Money has long played a starring role in politics. But the Supreme Court’s 2010 landmark ruling in Citizens United v. FEC marked seismic shift in how America’s elections are fought and financed.
From Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, the Oscar-nominated filmmakers who made Trouble the Water, winner of the 2008 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for best documentary, comes Citizen Koch, a story about money, citizenship, and democracy.
By detailing the personal and political consequences of a broken electoral system, Citizen Koch lands the issue of the influence of money in politics squarely on the kitchen table of all Americans. The film asks who really has the power in America, the wealthiest donors or the voting public? The answers call into question the very meaning of citizenship. www.citizenkoch.com
Read more: 'A Word form our Sponsor' by Jane Mayer of the New Yorker.
CONTINUUM is a feature length documentary telling the story of where we came from, who we are, and the possiblities of our future. The film features interviews with poets and astronauts, physicists and storytellers, anthropologists and Tibetan lamas, and stunning cinematography from around the world. The many voices of the film share a unified vision: we must start acting as a planetary civilization.
The film is almost finished – search on Kickstarter.com, share the project, join the movement.
CAST:
Peter Russell – physicist and author of ‘The Global Brain’ and ‘Waking Up In Time’
David Loy – Buddhist scholar and author of ‘The World is Made of Stories’ and ‘Money, Sex, War, Karma’
Joanna Macy – environmental activist and author of ‘World as Lover, World as Self’
Wade Davis – anthropologist and author of ‘The Serpent and the Rainbow’
Paul Hawken – environmentalist and author of ‘Blessed Unrest’
H.H. 17th Gyalwa Karmapa – spiritual teacher of the Tibetan people
Janine Benyus – natural sciences writer and expert on biomimicry
Ron Garan – NASA astronaut and founder of Fragile Oasis
Sean Kelly – author of ‘Coming Home: The Birth and Transformation of the Planetary Era’
Cynthia Brown – writer and teacher of Big History
Barry Lopez – environmental writer, artist and journalist
Anam Thubten – Buddhist teacher in the Nyingma tradition
Bill McKibben – environmentalist, author and founder of 350.org
Alan Senauke – social activist and Zen Buddhist teacher
Drew Dellinger – social activist and poet
Bernie Glassman – American Zen Buddhist and co-founder of the Zen Peacemakers
Lawrence Ellis – complexity science consultant and spiritual activist
Wes Nisker – writer, comedian and editor of ‘Inquiring Mind’ journal
Sam Mickey – environmental ethics professor at the University of San Francisco
“Bidder 70” tells the story of University of Utah economics student Tim DeChristopher, who bid on oil and gas rights on federal land to prevent drilling on them. DeChristopher was charged with misrepresenting himself at the auction and has been serving a two-year sentence, and is to be released spring of 2013. "Bidder 70" is about an act of civil disobedience demanding government and industry accountability.
Symphony of the Soil is a 104-minute documentary feature film that explores the complexity and mystery of soil. Filmed on four continents and sharing the voices of some of the world's most esteemed soil scientists, farmers and activists, the film portrays soil as a protagonist of our planetary story. Using a captivating mix of art and science, the film shows that soil is a complex living organism, the foundation of life on earth. Yet most people are soil-blind and "treat soil like dirt." Through the knowledge and wisdom revealed in this film, we can come to respect, even revere, this miraculous substance, and appreciate that treating the soil right can help solve some of our most pressing environmental problems. In addition to the feature film, there are several short films, Sonatas of the Soil, that delve deeply into soil-related topics, and several short clips, Grace Notes, that are available to stream on the film's website.
Produced and Directed by Deborah Koons Garcia. www.symphonyofthesoil.com
Yann Arthus-Bertrand's 90 minute documentary film A THIRSTY WORLD, directed by Thierry Piantanida and Baptiste Rouget-Luchaire proposes another journey around the world.
This time, the famous photographer is looking at one of the major challenges to human survival: WATER. Today, against a backdrop of sharply increasing demand, growth in the world population and the growing impact of an unsettled climate, water has become one of the most precious natural resources of our planet.
Faithful to Yann Arthus-Bertrand's reputation, A THIRSTY WORLD, filmed in some 20 countries, reveals the mysterious and fascinating world of fresh water through spectacular aerial images shot in regions that are difficult to reach and rarely filmed, like Southern Sudan or Northern Congo. It also lets us discover the most beautiful landscapes on our planet, the lakes, rivers and wetlands created by water.
A THIRSTY WORLD attempts to bring together Yann Arthus-Bertrand's trademark aerial view of the world with the harsh, everyday reality of all those people who are deprived of water and may even die for lack of it, the people engaged in the daily struggle to find water, purify it or bring it to those who need it.
The film is built up on a host of encounters. A shepherd from north Kenya looks us in the eye and says he has killed for water and would do so again. Women dance when water finally arrives in their village. An atypical United Nations ambassadress talks about her combat to make governments too commit to providing access to water and the most modern purification techniques to guarantee the survival and health of the poorest populations.
