After the Tsunami: Rebuilding Our Villages, Our Lives [Indonesia] - 2007 -
23 min
Director: Thierry Vogler Producer: Development and Peace
Year Presented: 2008
This is a film about the successful collaboration between grassroots organizations in Indonesia and Development & Peace in the reconstruction of adequate housing for villages destroyed by the tsunami.
The Cats of Mirikitani [USA] - 2006 -
74 min
Director: Linda Hattendorf. Lucid Dreaming
Year Presented: 2008
"Make art not war" is Jimmy Mirikitani's motto. This 85-year-old Japanese American artist was born in Sacramento and raised in Hiroshima, but by 2001 he is living on the streets of New York with the twin towers of the World Trade Center still ominously anchoring the horizon behind him. How did Mirikitani end up on the streets? The answer is in his art. As tourists and shoppers hurry past, he sits alone on a windy corner in Soho drawing whimsical cats, bleak internment camps, and the angry red flames of the atomic bomb. When a neighbouring filmmaker stops to ask about Mirikitani's art, a friendship begins that will change both their lives. The Cats of Mirikitani is an intimate exploration of the lingering wounds of war and the healing power of art. A heart-warming affirmation of humanity that will appeal to all lovers of peace, art, and cats. Audience Award: Tribeca Film Festival
Caves (FAMILY FRIENDLY) [Mexico] - 2006 -
50 min
Director: Produced by Huw Gordey, BBC Planet Earth. Narrated by David Attenborough
Year Presented: 2008
CAVES ARE remarkable places—a hidden world of stalactites, stalagmites, snotites, and troglodytes—but also much else. The Cave of Swallows in Mexico—a 400-metre vertical shaft—is deep enough to contain the Empire State Building. The Lechuguilla cave system in the United States is 193 kilometres long with astonishing crystal formations. Cave habitats are home to equally bizarre wildlife. The film offers a unique access to a largely unknown and mysterious world below ground. Banff World Television Awards, 2006.
Coop - 2007 -
6 min
Director:
Year Presented: 2008
Short video about the difference between banks and credit unions and coops in Italy.
Cottonland [Cape Breton] - 2006 -
54 min
Director: Nance Ackerman
Year Presented: 2008
When the last of Cape Breton's once thriving coalmines shut down in the late 1990s, the shrinking population of Glace Bay faced chronic unemployment. For some, despair led to a dependency on the prescription painkiller OxyContin. Cottonland draws a coherent line between economic and social depression and asks us to consider the deeper roots of widespread social problems. Strong and cohesive social network can help people to resist drug dependency. Ironically, this network exists in the neighbouring Native community of Membertou, where the economy is flourishing and a culture of hope thrives after generations of despair. Cottonland emphasizes the importance of a collective approach to problems of addiction and dependency.
Damage Done: The Drug War Odyssey - 2007 -
55 min
Director: Connie Littlefield
Year Presented: 2008
Meet a group of maverick cops with varying political ideals who discuss the question: Is the war on drugs doing more damage than the drugs themselves? After 30 years of drug war, illegal narcotics are decreasing in price, increasing in purity and demand continues to surge. The heroes of this film are veterans of the drug war and they urge us to consider ending drug prohibition. They have had a complete revolution in their thinking. Now they are working to end the War on Drugs. Find out what happened to change their minds. "Legalize, regulate and tax" is their mantra now. They believe that all illicit drugs should be
Do Not Go Gently: The Power of Imagination in Aging - 2007 -
56 min
Director: Melissa Godoy
Year Presented: 2008
What role does creativity play in aging? How important is imagination in the experience of being human? Three artists aged 84, 93, and 103 share their answers.
Faire Chaluim MhicLeoid (The Wake of Calum MacLeod) (Nova Scotia) - -
5 min
Director: Marc Almon
Year Presented: 2008
North America 's first Gaelic-language short film. Shot in the highlands of Cape Breton and featuring Gaelic storyteller Angus MacLeod and music by internationally renowned signer Mary Jane Lamond, Faire Challum MhicLeoid is not only "a beautifully crafted film" ( Inverness Oran ), "a heart tugger" (Halifax Daily News ), and "a gem" ( Winnipeg Uptown Magazine), it is a historic venture into one of the world's most renowned oral storytelling cultures.
