CP Looks at Money in Politics – PRICELE$$ on February 9

As the 2012 election campaign kicks into high gear, Conscientious Projector turns to award-winning documentarian Steve Cowan for an incisive analysis of the impact of big money and corporate lobbying on electoral politics, the legislative process and democracy itself in a post-Citizens United world. Priceless will be shown on Thursday, February 9, 7:00 p.m. at The Armory Center for the Arts. The Habitat Media production features interviews with current and former elected officials from both major parties, influential Washington lobbyists, and national public policy advocates such as Thom Hartmann, Bob Edgar, Sheila Krumholtz and Professor Lawrence Lessig, among many others (including a group of very savvy third-graders).

Local MoveOn/Occupy Pasadena organizers Patrick Briggs and Maddie Gavel-Briggs will lead a community discussion of the issues and potential solutions following the film. The Armory is located at 145 N. Raymond in Old Pasadena. Admission is free and the facility is accessible to disabled persons.

Climate Refugees – Thursday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m.

Millions of people from around the world have already been displaced by the devastating effects of climactic disaster, their lives forever disrupted, their homes, communities and livelihoods lost. Their story, a story millions more are facing, is told in Climate Refugees—this month’s Conscientious Projector presentation on Thursday, December 8, 7:00 p.m. at The Armory Center for the Arts. Writer-director Michael  Nash set out to make a film about the human face of climate change, and the result is both moving and alarming, portending further grand scale challenges for every society on every continent on Earth in this new era of planetary transformation.

A community discussion follows the film. The Armory is located at 145 N. Raymond in Old Pasadena. Admission is free and the facility is accessible to disabled persons.

What Can We Do About Plastic? Bag It!

This month’s Conscientious Projector feature, Bag It: Is Your Life Too Plastic?, is showing on Thursday, September 8, 7:00 p.m. at The Armory Center for the Arts. Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes and discard them just as quickly. How does that affect our planet?  “Everyman” Jeb Barrier embarks on a global tour to answer that question and more in this film. Producer-director Suzan Beraza’s probing yet entertaining film starts out as an exposé about disposable bags, but evolves into a wholesale investigation into plastic, our cultural love affair with the stuff, and its effect on our waterways, oceans, and even our own bodies.  For a preview of the film, click here.

Grassroots sustainability organizer Andy Shrader of L.A. Green Machine will facilitate a community discussion following the film, which is co-sponsored by the Clean Seas Coalition and EDEN (Environmental Defense of the Earth Now), a ministry of All Saints Church. Andy has spearheaded plastic bag ban campaigns in several Southern California cities, including Pasadena.

The Armory is located at 145 North Raymond in Old Pasadena. Admission is free and the facility is accessible to disabled persons.

Ballona Creek debris. Credit Bill MacDonald, Algalita Marine Research Foundation

180° South: Conquerors of the Useless – This Thursday

On Thursday, August 11 at 7:00 p.m., Conscientious Projector will screen 180 Degrees South: Conquerors of the Useless, a 2010 documentary directed by Chris Malloy.   In 2008, Jeff Johnson travels from Ventura, California to Patagonia, Chile, retracing the 1968 trip of Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins, in honor of their lifetimes of environmental activism and their contributions to wilderness ethics.  Chouinard and Tompkins played a leading role in the worldwide movement to preserve the South American wilderness, and Chouinard founded the eco-conscious outdoor gear and clothing company, Patagonia, a model for innovative, sustainable business practices.

Johnson travels by sea from Mexico and south along the west coast of Chile, surfing, sailing and climbing as he goes.  Upon reaching Patagonia, Johnson meets with Chouinard and Tompkins. They join him for the extremely challenging ascent of Cerro Corcovado, imparting wisdom along the way, sharing their philosophies, life experiences and thoughts on the future of the world. This exciting yet reflective film includes documentary footage from Chouinard and Tomkins’ original 1968 trek. The subtitle of the film comes from Lionel Terray’s mountaineering autobiography, Les Conquérants de l’inutile (1961).

A Patagonia spokesperson will join us for a community discussion following the film.

ERASING HATE – A True Story of Redemption

On Saturday, August 6 at 5 p.m., Conscientious Projector, All Saints Church, and COLORS (Christians Offering Love to Overcome Racism in Society) present the premiere screening of an unforgettable story of transformation and redemption . . . .

ERASING HATE

A Bill Brummel Productions Documentary

Violent skinhead Bryon Widner’s face, neck and hands were covered with intimidating, racist tattoos. Then he began a series of painful and extensive laser tattoo removal procedures – twenty-five treatments over the course of more than a year and a half.  But the tattoo removal was just the outward sign of an inner transformation.  Erasing Hate chronicles both in a film that presents a first person look inside the dark world of racist skinheads, yet offers hope in the story of one man’s escape from a life of violence, addiction and bigotry.  

A question and answer session with Director Bill Brummel will follow the screening.   The screening will be offered at All Saints Church, 132 North Euclid Avenue, Pasadena.  A $5 donation is suggested.

FREEDOM RIDERS – Threatened. Jailed. Attacked.

