Amazon Gold

Film Screening & DiscussionSaturday, March 8, 2014 - 10:00-11:30am/Oak Park Public Library 834 Lake Street, Oak Park/Tickets

Directed By - Sarah Dupont/2012/53 minutes

Narrated by Academy Award winners Sissy Spacek and Herbie Hancock, Amazon Gold is the disturbing account of a clandestine journey into the Amazon rainforest. Ron Haviv and Donovan Webster, two war journalists led by a Peruvian biologist uncover the savage unraveling of pristine rainforest. They bear witness to the apocalyptic destruction in the pursuit of illegally mined gold with consequences on a global scale. An animated Agouti springs to life to tell the story of his ecosystem. Left in the wake of surreal images of once extraordinary beauty turned into hellish wasteland, Amazon Gold reaffirms the right of the rainforest to exist as a repository of priceless biodiversity.

For more information on the film, please visit the official documentary website.

Blackfish

Film Screening & DiscussionSaturday, March 8, 2014 - 2:30-4:45pm/Oak Park Public Library 834 Lake Street, Oak Park /Tickets

Directed By - Gabriela Cowperthwaite/2013/90 minutes/Rated PG-13

Many of us have experienced the excitement and awe of watching 8,000 pound orcas, or "killer whales," soar out of the water and fly through the air at sea parks, as if in perfect harmony with their trainers. Yet, in our contemporary lore this mighty black and white mammal is like a two-faced Janus-beloved as a majestic, friendly giant yet infamous for its capacity to kill viciously. Blackfish unravels the complexities of this dichotomy, employing the story of notorious performing whale Tilikum, who-unlike any orca in the wild-has taken the lives of several people while in captivity. So what exactly went wrong?

For more information on the film, please visit the official documentary website.

Comfort Zone

Film Screening & Discussion w/FilmmakersSaturday, March 8, 2014 - 12:00-2:15pm/Oak Park Public Library 834 Lake Street, Oak Park/Tickets

Directed By - Dave Danesh, Sean Donnelly, and Kate Kressmann-Kehoe/2013/67 minutes

What does climate change mean in a place where it's not an obvious threat? Where sea level rise isn't a factor, and frankly, where people might like it to be a little warmer? Three filmmakers set out to answer those questions for Upstate New York. The answers were not so simple.

Filmmakers Dave Danesh and Sean Donnelly will attend.  A light lunch will precede the screening at noon.

Comfort Zone brings the global issue of climate change to a local and personal level. It's the story of what happens when we try to translate this global problem to our individual lives. What is at stake? What can I do about it? What if dealing with this problem asks things of me that I'm not yet ready to give? The climate is already changing. Now what about us?

For more information on the film, please visit the official documentary website.

The Curious Garden

Film Screening & DiscussionSunday, March 9, 2014 – 3-4:15pm/The Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor 7347 Madison St, Forest Park, IL/Tickets, SORRY, SOLD OUT

Family-friendly! Children ages 3-11+

Directed By – Weston Woods & Soup Nuts/Based on the award-winning book by Peter Brown/2010/10.5 minutes

One boy's quest for a greener world ... one garden at a time. A little boy named Liam discovers a struggling garden and decides to take care of it. As time passes, the garden spreads throughout the dark, gray city, transforming it into a lush, green world. The Curious Garden is an enchanting tale with environmental themes and breathtaking illustrations. Narrated by Katherine Kellgren, and music by David Mansfield.

A resource table by the Oak Park Conservatory will promote upcoming programming, including free Saturday drop-in activities. Each child can take home a free packet of watermelon or sunflower seeds.

For more information on the film, please visit the official documentary website.

Do The Math - The Movie

Film Screening & DiscussionSaturday March 8, 2014 - 7-9:15pm/First United Church 848 Lake St, Oak Park/Tickets

Directed By - Kelly Nyles and Jared P. Scott/2013/44 minutes

It’s simple math: we can emit 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide and stay below 2°C of warming — anything more than that risks catastrophe for life on earth. The only problem? Burning the fossil fuel that corporations now have in their reserves would result in emitting 2,795 gigatons of carbon dioxide – five times the safe amount

This film will be shown with The Soil Solution.

Fossil fuel companies are planning to burn it all — unless we rise up to stop them. In November 2012, Bill McKibben and 350.org hit the road to build a movement strong enough to change the terrifying math of the climate crisis. The Do the Math Tour was a massive success, with sold out shows in every corner of the country.

The USA tour is now over, but the campaign it launched is just getting started and the tour has gone global. The Do The Math movie is a 42-minute documentary film about the rising movement to change the terrifying math of the climate crisis and challenge the fossil fuel industry. For more information on the film, please visit the official documentary website

The Economics of Happiness

Film Screening & DiscussionSaturday, March 8, 2014 - 1-2:45pm/Ascension Catholic School - Pine Room, 601 Van Buren Street, Oak Park/Tickets

Directed By - Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steven Gorelick/2011/69 minutes

Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment. There are personal costs too. For the majority of people on the planet, life is becoming increasingly stressful. We have less time for friends and family and we face mounting pressures at work. The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, an unholy alliance of governments and big business continues to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, people all over the world are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they’re starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm – an economics of localization.

