the environmental movement. Christian Kallen (US, 2009, 9 min trailer)
Lynx
In Montana, an influential Native American rancher hires a biologist to try to find an endangered species in a forest that is slated to be logged. When the scientist discovers planted lynx hairs in one of his traps, an armed conflict begins between the Native American ranchers and a local logging company. Panavision New Filmmaker Award, Wynn Padua, Ben Harris, Eric Binns (US, 2008, 17 min) www.pixelcolors.com
Papiroflexia (shown Oct 31, 2009)
Spanish for “origami,” Papiroflexia, is the animated tale of Fred, a skillful paper folder who could shape the world with his hands. Multiple awards. Joaquin Baldwin (US, 2007, 2:30 min) www.pixelnitrate.com
Sponsored by Dorrington Instruments
The headwaters of the Kvichak and Nushagak Rivers in Bristol Bay, Alaska, are home to the two largest remaining sockeye salmon runs on the planet. And at that same spot, mining companies Northern Dynasty and Anglo American have proposed to extract what may prove to be the richest deposit of gold and copper in the world. The filmmakers spent more than two months in Bristol Bay, documenting the tension between native fishermen who oppose the dam and mine officials who say they will build a “clean” mine that will leave the salmon’s habitat untouched. This exquisite film goes beyond the conflict, offering a portrait of a unique way of life that wouldn’t exist if the salmon don't return with Bristol Bay's tide. Audience Choice Award, Director’s Choice Award, Tellruide MountainFilm, Lauren Oakes, Travis Rummel, Ben Knight (US, 2008, 55 min) www.redgoldfilm.com, www.savebristolbay.org
Sand Dancer (shown Oct 31, 2009)
Peter Donnelly lives at the beach in Brighton, New Zealand. Hundreds of people are drawn from all over the world to watch him create vast arts works. He does not use any plotting tools or visual aids. Beautiful as his art is, it cannot last ... like a Buddhist mandala, his masterpieces vanish in an instant, as soon as the tide starts to wash them away. Best Doc, Foursite Film Festival. Valerie Reid (NZ, 2006, 10:56 min)
Enter the danger zone with legendary climbers Tommy Caldwell, Steph Davis, Matt Segal, Lisa Rands,Ammon McNeely, Alex Honnold, Chris McNamara, Dean Potter, Renan Ozturk, Jonny Copp and many others. The Sharp End is an adrenaline-soaked journey up the world’s most challenging walls: The French Alps, the Eiger, the Utah desert, the Diamond of Colorado, Indian Kashmir, Yosemite granite, and the sandstone spires of the Czech Republic. Run-out routes, scary high-ball boulder problems, ice-covered alpine walls and all-or-nothing free-solo ascents will keep your palms perspiring. Sender Films
(US, 2008, 60 min)
The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about cap and trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you. Louis Fox (US, 2009, 10 min)
A fussy zookeeper goes about his daily routine, but he must contend with a very uncooperative little penguin. Student Academy Award, Nicole Mitchell (US, 2007, 4:27 min)
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