First Voices: Stories from Aboriginal Youth in the North and South - 2007 -
23 min
Director:
Year Presented: 2008
Through the FIRST VOICES video, ACIC brings stories about Aboriginal solidarity and community cohesion from youth between the ages of 18 and 25 to the forefront of Atlantic Canadian media. Six youth from 18 to 25 from Atlantic Canada, Guatemala, and Chile were equipped with digital video cameras and the technical know-how to showcase their communities. After taking video workshops they met in person in January of 2007 in Atlantic Canada when ACIC hosted the southern indigenous youth. This multicultural and multilingual group came together to create a 22 minute documentary filled with their own voices and images. The result is a beautiful and informative set of short-stories, one from each project participant about their Aboriginal communities. Stories are told better by the people who live them. The First Voices project brought together First Nation youth from Atlantic Canada and indigenous youth from Guatemala and Chile to make a collaborative documentary based on stories of hope as found in their communities. The youth congregated in Halifax for a workshop in video production taught by aboriginal filmmaker Cathy Martin. Once equipped with digital video cameras, technical skills and creative vision, the youth traveled back to their respective communities to capture on video, the stories, voices and images that were important to them. In January 2007 the youth met in Halifax to view the footage each had gathered and worked collaboratively to weave together a documentary. The participants in the program traveled to Guatemala to screen the documentary and visit various communities throughout the country. The aim of the project was to unite indigenous youth from the north and south so that they could share with each other their stories and experiences. The aim was also to create an opportunity for the participants to learn about video production, increase pride in their communities and empower and inspire participants to take action. It is hoped that this project will help create and strengthen awareness of issues faced by aboriginal youth and increase critical thinking regarding stereotypes in the media. There are three sale rates for the First Voices DVD:
Flow: For the Love of Water - 2008 -
93 min
Director: Irena Salina
Year Presented: 2008
The global water supply isn't just at risk, it's already in crisis. FLOW: For Love Of Water, a new film by Irena Salina, highlights the local intimacies of an emerging global catastrophe: African plumbers reconnect shantytown water pipes under cover of darkness to ensure a community's survival; a Californian scientist forces awareness of shockingly toxic public water sources; a ‘Big Water’ CEO argues privatization is the wave of the future; a “Water Guru” in India sparks new community water initiatives in hundreds of villages; a Canadian author uncovers the corporate profiteering that drives global water business. With an unflinching focus on politics, pollution and human rights, FLOW: For Love of Water ensures that the precarious relationship between humanity and water can no longer be ignored. While specifics of locality and issue may differ, the message is the same; water, and our future as a species, is quickly drying up. Armed with a thirst for survival, people around the world are fighting for their birthright; unless we instigate change, we face a world in which only those that can pay for their water will survive. FLOW: For Love of Water, is a catalyst for people everywhere: the time has come to turn the tide and we can't wait any longer.
Hannah’s Story - 2007 -
30 min
Director: Juanita Peters
Year Presented: 2008
Hannah Taylor is the exceptional 10-year-old who founded the Ladybug Foundation—a nationally renowned organization she started, to raise awareness and generate support for the homeless and hungry in her hometown of Winnipeg. This is Hannah’s Story, about a young girl making groundbreaking efforts to change the world for the better. A story of inspiration that demonstrates the potential for extraordinary measures that can exist inside us all.