Reportages filmed in Europe, Africa, Asia and America invite comments from the people working and innovating to bring water to those who need it, use it more intelligently, purify it, or, better still, stop polluting it.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand www.yannarthusbertrand.org
Fondation GoodPlanet www.goodplanet.org
Who controls the future of your food? GMO OMG explores the systematic cor- porate takeover and potential loss of humanity's most precious and ancient inheritance: seeds.
GMO OMG tells the story of a father's discovery of GMOs through the symbolic act of poor Haitian farmers burning seeds in defiance of Monsanto's gift of 475 tons of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds to Haiti shortly after the devastating earthquake of January 2010. After a journey to Haiti to learn why hungry farmers would burn seeds, the real awakening of what has happened to our food in the US, what we are feeding our families, and what is at stake for the global food supply unfolds in a trip across the United States and other countries in search of answers. Are we at a tipping point? Is it time to take back our food? The encroaching darkness of unknown health and environmental risks, seed take over, chemical toxins, and food monopoly meets with the light of a growing resistance of organic farmers, concerned citizens, and a burgeoning movement to take back what we have lost. Today in the United States, by the simple act of feeding ourselves, we unwittingly participate in the largest experiment ever conducted on human beings.
What is a Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)?
The World Health Organization Defines a GMO as: Organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally.
The most common genetically modified crops are: Corn, Soy, Canola, Cotton, Sugar Beets, Alfalfa, Papaya, Zucchini and Yellow Summer Squash.
GMOs are in nearly 80% of all processed foods in the United States and the most common sources of gmos are:
High-Fructose Corn Syrup, Soy Lecithin, Amino Acids, Aspartame, Ascorbic Acid, Sodium Ascorbate, Vitamin C, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Ethanol, Flavorings ("natural" and "artificial"), Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, Lactic Acid, Maltodextrins, Molasses, Monosodium Glutamate, Sucrose, Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP), Xanthan Gum, Vitamins, Yeast Products.
Over 60 countries require labeling of GMOs, including Russia, India, and China.
In the United States, GMOs are not labeled on the federal or any state level, despite the fact that 96% of Americans polled want mandatory labeling of GMOs.
Credits:
Written , Directed, and Produced by Jeremy Seifert
Trailer by Joseph Lindquist
Music by Jubilee Singers
www.gmofilm.com
Mission of Mermaids represents both the spectacular beauty and current plight of the world’s ocean. Subtitled “A love letter to the ocean,” the film uses the archetype of the mermaid, a mythical creature that is evocative of the ocean’s beauty and mystery, to bring the audience into the intimate world of the seas, rekindle an appreciation and love for them, and awaken the audience to the urgent need to respect and care for them before it’s too late.
Susan Cohn Rockefeller decided to make this film sparked by her own belief in the power of myth and beauty to awaken our imaginations and inspire us to action.
Combined with spectacular images of the ocean and its underwater creatures, historical references and scientific facts, MOM evokes the archetype of the mermaid, a mythical creature that embodies the ocean’s enduring mystery. The film honors the women and men who live from and for the seas—artists, activists, performers, divers, fishermen, and sailors. And all of us who have dreamed on beaches, reveled in the ocean’s waters, or nourished ourselves in her depths.
For a screening see: missionofmermaids.com
Acclaimed National Geographic photographer James Balog was once a skeptic about climate change. But through his Extreme Ice Survey, he discovers undeniable evidence of our changing planet. In Chasing Ice, Balog deploys revolutionary time-lapse cameras to capture a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Traveling with a team of young adventurers across the brutal Arctic, Balog risks his career and his well-being in pursuit of the biggest story facing humanity. As the debate polarizes America, and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally, Chasing Ice depicts a heroic photojournalist on a mission to deliver fragile hope to our carbon-powered planet. www.chasingice.com
BLOOD BROTHER / U.S.A. (Director: Steve Hoover) — Rocky went to India as a disillusioned tourist. When he met a group of children with HIV, he decided to stay. He never could have imagined the obstacles he would face, or the love he would find..
One thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity's departure from Earth, Nova Prime has become mankind's new home. Legendary General Cypher Raige returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai. When an asteroid storm damages Cypher and Kitai's craft, they crash-land on a now unfamiliar and dangerous Earth. As his father lies dying in the cockpit, Kitai must trek across the hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon. Check out the website: www.afterearth.com
The Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific ocean in a balsa wood raft in 1947, together with five men, to prove that South Americans already back in pre-Columbian times could have crossed the sea and settle on Polynesian islands. After financing the trips with loans and donations they set off on an epic 101 days long trip across 8000 kilometers, while the world was waiting for the result of the trip. The film tells about the origin of the idea, the preparations and the events on the trip. Kon-Tiki was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, and "Kon-Tiki" is an old name for this god. Heyerdahl filmed the expedition, which later became the Acaemy award winning documentary in 1951, and wrote a book about the expedition which was translated into 70 languages and sold more than 50 millions copies around the world. Heyerdahl believed that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times. www.kontikifilmen.com
Landfill Harmonic is an upcoming feature-length documentary about a remarkable musical orchestra in Paraguay, where the musicians play instruments made from trash.