For more information on the film, please visit the official documentary website.

GMO OMG

Film Screenings & DiscussionsSaturday, March 8, 2014 - 10am-12:15pm/Lake Theatre 1022 Lake St, Oak Park/$6 Tickets

Saturday, March 8, 2014 - 10am-12:15pm/Humboldt Park Fieldhouse  1400 N. Sacramento Ave., Chicago/Tickets

Director – Jeremy Seifer/2013/90 minutes

GMO OMG director and concerned father Jeremy Seifert is in search of answers. How do GMOs affect our children, the health of our planet, and our freedom of choice? And perhaps the ultimate question, which Seifert tests himself: is it even possible to reject the food system currently in place, or have we lost something we can’t gain back?

Post-film discussion at Lake Theatre will be facilitated by Jim Slama, Founder of Family Farmed and Good Food Festivals.  The Humboldt Park event will be facilitated by Joan Levin of IL Right to Know GMO and includes a sustainable food resource fair.

These and other questions take Seifert on a journey from his family’s table to Haiti, Paris, Norway, and the lobby of agra-giant Monsanto, from which he is unceremoniously ejected. Along the way we gain insight into a question that is of growing concern to citizens the world over: what's on your plate?

For more information on the film, please visit the official trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynyB2fNn8kQ

Green Gold

Film Screening & DiscussionSaturday, March 8, 2014 - 3:00-5:00pm/Forest Preserve District of Cook County 536 N Harlem Ave, River Forest/Tickets

Directed By - John D. Liu/2012/48 minutes

Environmental filmmaker John D. Liu documents large-scale ecosystem restoration projects in China, Africa, South America and the Middle East, highlighting the enormous benefits to people and planet of undertaking these efforts globally.  This documentary is not just a tale of hope, it's evidence of hope - it's proof that we do not need to give in to apathy and despair. Instead, we see we have the simple solutions right in front of us.

This film screening and discussion, hosted and moderated by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, will be preceded by a brief nature walk around the forest preserve grounds.

The film takes you to China, Jordan, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Bolivia, and features the PRI's own Geoff Lawton, who adds impetus and technical know-how to John's impressive toolbox. It's the story of healing landscapes at scale, and, with it, restoring life, livelihoods, security and a future. For more information on the film, please visit the official documentary website.

Growing Cities

Film Screenings & DiscussionsPre-Fest Screening EventTuesday, February 18, 2014 - 7-9pm/Dominican University - Lund Auditorium /Tickets

Saturday, March 8, 2014 - 2-4pm/ICA Greenrise 4750 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago/Tickets

Sunday, March 9, 2014 - 3-5pm/West Suburban Temple Har Zion 1040 N Harlem Ave, River Forest/Tickets

Directed By - Dan Susman/2013/60 minutes

In their search for answers, filmmakers Dan Susman and Andrew Monbouquette take a road trip and meet the men and women who are challenging the way this country grows and distributes its food, one vacant city lot, rooftop garden, and backyard chicken coop at a time. Join them as they discover that good food isn’t the only crop these urban visionaries are harvesting. They’re producing stronger and more vibrant communities, too.

Meet activists from the film at the River Forest screening: special guest panelists Harry Rhodes, Executive Director of Growing Home, and Ken Dunn, Founder and Director of The Resource Center and City Farm will appear.

Harmony

Film Screening & DiscussionSunday, March 9, 2014 -  12:00-2:30pm/Euclid Avenue United Methodist Church 405 South Euclid, Oak Park/Tickets

Director - Stuart Sender/April 2012/90 minutes

Based on his book and narrated by HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales, HARMONY captures on film in a way we’ve never seen before, an authentic leader on critical global issues. For the better part of three decades, The Prince of Wales has worked side by side with a surprising and dynamic array of environmental activists, business leaders, artists, architects and government leaders. They are working to transform the world, address the global environmental crisis and find ways toward a more sustainable, spiritual and harmonious relationship with the planet.

A light lunch will be served prior to this screening.

From organic farms, to the rainforests of British Columbia, to rare footage of HRH interviewing Al Gore about climate change in 1988 - Harmony introduces viewers to a new and inspiring perspective on how the world can meet the challenges of climate change globally, locally and personally.

Harmony looks at the root causes of the global problems we face and offers solutions. HARMONY paints a picture of an awareness that is arising in people around the globe across boundaries of geography, race religion and socio-economic status. At a moment when we hear daily about challenges on an unprecedented planetary scale, Harmony proposes a way forward and provides the audience with a new perspective on the need to change our relationship with the planet. Harmony is a global call to action.  We invite viewers to get involved and join those who are working to restore balance in their lives and on the planet. Harmony is narrated by HRH The Prince of Wales and produced and directed by award winning filmmakers with Academy Award and Directors Guild nominations to their credit.

For more information on the film, please visit the official Harmony website.