I’m Know I’m Not Alone [Middle East] - -
93 min
Director: Michael Franti
Year Presented: 2008
This film came out of my frustration with watching the nightly news and hearing generals, politicians and pundits, explaining the political and economic cost of the war in the Middle East, without ever mentioning the human cost. I wanted to hear about the war by the people affected by it most: doctors, nurses, poets, artists, soldiers and my personal favorite, musicians. So I bought some plane tickets and headed to Iraq, Israel and the occupied territories of Palestine. I was joined on the trip by several friends who wanted to see the war first hand as well: two human rights lawyers, my manager, a drum tech, a retired U.S. Army captain and a beauty salon owner (just for good measure). When I first had the idea for this journey, I had no idea how to get to Iraq and almost no idea how to make a film. After discovering that all you need to get into Iraq is a plane ticket, I prayed that movie making would be that simple. It ain’t... so I did what I suggest any first time filmmaker should do, surround myself with the most talented and passionate editors, photographers and sound people I could find, give them direction, and then stay out of the way as much as possible. When I arrived in Iraq I had little planned except that I knew I wanted to play guitar and sing on the street, in homes, hospitals, military outposts or anywhere people were ready to receive it. My intention was to not only capture emotions on film but to record them In song. I wrote several songs used in the film while I was on the trip itself and then wrote 15 more as I poured over two hundred of hours of footage. I divided my time equally between writing and recording songs downstairs in my music studio, and directing upstairs in the video bay. Although war is the most politically weighted subject one could ever take on, I did not want to make a political movie. Instead, I wanted to make a film about people, and the things they do to overcome the stresses of war and occupation: chief among these being friendship, humor, art and music. Upon my return from the Middle East in June, we started digitizing and reviewing the footage on my tour bus, as I was on the road with my band in Europe the day after I returned home (I do not advise anyone to attempt this). I tell stories through my songs and spoken word, and approached the film in the same way. We let the images and music flow together as I re-told the story with voiceover and lyrics inspired from the journey. In taking this organic approach, I believe we gave unique insight into what people are facing in the Middle East today.
Iron Ladies of Liberia - 2007 -
77 min
Director:
Year Presented: 2008
After fourteen years of civil war, Liberia is a nation ready for change. On January 16, 2006, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was inaugurated President, following a hotly contested election which she won with the overwhelming support of women across Liberia. She is the first elected female head of state in Africa. Since taking office she has appointed other extraordinary women to leadership positions in all areas of government, including the Police Chief and the ministers of Justice, Commerce and Finance. Can the first female Liberian president, backed by other powerful women, bring sustainable democracy and peace to such a devastated country? Iron Ladies of Liberia gives behind-the-scenes access to President Sirleaf’s first year in government, providing a unique insight into the workings of a newly elected African cabinet.
The Iron Wall - 2008 -
52 min
Director: Mohammed Alatar
Year Presented: 2008
After 1967 and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the aim of the settlement movement became clear - create facts on the ground and make the creation of a Palestinian state impossible. Thirty nine years of occupation and the policy started showing results. There are now more than 200 settlements and outposts scattered throughout the West Bank blocking the geographic possibility of a contiguous Palestinian territory. The Iron Wall documentary exposes this phenomenon and follows the timeline, size, population of the settlements, and its impact on the peace process. This film also touches on the latest project to make the settlements a permanent fact on the ground - the wall that Israel is building in the West Bank and its impact on the Palestinian's peoples. Settlements and related infrastructures are impacting every aspect of life for all Palestinians from land confiscation, theft of natural resources, confiscation of the basic human rights, creation of an apartheid-like system, to the devastating impact in regards to the future of the region and the prospect of the peace process. Palestinians and Israelis began the peace process based on a very simple principle: land for peace. Settlements destroy that principle and create a land with no peace.
Jesus Tecu Osorio [Guatemala] - -
25 min
Director:
Year Presented: 2008
Human Rights: Jesus Tecu Osorio of Guatemala witnessed the murder of his parents and siblings in 1982 during Guatemala's bloody civil war. Today, he leads a courageous campaign for memorials, exhumations and the prosecution of former military officers.
Killers’ Paradise [Guatemala] [Warning: Difficult Scenes] - 2006 -
83 min
Director: Giselle Portenier
Year Presented: 2008
In this powerful film, the award winning team of reporter Olenka Frenkiel and director Giselle Portenier Murder in Purdah, Israel’s Secret Weapon) document the story of the brutal killings of women in Guatemala. Since 1999 more than 2,000 women have been murdered in that country, and the numbers have been rising every year. Killer’s Paradise documents the story of Claudina Isabel Velasquez, a 19-yearold law student murdered in summer 2005, as her family urges the authorities to find her killers and bring them to justice.
