Rob Stewart is a man of single-minded vision ¿ a passionate diver and lover of sharks, he has made it his life's mission to try to stop the annihilation of the world's shark species. Traveling around the world, Sharkwater is his testament both to the importance of sharks to oceanic ecosystems and to the catastrophic devastation of sharks occurring daily due to human fear and greed. Yet Stewart makes a compelling case that a loss of sharks would not mean just the loss of a few charismatic animals but in fact lead to the death of the oceans as we know them and possibly even to cataclysmic results for all of humankind! A beautiful film filled with stunning visual images, Sharkwater is one of those movies that stays with you long after you leave the theater.
In yet another innovative work by Alex Rivera, Papapapá humorously explores immigration issues by comparing the assimilation of immigrant peoples and immigrant foods. In this case, Rivera parallels the migration of a form of potato from Incan Peru north to become part of diets throughout North America with an immensely personal journey following the journeys of his Peruvian father as he migrated from Lima to the United States. Part of a three film retrospective of Rivera's work, along with Sleep Dealer and The Sixth Section. Filmmaker scheduled to be in attendance. (Showing with The Sixth Section)
Alex Rivera is seeking to challenge and destroy many of the assumptions underlying Americans' debates over immigration. A child of Peruvian and Irish-American parents, Rivera brings his unique perspective to an exploration of immigration and its myriad impacts ¿ documenting the ways in which Americans rely upon immigrant labor and ways in which many of these immigrants, far from being a silent and exploited underclass, are organizing to empower themselves. In The Sixth Section, Rivera highlights the efforts of Grupo Unión, a coalition of Mexican immigrants who work in New York state in order to support their community of Boqueron, Mexico. Their goal - to provide their community with something it needs but would never do for itself: build a baseball stadium! Part of a three film retrospective of Rivera's work, along with Sleep Dealer and Papapapá. Filmmaker scheduled to be in attendance. (Showing with Papapapa)
Roger Ebert declared that Princess Mononoke "is one of the most visually inventive films" ever and one of the best animated films he'd ever seen. No wonder, as this complex tale of humans, forest animals and nature gods fighting for their share of the planet is one of director Hayao Miyazaki's anime masterpieces. Following his earlier work Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds (which was one of our more popular screenings at the 2007 Tales from Planet Earth), this allegorical tale from Miyazaki follows Prince Ashitaka as he journeys to find the cause of nature's imbalance and finds Princess Mononoke fighting the forces of Lady Eboshi, the leader of a people learning ever more industries while forgetting how to talk to animals and the environment.
Garbage Dreams is the story of the zaballeen, some 60,000 people at the bottom of Egyptian society, who nevertheless are indispensable to the functioning of Cairo, as they daily collect and recycle 80 percent of Cairo's garbage. But globalization is threatening their way of life, as foreign companies (far more concerned with revenues than recycling) are taking their garbage from them. As the world around them changes, three teenage boys - Adham, Osama, and Nabil - must navigate their uncertain futures, as they dream of a better life and try to do right by their families. Winner of the Al Gore Reel Current Prize for important current environmental film!
An official selection of over 30 film festivals and winner of numerous documentary film awards, Losers and Winners faithfully recounts the dismantling of a steel coke plant in the heart of Germany's Ruhr Valley for relocation to China. The simultaneous slowdown of European industry and explosion of the Chinese economic behemoth has transformed landscapes of labor around the globe and, in this case, led to the transplanting of what was once the world's most sophisticated coke plant after only eight years of operation at its original site in Germany. In the race to relocate the plant quickly, the new owners bring hundreds of Chinese workers to Germany, creating a clash of cultures as each country's workers view the demolition of a manufactured landscape with opposing feelings of optimism, despair, alienation and understanding. (Showing with Solitary Life of Cranes)
People engage with landscapes in a variety of ways and from many different perspectives. Eva Weber explores perhaps one of the most ignored perspectives, hidden in plain sight in almost every big city and developing landscape around the world. Capturing images not for the faint of heart (or acrophobic), Weber bravely ventures high above London to discover its world of crane operators. What she discovers in Solitary Life of Cranes is a complex relationship between man and machine, executing sweeping movements with balletic precision and in the process reshaping the landscape below. (Showing with Losers and Winners)
Tales from Planet Earth is pleased to be screening one of director Carroll Ballard's many extraordinary films that documents the intense connections that exist between humans and animals. Ballard captures the often spiritual quality of the human-animal bond that famed naturalist E.O. Wilson has suggested is an innate "biophilia," or love for other creatures on the planet. And in his films, Ballard also reveals the great lengths humans often go to study and preserve our animal kin, such as Never Cry Wolf's adaptation of the real-life efforts of Farley Mowat to research wolves in Northern Canada and his growing awareness of wolves' unfair reputation and persecution. While the impressive visuals and stories of this film makes it ideal viewing for the whole family, Ballard's work is far from a kid's film but, in fact, required viewing for anyone interested in the intertwined fates of all humans and animals.