Cateura, Paraguay is a town essentially built on top of a landfill. Garbage collectors browse the trash for sellable goods, and children are often at risk of getting involved with drugs and gangs. When orchestra director Szaran and music teacher Fabio set up a music program for the kids of Cateura, they soon have more students than they have instruments.
That changed when Szaran and Fabio were brought something they had never seen before: a violin made out of garbage. Today, there’s an entire orchestra of assembled instruments, now called The Recycled Orchestra.
The film shows how trash and recycled materials can be transformed into beautiful sounding musical instruments, but more importantly, it brings witness to the transformation of precious human beings. facebook.com/landfillharmonicmovie
Faced with losing their small farms, rural Maine dairy farmers launch their own milk company—a gamble that will either ruin or save them. For more information, go to www.bettingthefarmfilm.com
What is it like to live in extreme poverty? Could you budget only one dollar a day to survive?
Four friends from the United States spent their summer living in Guatemala on one dollar a day to try and understand the reality of poverty first hand.
This fall 2012, their journey continues. They have four months, a 1978 school bus, and a radical plan to use their film to engage hundreds of thousands of students in the fight to end extreme poverty.
To request a screening or learn more about Living on One's poverty alleviation efforts, please visit: www.LivingonOne.org or email [email protected]
Join the movement:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LivingonOne
Cape Spin! An American Power Struggle tells the surreal, fascinating, tragicomic story of the battle over America's most scandalous clean energy project. Cape Wind would be the U.S.'s first offshore windfarm...But strange alliances formed for and against: Kennedys, Kochs, and everyday folks do battle with the developer and green groups over the future of American power.
With full access to both sides, a commitment to impartial storytelling and fueled by a satiric 'revolutionary' soundtrack, Cape Spin is "a gripping and entertaining study of eco-capitalism and grassroots democracy". "It proves that environmental films can be crowd pleasers, and not at all just about the environment."
People of a Feather is an award winning documentary film about a unique Inuit culture that relies on birds for food and clothing, and the challenges they share adapting to changing sea ice ecosystems.
Director Joel Heath is a marine scientist who first made his way to Nunavut's Belcher Islands to study downy birds for the Canadian Wildlife Service. While there, Heath began utilizing his skills as a wildlife photographer and started to film the behavior of Belcher Island's Eider ducks, whose down in the warmest in the world. As Heath's time in Nunavut continued, he started to interview the people of Sanikiluaq and soon a sprawling documentary was being realized.
Heath's resulting debut feature offers a unique portrait of a region coping with environmental changes brought on by hydroelectric dams. People of Feather looks at the connectivity between the Inuit people of Sanikiluag (who are credited as co-filmmakers) and the Eider ducks, and how their relationship has changed due to man's tampering with Hudson Bay.
Winner, Best BC Film of 2011, Vancouver Film Critics Circle
Bronze & Silver , Direction & Cinematography, International TV and Film Awards
Winner, Audience Choice, Best Environmental Film, Vancouver International Film Festival
Winner, Top 10 Canadian Films, Vancouver International Film Festival
More than Honey - Markus Imhoof (Official Trailer) from CIBER Science on Vimeo.
Searching for answers for the global bee declines director Markus Imhoof takes us on a trip around the world to meet people living with and off honeybees: almond growers in California, a Swiss mountain beekeeper, a German neuroscientist investigating bee brains, a pollen dealer in China, and bee researchers in Australia. We enter the fascinating world of a bee hive, encounter fighting queens and dancing workers face to face and experience their highly sophisticated swarm intelligence, where the individual constantly serves the requirements of the community. The film will have its world premiere on the 11th of August 2012, concluding the biggest film festival in Switzerland. It will be officially released in Europe end of October 2012 and will be distributed internationally in early 2013. More info: ciber.science.uwa.edu.au/blog
It took Dr. Fred Urquhart almost 40 years to discover the monarch butterflies' secret hideaway and prove the most incredible migration on Earth. Following the year-long annual migration cycle of the butterflies, the award-winning production team filmed hundreds of millions of monarchs in their remote overwintering sanctuaries in Mexico in 2011 and again in 2012 and also along their migratory routes from Canada, across the U.S. and into Mexico.
Last Call At The Oasis Trailer. A documentary on the world's water crisis ! Instead of treating water with care, we've allowed it to become polluted with toxic chemicals and agricultural and industrial waste. And it's very possible that in the near future, there won't be enough to sustain life on the planet. We need to think again. We must be the solution.
Last Call At The Oasis Trailer. From the Company that brought you An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman and Food, Inc., directed by academy award winning Jessica Yu.
The Price- Trailer from matt fife: director on Vimeo.
The Price is a feature length documentary exploring humanity’s role in the disappearance of the iconic rhino, whose five species currently make up the most threatened large animal group on the planet. The Price looks at the beloved rhino as a poignant symbol of all that is wrong with the current human-animal relationship and of all that must change with the pervasive commodification of our planet’s fellow creatures if we are to halt the massive biodiversity loss that is taking place as species great and small are wiped from the earth in the blind pursuit of profit by the hands of man. A Film by Melinda MacInnis. www.thepricedocumentary.com