The Little Black School [Nova Scotia] - 2007 -
60 min
Director: Sylvia D. Hamilton Moving Images Distribution
Year Presented: 2008
Nova Scotia's last segregated school closed in 1983. The Little Black School House tells the story of segregated schools in Canada, the teachers who taught there and their students. It is a story of the struggle of African Canadians to achieve dignity and equality through the pursuit of education. Director Sylvia Hamilton (Black Mother Black Daughter, Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia) brings these first-hand accounts of Canadian school segregation to the screen after many years and many setbacks (early footage for the project was lost in the Halifax NFB fire in 1992). This always compelling, often enraging story was well worth the wait.
Listen to the Children (Sierra Leone/Nova Scotia) - 2008 -
8 min
Director: Logan MacGillivray
Year Presented: 2008
This film by an 11 year old boy from Nova Scotia documents the raising of 20,000 pencils and other rmaterial by students, including Antigonish youth, to support the centre established in Sierra Leone by Dr. Thomas & Mary Turay.
Lost Canadians (Canada) - 2007 -
57 min
Director: Don Chapman
Year Presented: 2008
This documentary details the efforts of former Canadians to regain their Canadian citizenship. Don Chapman, a lost Canadian and the film director, took the case to the Supreme Court of Canada and won in the Spring 2008! Along with an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Canadians, he had his citizenship stripped from him through no fault of his own. Chapman’s roots are in Antigonish and he is related to William Alexander Henry, one of the Fathers of Confederation. Among the Lost Canadians are about 45,000 women who came to Canada as war brides and their 22,000 children ---stateless only because their husbands changed citizenships. This movie is compelling as it clearly shows the danger of bad laws and how the citizenship we all believe is inseparable from us is so fragile that it can be revoked retroactively.
Mountain Top Removal [USA] - 2006 -
56 min
Director: Michael O'Connell
Year Presented: 2008
"It don't grow back." Here is something to ponder. If a tree falls in the forest with no one there to hear it does it make a sound? Likewise if a mountain is chopped away will it grow back? Mountain Top Removal examines the controversial coal mining practice that occurs throughout Southern Appalachia in the US. Slow removal of coal from this mountainous region is resulting in leveled forests, destruction of communities and threatened water supplies Though, coal might be the cheapest domestic fuel source, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and its runoffs poison the groundwater. Ed Wiley, a grandfather, brought his concerns about mountain top coal removal to the Governor of Virginia’s office and then marched from Charleston to Washington, DC bringing awareness to the threatened school that his grandchild attends near a mining site. Passions run high for those most affected by mountain top removal at a time when 50% of the nation’s electricity supply depends on coal. Michael Cusack O’Connell is an award winning cinematographer/director based in Pittsboro North Carolina. Mountain Top Removal is the second documentary feature from Haw River Films.
One Man, One Cow, One Planet [India] - 2007 -
56 min
Director: Barbara Sumner Burstyn. Cloud South Films
Year Presented: 2008
'The outcome of the battle for agricultural control in India may just dictate the future of the earth.' 78 year old Peter Proctor is quietly determined to save the world. Peter is known as the father of modern biodynamic farming, a form of organic agriculture. Biodynamic agriculture is changing the landscape, releasing entire communities from the debt cycles and destroyed lands of chemical farming and the bio colonialism of multinational corporations. One Man, One Cow, One Planet reveals the hidden battle of marginal farmers to own seeds, to grow diverse crops, to feed themselves and their communities.
Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad (A Little Bit of So Much Truth) [Mexico] - 2007 -
93 min
Director: Jill Friedberg. Corrugated Films
Year Presented: 2008
When the people of Oaxaca decided they'd had enough of bad government, they didn't take their story to the media, they TOOK the media. In the summer of 2006, a broad-based, non-violent, popular uprising exploded in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Some compared it to the Paris Commune, but it was the people’s use of the media that truly made history in Oaxaca. This documentary captures the unprecedented media phenomenon that emerged when tens of thousands of school teachers, housewives, indigenous communities, health workers, farmers, and students took 14 radio stations and one TV station into their own hands, using them to organize, mobilize, and ultimately defend their grassroots struggle for social, cultural, and economic justice.
Road Runner [Antigonish] - 2006 -
13 min
Director: Cara Jones
Year Presented: 2008
This is a film about a young man with Cerebral Palsy by Antigonsih artist Cara Jones.
Simon & I - 2001 -
52 min
Director: Bev Ditsie
Year Presented: 2008
Simon and I recounts the lives of two giants in the South African gay and lesbian liberation movement, Simon Nkoli a political activist and the filmmaker herself, Bev Ditsie. The story is narrated by Bev as she charts their relationship through good times and bad against a backdrop of intense political activism and the HIV/AIDS crisis. At the first Pride March in 1990, Simon made a speech that was to have an everlasting impact on Bev. She saw that her oppression was twofold, as a lesbian and as black. She and Simon became estranged as he increasingly came to represent people living with AIDS. Reconciled shortly before his death in 1998, these formidable characters bear witness to the enormous sacrifices required of human rights activism. This searing testament shows us two different, powerful personalities, but only one struggle.
!Salud! : Cuba & the Quest for Health - 2006 -
93 min
Director: Connie Field. MEDICC
Year Presented: 2008
¡Salud! looks at the curious case of Cuba, a cash-strapped country with what the BBC calls ‘one of the world’s best health systems.’ From the shores of Africa to the Americas, ¡Salud! hits the road with some of the 28,000 Cuban health professionals serving in 68 countries. They take with them the experience and philosophy of their own community-oriented, preventive and universal health care model, a model fundamentally at odds with a global wave of healthcare privatization. International medical students in Cuba now number 30,000, including nearly 100 from the USA. Their stories plus testimony from experts around the world bring home the competing agendas that mark the battle for global health—and the complex realities confronting the movement to make healthcare everyone’s birth right.
Saving Luna (Canada) - 2008 -
91 min
Director: Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm
Year Presented: 2008
What happens when a wild orca tries to make friends with people – not for food, but for companionship? Should humans welcome him or turn away? SAVING LUNA is a true story about one such killer whale who found himself alone on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, more than 200 miles away from his family. Orcas normally spend their entire lives together, but Luna was lost. Without other whales, Luna tried to make contact with humans. But law and science told people to stay away. Yet the same social instincts that drove Luna to seek companionship also brought people to him, in spite of the law. As Luna got close to people, he became both treasured and feared. To natives he was the spirit of a chief. To boaters he was a goofy friend. To conservationists he was a cause. To scientists he was trouble. To officials he was a danger. As conflict and tragedy stained the waters, Luna became a symbol of the world’s wildest beauty: easy to love, hard to save. SAVING LUNA is the title of both a book and a film that tell this story.
Seeds of Change [Canada] - -
77 min
Director:
Year Presented: 2008
Seeds of Change examines the controversy surrounding the use of genetically modified (GM) crops across the Canadian prairies. A publicly funded project, and part of a larger, comprehensive research program examining the risks associated with biotechnology in agriculture, this documentary contributes a new voice and perspective to the debate - that of farmers. But unfortunately, Seeds of Change was not publicly released until over three years after University of Manitoba (U of M) PhD candidate Ian Mauro, U of M professor Stéphane McLachlan, and independent videographer Jim Sanders completed it, in the fall of 2002. Over the course of the long delay, spreading news of the film's existence garnered considerable interest from farmers, researchers, and policy makers from around the world, including those from Australia, the EU, and the US. Why did it take so long for the completed film to be made available to the public? The public release of Seeds of Change was delayed until November 2005 because of the efforts of the U of M administration to hide the film from a popular audience. The administration actively prevented the release of the film through the use of outdated bylaws that gave them 50% control over the Seeds of Change footage. Why did the U of M administration do this? After three years of frustrating negotiations that simply served to put the film and the filmmakers at increasing risk, Mauro, McLachlan and Sanders finally broke off talks with the U of M administration, following independent legal advice and embarked on a public campaign to expose what they had concluded was a deliberate strategy of suppression by the U of M Administration. The filmmakers’ campaign had the explicit support of the Canadian National Farmers Union and the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). Indeed, CAUT has indicated that the suppression of Seeds of Change is one of the most significant academic freedom cases in Canada. Both of these organizations, as well as Friends of the Earth Canada and the Canadian Federation of Students played an instrumental role in forcing the hand of the U of M.
