Gallery Hall in the Taylor Family Digital Library at the University of Calgary

ABOUT THE FILM

Pad Yatra: A Green Oddyssey is presented as part of NUTV’s environmentally-themed Greenlite Arts Festival. Shot with solar power by Ladakhi monk Ngawang Sodpa, the film features United Nations MDG Honoree H.H. the Gyalwang Drukpa and supporter Aamir Khan. The film is executive produced by Michelle Yeoh, narrated by Daryl Hannah, and it is the debut feature project of writer/director Wendy J.N. Lee.

This film’s story opens in Ladakh, India (“Little Tibet”), during the aftermath of a freak weather phenomenon known as a cloudburst. Several inches of rain fall in the first sixty seconds, decimating the area with an apocalyptic cascade of mudslides and flash floods. As incidences like this increase over time, entire cultures are now under threat of dispersion, not by the hand of genocide or war, but by the climate chaos associated with global warming.

A cry for survival, the “eco-Pad Yatra” seen in the film was a trek of unparalleled  danger, designed to spread the modern message of  environmental compassion by human’s most basic means –by walking, village to village, and showing by example. Collecting trash and plastic from water sources, the trekkers educated remote villages on reusing non-biodegradable materials, planting trees, and how to live responsibly as their traditional lives are now changing.

Surviving harrowing injuries, illness, and starvation, the 700 trekkers emerge with nearly half a ton of plastic litter strapped to their backs, triggering an historic green revolution across the rooftop of the world.

30 MINUTE DISCUSSION TO FOLLOW SCREENING with writer/director of the film Wendy J.N. Lee.

All seating is first come, first served. Please arrive early.

Free for students with ID and community by donation ($5.00 – $10.00 suggested)

All proceeds go towards the Campus Food Bank.

Gallery Hall in the Taylor Family Digital Library at the University of Calgary

ABOUT THE FILM

Join us for the Canadian Premiere of Long Distance Revolutionary. In January 2012, Mumia Abu-Jamal was transferred to the general prison population after nearly 30 years in solitary confinement on death row and was permitted physical contact with his wife, children and other visitors for the first time in three decades. He had been sentenced to death in 1982 for the Dec. 9, 1981, killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. His sentence was recently amended to life without parole. The misconduct of the judge, flagrant irregularities in his trial and tainted evidence have been criticized by numerous human rights organizations, including Amnesty International. Rather than revisit the case, this film chronicles his importance and life as an American journalist, radical and intellectual under the harsh realities of Pennsylvania’s death row. Abu-Jamal has published seven books in prison, including his searing and best-selling “Live From Death Row.” The film also features Cornel West, James Cone, Dick Gregory, Angela Davis, Alice Walker and others.

DISCUSSION TO FOLLOW SCREENING WITH WRITER/DIRECTOR STEPHEN VITTORIA.

All seating is first come, first served. Please arrive early.

Free for students with ID and community by donation ($5.00 – $10.00 suggested)

All proceeds go towards the Campus Food Bank.

Gallery Hall in the Taylor Family Digital Library at the University of Calgary

ABOUT THE FILM

Elemental tells the story of three individuals united by their deep connection with nature and driven to confront some of the most pressing ecological challenges of our time. The film follows Rajendra Singh, an Indian government official gone rogue, on a 40-day pilgrimage down India’s once pristine Ganges river, now polluted and dying. An Australian inventor and entrepreneur, Jay Harmon, who searches for investors willing to risk millions on his conviction that nature’s own systems hold the key to our world’s ecological problems. And a young mother and Denè, Eriel Deranger, who struggles with family challenges while campaigning  against the Oil Sands and its proposed 2,000-mile Keystone XL Pipeline right here in Alberta.

30 MINUTE DISCUSSION WITH ERIEL DERANGER TO FOLLOW SCREENING.

All seating is first come, first served. Please arrive early as space is limited.

Free for students with ID and community by donation ($5.00 – $10.00 suggested)

All proceeds go towards the Campus Food Bank.

Gallery Hall in the Taylor Family Digital Library at the University of Calgary

ABOUT THE FILM

Produced by the same minds behind Bruno, American filmmaker Vikram Gandhi set out to challenge one of the most widely accepted taboos: that only a tiny 1% can connect the rest of the world to a higher power. What begins as an earnest survey of yoga culture in North America takes an unexpected and poignant turn when self-proclaimed religious skeptic Vikram Gandhi delves deep into the world of gurus. Gandhi transcends the typical critique of New Age culture as he transforms himself, in a true method-acting performance, into the Guru Kumaré. He discovers that all a guru requires is followers, an ideology and an Indian accent. Step one: grow your hair and beard. Step two: immerse yourself in yoga and meditation. Step three: dive head first into your inner pool of spiritual leadership. As a filmmaker, Gandhi walks an ethical minefield, endeavoring to treat his subjects with sensitivity and respect. As Kumaré, he carefully avoids humiliating or duping his followers, attempting to speak in truths and to impart lessons worth learning. A post-modern comedy that’s both revelatory and inspiring, Kumaré may just unleash the guru within you.

