We are very excited to announce the launch of OPEN CINEMA Season Eight!
On Wednesday September 22, 2010 we will partner with local food co-op FoodRoots for the first in a series of seasonal celebrations of film, food and farming. As usual, doors open at 5.30, film at 7pm at the Victoria Event Centre, 1415 Broad Street. Admission by $10 suggested donation.
FRESH is a documentary featuring Michael Pollan, Will Allen and Joel Salatin which celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. It’s an upbeat, entertaining and inspiring call to action.
FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet. www.freshthemovie.com
OPEN FORUM DISCUSSION
Trevor Walker, Plenty Epicurean Pantry; Sol Kinnis, City Harvest; Heather Stretch (Saanich Organics); moderator Linda Geggie, LifeCycles founder, Capital Region Food & Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable Coordinator (CRFAIR).
Hollywood has made over 4000 films about Native people, defining how they are seen by the world for more than 100 years. Reel Injun takes an entertaining and informative look at the portrayal of North American First Nations through the history of cinema. Travelling through the heartland of North America, Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond looks at the myth of the ‘Injun’, providing a context to further explore media representation and cultural identity.
With candid interviews with directors, writers, actors and activists, including Clint Eastwood, Jim Jarmusch and Robbie Robertson, clips from hundreds of films, such as Stagecoach, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner, Reel Injun traces the evolution of the cinematic depiction of Native people from the silent era to today.
From the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car, this timely documentary reveals the unregulated world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never become a commodity, water. From the plastic production to the ocean where too many bottles end up, this inspiring documentary is a powerful portrait of the lives affected by the bottled water industry, caught at the intersection of big business and the publics right to water. (Atlas Pictures, USA 2009).
H2Oil follows a voyage of discovery, heartbreak and politicization in the stories of those attempting to defend water in Alberta against the expansion of the largest industrial project in human history: the tar sands. With hope and courage, this moving documentary tells the story of one of the most significant, and destructive projects of our time.
2010 is already shaping up to be a great year and we are very excited to announce our Spring 2010 schedule, featuring 2 Victoria premieres of powerful and poignant films on topical issues.
On Wednesday February 24th, we’ll be screening the Victoria premiere of the Montreal made film H2Oil, which takes a sobering look at the Alberta tar sands and featuring post-discussion guests from Dogwood Initiative and Beaver Lake Cree legal action, and more. See below for more info.
And on Wednesday March 10th, OPEN CINEMA will partner with the Greater Victoria Water Watch Coalition to bring you the Victoria premiere of the excellent film TAPPED (USA, 2009), which is an excellent film about the kaleidoscope of issues associated with bottled water.
Stay tuned for details of a great film and an exciting new collaboration for our April event!
All events take place at the wonderful Victoria Event Centre, with door prizes, cash bar, food concession and great conversation. Admission by donation.
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See you at the movies!
7pm February 24th, 2010
VICTORIA PREMIERE!
H2Oil
Sponsored by Dogwood Initiative Ever wonder where American gets most of its oil? If you thought it was Saudi Arabia or Iraq you are wrong. Americas biggest oil supplier has quickly become Canadas oil sands. Located under Alberta’s pristine boreal forests, the process of oil sands extraction uses up to 4 barrels of fresh water to produce only one barrel of crude oil.
It goes without saying that water, its depletion, exploitation, privatization and contamination, has become the most important issue to face humanity in this century. At the same time, the war for oil is well underway across the globe. A struggle is increasingly being fought between water and oil, not only over them.
Alberta’s oil sands are at the centre of this tension. As the province rushes towards a large-scale extraction, the social, ecological and human impacts are hitting a crisis point. In only a few short years the continent will be a crisscross of pipelines, reaching from the arctic all the way to the southern US, leaving toxic water basins the size of Lake Ontario, and surface-mines as large as Florida.
H2Oil follows a voyage of discovery, heartbreak and politicization in the stories of those attempting to defend water in Alberta against tar sands expansion. Unlikely alliances are built and lives are changed as they come up against the largest industrial project in human history.
With hope and courage H2Oil tells the story of one of the most significant, and destructive projects of our time. (Canada 2009)
Sponsored by Greater Victoria Water Watch Coalition
Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce? Stephanie Soechtig’s debut feature is an unflinching examination of the big business of bottled water.
From the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car and I.O.U.S.A., this timely documentary is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our water.
From the plastic production to the ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this inspiring documentary trails the path of the bottled water industry and the communities which were the unwitting chips on the table. A powerful portrait of the lives affected by the bottled water industry, this revelatory film features those caught at the intersection of big business and the publics right to water.
A true movie for the digital age with adrenaline-fueled performances by mash-up phenomenon Girl Talk
Immerse yourself in the energetic, innovative and potentially illegal world of mash-up media with RiP: A remix manifesto. Let web activist Brett Gaylor and musician Greg Gillis, better known as Girl Talk, serve as your digital tour guides on a probing investigation into how culture builds upon culture in the information age.
Biomedical engineer turned live-performance sensation Girl Talk, has received immense commercial and critical success for his mind-blowing sample-based music. Utilizing technical expertise and a ferocious creative streak, Girl Talk repositions popular music to create a wild and edgy dialogue between artists from all genres and eras. But are his practices legal? Do his methods of frenetic appropriation embrace collaboration in its purest sense? Or are they infractions of creative integrity and violations of copyright?
You be the judge by watching RiP: A remix manifesto.
8.30pm OPEN FORUM DISCUSSION
with filmmaker Brett Gaylor (via skype), Justin Love (media artist), DJ Murge (remix artist), Peter Sandmark (MediaNet) and moderated by Mike Sheehan (Beatboard).
OPEN CINEMA is honoured to sponsoring an exciting event presented by the Global Oneness Project (www.globalonenessproject.org) on Wednesday May 13th 2009.
The Global Oneness Project is exploring how the radically simple notion of interconnectedness can be lived in our increasingly complex world. Since 2006, they have been traveling the globe gathering stories from creative and courageous people who base their lives and work on the understanding that we bear great responsibility for each other and our shared world.
This event is part of their 2009 NorthWest tour, featuring free films, discussion, guest speaker Orland Bishop and Q&A with filmmaker Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee. Do not miss this exciting free event.
Post-screening discussion with Susan Howatt, Sierra Club of BC, Jim McIsaac, T.Buck Suzuki Foundation and Jack Hull (CRD).
Sponsored by the Greater Victoria Water Watch Coalition
Post-screening discussion with Claudia Ferris, Toxic Free Canada; Mairi Welman, Recycling Council of BC; Anke Bergner, CRD Solid Waste Division; Alicia Taylor, Level Ground Trading; Craig Foster, Canadian Plastics Council. Moderated by John Luton.
Admission by donation!
Cash bar, food sales, silent auction, door prizes & more!
From the orchards of BC, the inner city gardens of Chicago to the Napa Highlands and everywhere in between, this sumptuous documentary showcases the successful production of tasty, local, and seasonal food from field to plate. Tableland documents the localvore movement in North America and the success of small-scale artisanal food production.
Craig Noble
Award-winning filmmaker Mara Jernigan
Chef, farmer, educator Sinclair Philip
Sooke Harbour House & Vancouver Island Slow Food Convivium Tina Fraser-Baynes
Organic food producer, educator & activist Moderated by Karen Hurley
PhD Candidate/UVic Instructor & community activist.