Shands: Arts in Medicine - -
6 min
Director:
Year Presented: 2008
A short film about the innovative use of the arts in a Florida hospital.
Shameless: The Art of Disability (Canada) - 2006 -
71 min
Director: Bonnie Sherr Klein
Year Presented: 2008
Art, activism, and disability are the starting point for what unfolds as a funny and intimate portrait of five surprising individuals. One of them, director Bonnie Sherr Klein, has been a pioneer of women’s cinema, and this film marks her return to a career interrupted by a catastrophic stroke in 1987. She now turns the lens on the world of disability culture and the transformative power of art. Joining Klein are artists with diverse (dis)abilities: Humorist David Roche, poet and scholar Catherine Frazee, dancer and impresario Geoff McMurchy, and sculptor and writer Persimmon Blackbridge.
Shock Waves [Democratic Republic of Congo] - 2007 -
52 min
Director: Pierre Mignault & Hélène Magny. InformAction Productions
Year Presented: 2008
In the Democratic Republic of Congo where human rights violations is among the highest in the world, the journalists at Radio Okapi constantly risk their lives in order to denounce the extreme abuses of power to which the civilian population is subjected. Shot under dangerous conditions, with the rebellion as backdrop, Shock Waves follows these reporters’ investigations. In a land where silence is imposed at gunpoint, Shock Waves provides eloquent testimony to the struggle for freedom of expression and democracy in a war-torn nation.
Sipakapa is Not for Sale [Guatemala] - -
60 min
Director: Caracol Producciones
Year Presented: 2008
The Sipakapa Declaration released in March 2006 details some of the impacts of the Glamis Gold mining in the area such as environmental destruction, water shortages, cyanide and heavy metal contamination, diseases, corruption, militarization and the damaging of the social and spiritual fabric of the communities. According to the Declaration, the mine's security force have killed two people with impunity in 2005, including a young father of four children, Alvaro Benigno Sánchez. In accordance with ILO Convention 169, the Constitution of Guatemala and the Municipal Code, thirteen townships of Sipakapa carried out referendums on whether to allow mining to proceed in their communities on June 18, 2005. The result was a rejection of the mining project: 11 townships voted against the mine, one voted in favour, and one abstained. The Guatemalan Constitutional Court upheld the Sipakapa popular referendum. But the mining company continues to make overtures to mine the area, including filing a restraining motion.
Sir, No Sir! [USA] - 2006 -
84 min
Director: David Zeiger. McNabb/Connolly
Year Presented: 2008
In the 1960’s an anti-war movement emerged that altered the course of history. This movement didn’t take place on college campuses, but in barracks and on aircraft carriers. It flourished in army stockades, navy brigs and in the towns that surround military bases. It penetrated elite military colleges like West Point. And it spread throughout the battlefields of Vietnam. It was a movement no one expected, least of all those in it. Hundreds went to prison and thousands into exile. And by 1971 it had, in the words of one colonel, infested the entire armed services. Yet today few people know about the GI movement against the war in Vietnam. Los Angeles Film Festival; Audience Award
Sombrio (Canada) - 2005 -
60 min
Director: Paul Manly
Year Presented: 2008
SOMBRIO is a an hour long documentary about the eviction of a diverse community of surfers and squatters that existed on the West Coast of Vancouver Island for more than thirty years. It centers on a family with ten children who grew up surfing on the beach and captures them and other residents over a two-year period, revealing their personal stories and convictions as they come to terms with their impending eviction. Sombrio presents a portrait of a vital subculture in BC’s history and challenges our notions of what it means to be a self-determined citizen. (surfers and others living on beach on Vancouver Island)
Super Amigos [Mexico] - 2007 -
82 min
Director: Arturo Perez Torres. Open City Works
Year Presented: 2008
Super Amigos follows 5 modern-day super heroes in Mexico City as they fight for social justice and human rights. These super heroes are a group of Lucha Libre wrestlers who have taken their fight out of the ring and into the streets of the Mexican Capital. Super Barrio, Super Gay, Ecologista Universal, Super Animal and Fray Tormenta are real life masked super heroes who fight against evil slumlords, corrupt politicians, homophobia, pollution, animal abusers, and poverty. Though their true identity remains a mystery, they could easily be Mexico City’s most popular figures and last salvation. Creativity and social activism become a powerful force.