DISCUSSION WITH THE FILMMAKER TO FOLLOW SCREENING.

Free for students with ID and community by donation ($5.00 – $10.00 suggested)

All proceeds go towards the campus food bank Adopt-a-Student-Family program.

Wednesday, March 28 – 6:30 PM

That Empty Space, MacEwan Student Centre

ABOUT THE FILM

Wind power… it’s sustainable … it burns no fossil fuels…it produces no air pollution. What’s more, it cuts down dependency on foreign oil. That’s what the people of Meredith, in upstate New York first thought when a wind developer looked to supplement the rural farm town’s failing economy with a farm of their own — that of 40 industrial wind turbines. WINDFALL, a beautifully photographed feature length film, documents how this proposal divides Meredith’s residents as they fight over the future of their community. Attracted at first to the financial incentives that would seemingly boost their dying economy, a group of townspeople grow increasingly alarmed as they discover the impacts that the 400-foot high windmills slated for Meredith could bring to their community as well as the potential for financial scams. With wind development in the United States growing annually at 39 percent, WINDFALL is an eye-opener that should be required viewing for anyone concerned about the environment and the future of renewable energy.

THE FILMMAKERS

Laura Israel, Director/Producer

WINDFALL director Laura Israel grew up in New Jersey and after earning a degree in film from NYU, she edited music videos for Lou Reed, Keith Richards, David Byrne, New Order, Patti Smith, Ziggy Marley, Sonic Youth and many others. Laura has worked as photographer/filmmaker Robert Frank’s editor for nearly two decades; the films have screened all over the world and won many awards. She also edited Stephanie Black’s feature documentary AFRICA UNITE, LIFE FOR A CHILD directed by Academy Award nominated DP Ed Lachman and MUSIC OF REGRET by photographer Laurie Simmons. Editing credits include advertising and television promo campaigns that have garnered AICP awards, International Film and TV awards, a GLAAD award, an Emmy award, and a Monitor award for editing. This is Laura Israel’s first film as director, and she was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. Laura is currently working on her next film, a documentary about Robert Frank.

Windfall Official Website

TASTE THE WASTE

Wednesday, February 29 – 6:30 PM

That Empty Space, MacEwan Student Centre

AMAZING BUT TRUE: On the way from the farm to the dining-room table, more than half the food lands on the dump. Most of it before it ever reaches consumers. For instance every other head of lettuce or potato.
Agriculture is responsible for more than a third of the greenhouse gases worldwide because farming requires energy, fertilizers and land. What’s more, whenever food rots away at a garbage dump, methane escapes into the atmosphere, a climate gas with an effect 25 times as powerful as carbon dioxide. In other words, when we waste half of our food it has a disastrous impact on the world climate.

Attendance is free for students Free to U of C students (with valid U of C I.D.). Non U of C students: suggested cash ($5 to $10) or food donation to the Campus Food Bank. The food bank prefers donations of meal helpers (Sidekicks/Uncle Ben’s rice), canned pasta/chili, Kraft Dinner, peanut butter, dry pasta, canned veggies and/or beans, canned salmon/tuna, dry soup (Mr. Noodle/Ichiban), cereal, or pasta and tomato sauce.
Please note that the SU Campus Food Bank CANNOT accept Expired Food.

A SPECIAL SCREENING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TRI-MEDIA AND THE STUDENTS’ UNION FOOD BANK

Written and Directed by Valentin Thurn – 2011 – 1 hour, 28 minutes

TASTE THE WASTE Official Website 

ARTICLE 12

Wednesday, January 25 – 6:30 PM

That Empty Space, MacEwan Student Centre

ARTICLE 12 presents a sharp look at the current state of privacy and debates around the rights and desires of individuals, governments, terrorism and the increasing accessibility and use of surveillance.

The film is a thought-provoking exposé on our current obsession with voyeurism, surveillance technologies, power and control. Starting from our own private spying habits, Article 12 examines how vulnerable and exposed we have become in our relationship to each other and as a society and talks about those who are gaining from this condition. The film uses the twelfth article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to chart the current state of privacy around the world, arguing that without the right to privacy no other human right can truly be exercised. The film brings together the world’s leading academics, philosophers, cultural figures and technologists to highlight the devastating potency of surveillance and the dangers of public and individual complicity, and presents a growing movement fighting for the upkeep of our right to privacy.