This Sunday, July 31, our Peace & Justice Ministries partner COLORS (Christians Offering Love to Overcome Racism in Society) is sponsoring a luncheon screening of an acclaimed PBS American Experience film depicting a dramatic period in American civil rights history:

FREEDOM RIDERS

Sunday, July 31

12:45 – 4:00 pm

All Saints Church

132 N. Euclid

Pasadena

An extremely realistic portrayal of this most significant chapter in our nation’s history, the film movingly illustrates the power of moral authority in the hands and hearts of ordinary people to prevail against the KKK and racist elected officials. Freedom Riders dispels the prevailing myth that Northern (white) students went on a mission to the South to combat segregation and instead makes clear that the leadership lay with the local African American residents who risked their lives to help bring justice to our land.

Please join us for an inspiring afternoon as we watch this important documentary, have lunch together and discuss the film and its implications for our anti-racism work.

Please RSVP by July 26 to Mary Torregrosa (flakita@aol.com or 626-271-3056) for your lunch reservation and to arrange childcare.

Wake Up: The Environmental and Economic Links Between Coffee Farmers, Coffee Drinkers, and Birds

Our friends at Fair Trade LA invite you to a special screening of Birdsong & Coffee: A Wake Up Call this weekend:

Friday, July 29

7:30 – 9:00 pm

Ten Thousand Villages

567 South Lake Avenue

Pasadena

The screening is co-sponsored by All Saints Church, Ten Thousand Villages, Fair Trade LA, Fair Trade Pasadena and Fair Trade USA.

The film, by Old Dog Documentaries, “lays out the background of the ‘coffee crisis,’ a situation that Seth Petchers of Oxfam International describes as a ‘humanitarian catastrophe.’ We meet the coffee growers of Agua Buena in the rainforest of southern Costa Rica, who welcome us into their homes and describe the labor-intensive process of shade-grown coffee production.” The film also “offers simple but effective solutions based on what Robert Rice of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center calls the ‘natural organic connection that exists between farmers, coffee drinkers, and birds.’”

There will also be a presentation by Gilberto Ramirez, from CoopeAgri, R.L., San Ysidro, Costa Rica, who is a visionary innovator and a leader in his community, the first Fair Trade Town in Latin America.

For more information about this event visit Fair Trade LA’s website or call Joan Harper at 818.406.9296.

180° South – August 11 at 7:00 p.m.

Please join us on Thursday, August 11 at 7:00 p.m. for 180° South.  In 1968, famed explorers Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins led an expedition into the wilds of Patagonia, then proceeded to take leading roles in a worldwide movement to preserve the South American wilderness. Chouinard went on to found the eco-conscious outdoor gear and clothing company, Patagonia, a model for innovative, sustainable business practices. In 2008, surfer-mountain climber Jeff Johnson set out to follow in his heroes’ footsteps in honor of their lifetimes of environmental activism and their contributions to wilderness ethics. Filmmaker Chris Malloy documented Johnson’s adventure-filled journey to Chile to climb Patagonia’s Corcovado Volcano.  Along the way, Johnson meets Chouinard and Tomkins on the mountain. They join him for the extremely challenging ascent, imparting wisdom along the way, sharing their philosophies, life experiences and thoughts on the future of the world. This exciting yet reflective film includes documentary footage from Chouinard and Tomkins’ original 1968 trek.

A Patagonia spokesperson will join us for a community discussion following the film.

“Everything is Linked. Nothing is Self-Sufficient.”

It took billions of years to form the living organism that is planet Earth, our unique island home. Renowned aerial photographer and environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand chronicles the story of Earth’s ecosphere–and humanity’s place in it–in his spectacular documentary Home, this month’s Conscientious Projector selection showing on Thursday, July 14, 7:00 p.m. at The Armory Center for the Arts. Arthus-Bertrand takes us on an enthralling flight over 54 countries and 120 locations to illustrate in awe-inspiring visual imagery both the beauty and vulnerability of the life system in which we live. The film’s theme is perhaps best expressed by narrator Glenn Close, “The engine of life is linkage. Everything is linked. Nothing is self-sufficient.” Join us for an experience of filmic art that evokes a dual sense of wonder and urgency.

A community discussion follows the film. Admission is free and the facility is accessible to disabled persons.  For more information regarding the film, visit www.goodplanet.org/en. 

 

RESOURCES – The World According to Monsanto

If you’d like more information regarding the issues raised in tonight’s Conscientious Projector film, The World According to Monsanto, check out the following:

• Dangerous Toxins From Genetically Modified Plants Found in Women and Fetuses, by Jeffrey M. Smith (May 25, 2011)  (includes the short video “Chips. Double Dipping Danger” about the toxic Bt gene (bacillus thuringiensis) in corn chips remaining in human body)
• Non-GMO Shopping Guide  (includes downloadable pdf file)
• Film Review of The World According to Monsanto, by Jeffrey M. Smith (excellent overview of film)
• Contamination from GMO Alfalfa Certain, Experts Say
• White House pressured Vilsack to approve GMO alfalfa, media reports suggest
• FAQS regarding genetically modified organisms
• More on DVD! – The GMO Trilogy
• Watch The World According to Monsanto online for free at:  http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-world-according-to-monsanto
• Purchase DVD and other related resources at: http://www.seedsofdeception.com/Public/Products/DVDsCDs/index.cfm

TAKE ACTION!

• Stop GMO Alfalfa
• Ask Your Representative and Senators to Co-sponsor the Bill to Ban GE Salmon
• Join The Campaign for Healthier Eating in America

Check out other areas of the above-reference sites for lots more information!