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Celebrate Earth Month with three provocative, character-driven films focused on passionate people making a world of difference. Screenings, discussions with filmmakers via Skype, and receptions will take place on Sunday, April 17 and Thursday, April 28 atCinema Arts Centre, 423 Park Ave, Huntington. 631-423-7611 www.CinemaArtsCentre.org
Each film $9 Members / $13 Public (includes Reception)
Sunday, April 17 at Noon
BAG IT!
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/5645718]
Speaker (via Skype): Filmmaker Suzan Beraza
Reception at 1:45pm open to ticket holders for both Bag It! and On Coal River
This highly entertaining and eye-opening film follows everyman Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic-reliant world. Jeb is not a radical environmentalist, but an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics.
Sunday, April 17 at 2:15pm
ON COAL RIVER
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/21665096]
Speakers (via Skype): Filmmakers Francine Cavanaugh & Adams Wood
Reception at 1:45pm open to ticket holders for both Bag It! and On Coal River
A compelling and transcendent narrative on the human costs of coal and strip-mining, this provocative film follows the journey of a former coal miner and his neighbors. Unfolding as a modern-day David vs. Goliath tale, the residents of the Coal River Valley in West Virginia transform from so-called victims to fearless and informed experts on mountaintop removal.
Thursday, April 28 at 7:30pm
URBAN ROOTS
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7ptPuYtmbU&feature=player_embedded]
Co-Presented by Slow Food Huntington Visit Slow Food Huntington on Facebook
Speaker(via Skype): Filmmaker Mark MacInnis
Reception follows screening & Q & A
Filmmakers Mark MacInnis, Leila Conners (writer/director of “The 11th Hour”) and Mathew Schmid tell the powerful story of a group of dedicated Detroiters working tirelessly to fulfill their vision for locally grown, sustainably farmed food in a deserted, collapsed city cut off from real food and limited to processed fast food. These urban farmers have taken on the enormous task of taking charge of their future and shaping a new world.
MORE ABOUT THE FILMS
BAG IT!Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every 5 minutes, disposable bags that they throw away without much thought. But where is away? Where do the bags and other plastics end up, and at what cost to the environment, marine life and human health? Bag It follows Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic world. Jeb is not a radical environmentalist, but an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics. Jeb’s journey starts with simple questions: Are plastic bags really necessary? What are plastic bags made from? What happens to plastic bags after they are discarded? What he learns quickly goes far beyond plastic bags. 2010, USA , 74 min. Bag It website
About the Filmmaker
Born in Jamaica and raised in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic , Suzan Beraza’s thought-provoking films challenge viewers to examine their lives and consider the impact of their choices. Social and environmental issues pervade her work. Her films have appeared on PBS and at many festivals, winning top awards at Worldfest, Montreal Film Festival, San Luis Obispo Film Festival, EarthVision, and Mountainfilm in Telluride Film Festival. Documentaries she has worked on have also won three Telly Awards, including Best Documentary.
ON COAL RIVER Coal River Valley, West Virginia is a community surrounded by lush mountains and a looming toxic threat. On Coal Riverfollows a former miner and his neighbors in a struggle for the future of their community. Ed Wiley once worked at the same coal waste facility that now threatens his granddaughter’s elementary school. Ed confronts his school board, the state government,
and a notorious coal company — Massey Energy — for putting his community at risk. Ex-marine Bo Webb retired to his childhood home only to discover that this once-idyllic valley is being transformed by “mountaintop removal” – blowing up mountains to extract coal. Judy Bonds was forced to leave her ancestral home when the same company opened a mine next door – sending dangerous black water down the creek where her grandson played. Maria Lambert recognizes a pattern in the unusual health problems plaguing her community, and gathers evidence suggesting that the coal companies have contaminated their water supply. Shot over a five-year period, On Coal River follows the transformation of these remarkable individuals as they fight for the valley they love — and for future generations. USA, 2010, 81 min.On Coal River website
About the Filmmakers
FRANCINE CAVANAUGH(Director/Producer/Editor) and ADAMS WOOD (Director/Producer/DP) previously co-directed and produced BOOM — THE SOUND OF EVICTION (2002), a feature-length documentary about the social repercussions of San Francisco’s dot-com boom and bust, which Variety called “a powerful cautionary statement.” Their second feature, ON COAL RIVER (2010), premiered at AFI/Silverdocs, screened at numerous other festivals and on Capitol Hill, and was nominated for an IFP/Gotham Award. Adams began making documentaries in the Idaho wilderness in 1996, and Francine found her way to film through theater and dance in 1999. They currently live in Asheville , NC with their 6-year old son.
URBAN ROOTS The industrial powerhouse of a lost American era has died, and the skeleton left behind is present-day Detroit . But now, against all odds in the empty lots, in the old factory yards, and in-between the sad, sagging blockS, seeds of change are taking root. A small group of dedicated citizens, allied with environmental and academic groups, have started an urban environmental movement with the potential to transform not just a city, but also a country after the end of its industrial age. Urban Roots is the story of a group of dedicated Detroiters working to fulfill their vision for locally-grown, sustainably farmed food in a city where people – as in much of the county – have found themselves cut off from real food and limited to the lifeless offerings of fast food chains, mini-marts, and grocery stores stocked with processed food from thousands of miles away.2010, USA , 90 min. Urban Roots website
About the Filmmaker
Marc MacInnis: Growing up in Detroit , every kid I knew had a mom or a dad who worked for the auto industry. For twenty years, my mom worked at a warehouse that distributed wiring harnesses to Ford Motor Company. That job put braces on my and my brother’s teeth, paid for our skateboards and our weekend trips up north.
My mother was tough, the Michigan stiff upper lip hardened by wage labor and cold winters. I had never seen my mother cry until I was a teenager — on the day I picked her up from her last day of work. She’d already survived three waves of layoffs, but finally got her pink slip with a gold clock and a low-ball severance check.
All my life, I watched the decline of the city, and suffering with it were all of us who’d hitched our hopes to the great American industrial dream of making cars for the greatest country on earth. I never got to see Detroit in its true heyday. But I knew enough to know what it meant to lose that.
My mother may have lost her job, but she never lost that stiff upper lip. And so it was with Detroit , the city that lost its engine but never lost its drive. And now, where nature has reclaimed vast stretches of the abandoned rust belt, Detroiters are reclaiming their spirits. Wherever there is grass, there is a chance to put food on the table. And where there is a chance to put food on the table, there’s a chance for a new start. Now, all around the city of Detroit , a growing movement of urban farmers is changing the way people think about food — and life in the “D”. It took men like Henry Ford, William Durant, and Lee Iacocca to build this city, but it’s taken a bunch of strong-willed self-taught urban farmers to save it.
Since 1973, presenting the best U.S., International, Independent & Repertory films on 3 screens 365 days of the year, in a comfortable ambience including the sculpture garden & The Sky Room Café, the Cinema Arts Centre is located at 423 Park Ave (just south of 25a), Huntington, NY 11743 (25 miles east of New York City). Admission for regular programs: $10.00. Discounts for members, seniors, students & children. CAC is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. For further information call 631-423-7611. To sign up for weekly email schedule: info@CinemaArtsCentre.org Membership and Schedule: www.cinemaartscentre.org/
The mission of the Cinema Arts Centre is to bring the best in cinematic artistry to Long Island , and use the power of film to expand the awareness and consciousness of our community
Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, Calendar, Ecology, energy, Environment, events, film, Food, News Tagged: | bag it, business, ciemna, coal mining, Coal River Valley, documentary, earth day, Environment, Movie, on coal river, Packaging, Plastic bag, Skype, URBAN ROOTS, west virginia
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