Article 12 confronts these issues head-on to provide a powerful wake-up call as we sleepwalk into a worldwide surveillance society.

Attendance is free for students Free to U of C students (with valid U of C I.D.). Non U of C students: suggested cash ($5 to $10) or food donation to the Campus Food Bank. The food bank prefers donations of meal helpers (Sidekicks/Uncle Ben’s rice), canned pasta/chili, Kraft Dinner, peanut butter, dry pasta, canned veggies and/or beans, canned salmon/tuna, dry soup (Mr. Noodle/Ichiban), cereal, or pasta and tomato sauce.
Please note that the SU Campus Food Bank CANNOT accept Expired Food.

Directed by Juan Manuel Biaiñ – 2010 – 75 minutes

ARTICLE 12 Official Website 

GRANITO

Wednesday, November 30 – 6:00 PM

That Empty Space, MacEwan Student Centre

HOW TO NAIL A DICTATOR

GRANITO is a story of destinies joined by Guatemala’s past, and how a documentary film intertwined with a nation’s turbulent history emerges as an active player in the present. In GRANITO our characters sift for clues buried in archives of mind and place and historical memory, seeking to uncover a narrative that could unlock the past and settle matters of life and death in the present. Each of the five main characters whose destinies collide in GRANITO are connected by the Guatemala of 1982, then engulfed in a war where a genocidal “scorched earth” campaign by the military exterminated nearly 200,000 Maya people. Now, as if a watchful Maya god were weaving back together threads of a story unraveled by the passage of time, forgotten by most, our characters become integral to the overarching narrative of wrongs done and justice sought that they have pieced together, each adding their granito, their tiny grain of sand, to the epic tale.

Attendance is free for students Free to U of C students (with valid U of C I.D.). Non U of C students: suggested cash ($5 to $10) or food donation to the Campus Food Bank. The food bank prefers donations of meal helpers (Sidekicks/Uncle Ben’s rice), canned pasta/chili, Kraft Dinner, peanut butter, dry pasta, canned veggies and/or beans, canned salmon/tuna, dry soup (Mr. Noodle/Ichiban), cereal, or pasta and tomato sauce.
Please note that the SU Campus Food Bank CANNOT accept Expired Food.

Directed by Pamela Yates | 2011 | 103 mins.

GRANITO Official Website 

MY PERESTROIKA

Wednesday, October 26 – 6:00 PM

That Empty Space, MacEwan Student Centre

Five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times

MY PERESTROIKA follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times — from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Together, these childhood classmates paint a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionment of those raised behind the Iron Curtain.

Attendance is free for students and $10 for non-students. Non-students can also bring a donation for the SU Campus Food Bank instead of paying for admission. The food bank prefers donations of meal helpers (Sidekicks/Uncle Ben’s rice), canned pasta/chili, Kraft Dinner, peanut butter, dry pasta, canned veggies and/or beans, canned salmon/tuna, dry soup (Mr. Noodle/Ichiban), cereal, or pasta and tomato sauce.
Please note that the SU Campus Food Bank CANNOT accept Expired Food.

Directed by Robin Hessman | 2011 | 87 mins.

MY PRESTROIKA Official Website 

HOW TO DIE IN OREGON

Wednesday, September 28 – 6:00 PM

That Empty Space, MacEwan Student Centre

An intimate documentary exploring Oregon’s controversial Death with Dignity Act

In 1994, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. As a result, any individual whom two physicians diagnose as having less than six months to live can lawfully request a fatal dose of barbiturate to end his or her life. Since 1994, more than 500 Oregonians have taken their mortality into their own hands.

In How to Die in Oregon, filmmaker Peter Richardson gently enters the lives of the terminally ill as they consider whether — and when — to end their lives by lethal overdose. Richardson examines both sides of this complex, emotionally charged issue. What emerges is a life-affirming, staggeringly powerful portrait of what it means to die with dignity.

Attendance is free for students and $10 for non-students. Non-students can also bring a donation for the SU Campus Food Bank instead of paying for admission. The food bank prefers donations of meal helpers (Sidekicks/Uncle Ben’s rice), canned pasta/chili, Kraft Dinner, peanut butter, dry pasta, canned veggies and/or beans, canned salmon/tuna, dry soup (Mr. Noodle/Ichiban), cereal, or pasta and tomato sauce.
Please note that the SU Campus Food Bank CANNOT accept Expired Food.

Directed by Peter Richardson | 2011

HOW TO DIE IN OREGONofficial website