Appalachian Mountain coal today provides 35 percent of America's electricity - in 20 years this figure is expected to double. Deep Down explores the implications of this reliance on coal and the impacts across Appalachian communities that are literally being split apart by mountaintop mining, as well as impacts in communities reliant upon coal-fired power plants. As the effects of this coal dependence spread across our land and atmosphere, it is time to reconnect the disparate human stories of impact, use, and extraction that are all too often forgotten in debates over this precious resource. In Deep Down we see the poignant tale of two old friends in Maytown, Kentucky both ambivalent about plans for a new mountaintop strip mine and unsure whether to sell out to the mining officials. Is staying and living right next to teeth jarring dynamite explosions really better than moving away? What happens to their friendship, to their community, if they stay? What happens if they go? Deep down, the divides over this issue are more personal and emotional than just a question of coal. Filmmakers scheduled to be in attendance.
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by Moliere, adapted by Arrie Callahan
Directed by Patricia Boyette
Cough! Wheeze! Gasp! Argan, a miserly hypochondriac, wants his daughter, Angelique, to marry a doctor¿for the free medical care. This new translation of Moliere¿s farcical comedy pokes fun at the medical profession, family corruption, and absurdities in familial duty. Produced in the Steampunk aesthetic, a fantastical spin Victorian decadence and turn-of-the-century industrialization, this costume drama will delight through its combination of satiric commentary, physical farce, and stunning visuals.
Alex Rivera's Sleep Dealer, a multiple Sundance Award winning science-fiction masterpiece, imagines a future in which all U.S. borders are closed to immigration yet foreign workers continue to perform labor remotely via robotic connections. After Memo Cruz's home is destroyed in an attack, he travels to Tijuana with dreams of working in the high-tech labor factories, even though workers there go until the point of collapse. Along the way, he meets the mysterious Luz who is trying to use him for her own reasons. A mind-blowing, satirical look at modern labor and the uses of people, this film will change how you think about people's relationships to the land and asks you to consider what it is we really are arguing about in our recent debates over U.S. immigration policy. Part of a three film retrospective of Rivera's work, along with The Sixth Section and Papapapá. Filmmaker scheduled to be in attendance.
An astonishingly moving and intimate portrait of one man's quest to keep from losing himself as he tries to save the world, The Chances of the World Changing follows several years in the life of Richard Ogust, a writer and turtle collector who took on the challenge of trying to save many of the world's endangered turtle species and in the process lost his home, his career, and almost his sense of self. Even as he continually confronts insurmountable obstacles - lack of funding, dying turtles, illegal smugglers - the most amazing thing (as director Eric Daniel Metzgar has noted) is that this film concerning extinction is less about gloom and doom than it is about persistance, hope and survival.
November 7 | USA, 1973 | 97min | Richard Fleischer | DVD | PG Presented with the Tales from Planet Earth Film Festival.
The year is 2022. New York City has become overpopulated with 40 million people and pollution has caused the temperature to be risen and all natural resources have been destroyed, leaving 40 million people starving. The Soylent Company has create a new food product, Soylent Green. In the overpopulated and polluted New York City, police detective Thorn is assigned to investigate the brutal murder of an corporate official of the Soylent company, William R. Simonson. Thorn's investigation into Simonson's murder leads him to uncover a conspiracy in the Soylent company and the Soylent Green food product itself, where Thorn uncovers the horrible truth about Soylent Green. (from IMDb)