Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The 2009 UCT Green Week Documentary Festival

Copy and paste from an email I received from Richard White of the UWC Environmental Initiative:


The UCT Green Campus Initiative and While You Were Sleeping invite you to the 2009 UCT Green Week Documentary Festival which will take place at the Labia on Orange cinema in Cape Town from Monday 28 September to Friday 2 October.

You can’t afford to miss these thought-provoking and inspiring documentary films covering themes from global oil depletion and hyper-consumerism to pollution and sustainable alternatives.

The End of Suburbia
Monday 28 September 18:15
The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the End of the American Dream is a classic documentary film that explores some very serious questions about the sustainability of our current way of life with brutal honesty and a touch of irony. As the demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply, Peak Oil and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now. The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? And what can be done now, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia?

The Power of Community
Tuesday 29 September 18:15
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil is an inspirational documentary about Cuba’s recent emergency transition to local organic agriculture, renewable energy, and large-scale mass transit. This transition occurred following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, when massive subsidies of imported oil and food to Cuba were halted. The film presents ordinary Cubans who talk about the immediate hardships they faced and the ways in which they overcame them. The Power of Community visits urban gardens and organic farms, explains the relationship between food and fossil fuels, and shows how a society can change from an industrialized, global focus to a local, community-based one. It provides us with a rare view into this island’s culture, using firsthand reporting that focuses on what Cubans have learned about adapting to living with less.

Garbage!
Wednesday 30 September 18:15
Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home is a feature-length documentary about the environmental impact of the huge amounts of rubbish we produce in our households every day. Director Andrew Nisker asks an average urban family to keep every scrap of garbage that they create for three months. From the plastic bags they use to the water they drink out of bottles, from the air pollution they create when transporting the kids around to using lights at Christmas, they discover that for every action there is a reaction that affects them and the entire planet. Everyday life under a microscope has never been so revealing. By the end of this trashy odyssey, you are truly inspired to revolutionise your lifestyle for the sake of future generations.

What Would Jesus Buy?
Thursday 1 October 18:15
What Would Jesus Buy? is a funny but thought-provoking documentary about our society's ballooning shopping habits produced by Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame. The film follows New York's legendary performance artist and activist, the Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a crusading mission across the USA to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of humankind as a result of consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt! Reverend Billy's epic journey takes us from chilling exorcisms at the Wal-Mart headquarters to retail interventions at the Mall of America and all the way to the Promised Land * Disneyland. Provocative and entertaining, but never blasphemous, Reverend Billy demonstrates that serious social activism can be fun as well as effective.

A Convenient Truth
Friday 2 October 18:15
A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil is an informative and inspirational documentary aimed at sharing ideas to provoke environmentally-friendly and cost-effective changes in cities worldwide. The film focuses on innovations in transportation, recycling and more which have transformed the Brazilian city of Curitiba into one of the most liveable cities in the world. Cities should be a solution not a problem for human beings. The city of Curitiba has demonstrated for the past 40 years how to transform problems into sustainable and eco-friendly solutions that can be applied in most cities around the world.

Each screening will be followed by a facilitated audience discussion.
Tickets are R20 and can be reserved by calling The Labia at (021) 424 5927. Reserving tickets is strongly recommended to avoid disappointment.

This event is presented by the UCT Green Campus Initiative, the Labia and While You Were Sleeping, a Cape Town-based non-profit film collective committed to bringing progressive, non-mainstream documentaries with important social and environmental messages to South African audiences.

Contacts:
The Labia: 021 424 5927
UCT Green Campus Initiative: Katinka Wågsæther, katinka.l.w@gmail.com, www.uct.ac.za/about/greencampus
While You Were Sleeping: Andreas Späth, 084 772 1056, Andreas_Spath@yahoo.com, www.whileyouweresleeping.wordpress.com

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