This Black Soil [USA] - 2004 -
58 min
Director: Teresa Konechne. Working Hands Productions
Year Presented: 2008
Catalyzed by the defeat of a state plan to build a maximum-security prison in their backyard, the powerful women leaders and residents of Bayview, Virginia, created the Bayview Citizens for Social Justice, a non-profit organization, secured $10 million in grants, purchased the proposed prison site land and are now building a new community from the ground up. Under the leadership of visionary women, this new rural village challenges all conventional ideas of community development and includes not only improved and affordable housing, but a sustainable economic base to earn a living wage, a community center for educating its residents, a daycare center, laundromat, and a community farm, which not only provides jobs and income for the organization, but returns them to their roots, working on the land.
Toxic Trespass - 2007 -
52 min
Director: Barri Cohen. NFB
Year Presented: 2008
Barri Cohen launches an investigation into the effects of the chemical soup around us. She starts with her 10-year-old daughter, whose blood carries carcinogens like benzene and DDT. In Canadian toxic hotspots, Windsor and Sarnia, everyone seems to know children who have suffered respiratory illnesses, leukemia, brain tumours and other illnesses. And on the Native reserve of Aamjiwnaang, ringed by Sarnia’s “chemical valley,” the film reveals a startling birth rate problem that officials just can’t ignore. We meet passionate activists working for positive change, along with doctors and scientists who see evidence of links between environmental pollution and health problems.
Tsepong: A Clinic Called Hope - 2005 -
49 min
Director: Patrick Reed
Year Presented: 2008
In December 2004, the Ontario Hospital Association had their first team of health care workers on the ground in Lesotho, operating out of Tsepong Clinic (“the place of hope” in Sesotho, the local language.) As part of a three-year partnership with the Lesotho Ministry of Health, they help with the wide-spread distribution of affordable life-saving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs.) Doctors, pharmacists and a single nurse provide instructions and ongoing coaching to patients under extraordinary working conditions.
Voices from the South: Fair Trade 101 and the Impact of Fair Trade Workshop - -
55 min
Director:
Year Presented: 2008
An interactive workshop facilitated by Satya Ramen of JUDES to explore the impacts, benefits, and mechanisms of Fair Trade, and hear from small farmers in the South. JUDES is Just Us! Development and Education Society, a not-for-profit organization committed to raising public awareness about the social /environmental issues of international development, the benefits of Fair Trade, and works to encourage connections between producers and consumers.
100% Cotton: Made in India - 2003 -
30 min
Director: Inge Altemeier und Reinhard Hornung. Journeyman Pictures
Year Presented: 2008
Cotton is the main material for our textiles, especially those we wear directly on the skin. During cotton production, huge quantities of pesticides are used, including poisons used as chemical weapons. Many of these pesticides are banned in other countries but still used in India. In the cotton belt of India, hundreds of farmers caught in the vicious cycle of debt have committed suicide by drinking pesticides. Hundreds more die of the poisons during the spraying season or from handling the contaminated cotton during processing. The residues of the poisons also enter the bodies of consumers as they wear the clothing made from contaminated cotton. Brazil Environmental Film Festival: First Place.