Movie Schedule for Riofest 2010

Time	Friday January 29	Saturday January 30
10:00 AM	Blue Balls, Cleaner Cotton, Paradise Produce, Journey Rio Grande, Meatrix	Mixing: A Dialogue on Wastewater
10:30 AM	The Greening of Southie	Challenging Traditions, Transforming Lives
11:00 AM		The Story of Stuff / Hayes Honey
11:30 AM	Going Green	Designing a Great Neighborhood/ 11:50 Reviving a Watershed
12:00 PM	LUNCH	LUNCH
1:00 PM	Chaparri, Seven Bears of the Sacred Mountain	King Corn
1:30 PM
2:00 PM
2:30 PM		Addicted to Plastic
3:00 PM	:15 Meatrix II
3:30 PM	Arribada	Grandma Builds an Earthship
4:00 PM	Green Warriors/Meatrix II 1/2
4:30 PM
5:00 PM	DINNER	DINNER
6:30 PM	Affluenza	Escape from Affluenza
7:00 PM
7:30 PM		7:25 Blue Balls
8:00 PM	The Music Tree	FOOD Inc
8:30 PM
9:00 PM
9:30 PM
10:00 PM

2010 Films

A Arvore da Musica The Music Tree

"THE MUSIC TREE"/A Arvore da Musica: Found only in the remnants of Brazil's devastated Atlantic Rainforest, Brazilwood (pernambuco/pau brasil) is vital in the manufacture of fine violin, cello and viola bows ever since the time Mozart was composing his masterpieces. From the search for the wood in the forests of Brazil, to their use by the world's greatest symphony orchestras, the film explores a path to saving the trees and the music that depends on it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1408258/

Food Inc.

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli-the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

http://www.foodincmovie.com

Challenging Traditions, Transforming Lives

The film shows how System of Rice Intensification (SRI) offers a workable solution to all problems related to traditional rice cultivation. A revolutionary method, System of Rice Intensification (SRI) requires almost no standing water for paddy to grow and is fast transforming the rice cultivation. Developed by a French priest Henri De Launi in the 1980's in Madagascar, SRI not only uses almost half of the water required but drastically reduces the physical labor associated with rice farming besides increasing the yield by almost one and a half times. For a country like India rice is more than just a mere crop. There are myths attached to its cultivation. While SRI offers an alternate and a very sustainable method of growing rice it also battles hard with the age-old traditional approach of growing rice. The perils of global warming, the drying up of perennial rivers and the excessive use of fertilizers pose numerous threats to rice cultivation; making life very hard for the humble farmer. SRI offers a workable solution to all problems related to traditional rice cultivation. 'SRI- Challenging Tradition, Transforming Lives' looks at how SRI is helping the modern farmer cultivate India's traditional crop without the burden that it had become. In addition the film highlights the transformation in the lives of millions of women who toil the hardest in Indian farmers thanks to SRI reducing the need for manual labor. To its critics the System of Rice Intensification might not be the greatest thing but the fact that SRI significantly reduces the demand for water for rice cultivation makes it worthwhile in the current scenario of the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvibR3hiNac

Chaparri, The Seven bears of the Sacred Mountain (Chaparri, Pes Sept ours de la Montagne Sacree)

Nathalie Granger-Charles-Dominique and Andre Charles Dominique | 2008 | FRANCE | 02:15:00 | Spanish Category: Wildlife Conservation Synopsis: In the dry forest of the north west Peru, in a poor and arid region, stands Mount Chaparri. Subduing their awe of the ancestral spirits of the mountain, a farming community of 500 families decided to take their destinies into their own hands.
After decades of intensive deforestation and mining, the community declared itself an "ecological community", transforming its former hunting grounds into a reserve, where threatened species, such as the spectacled bear, the white winged guan and the Andean condor were reintroduced and protected.
The revenue from the reserve is in priority for education and health services in the community's hamlets.
With their enthusiasm and tenacity, the "comuneros" obtained support from American and European scientists. They managed to stand up to the big mining companies who still wanted the land, and they threw themselves into ecological agriculture, organic beekeeping, replanting, water recycling and using renewable energy.
Today, the comuneros, sometimes in the course of adventurous bear rescues, multiply their meetings with other north Peruvian communities, in the dry forest, and in the Amazonian Andes. They try to incite them to follow their example, with the idea of creating an ecological corridor, entirely managed by the local populations.
The film follows the incredible story of this farmers, determined to leave their children a better world, whilst at the same time, calming the spirits of Mount Chaparri.
Note: This film is in Spanish with English subtitles

http://www.filmchaparri.com

The Meatrix Films

THE MEATRIX: Fight Factory Farms! The award-winning flash animation movie about the meat you eat.

http://www.themeatrix.com/

Affluenza and sequel Escape from Affluenza

Af-flu-en-za n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth. 4. A television program that could change your life.
Affluenza is a one-hour special that explores the high social and environmental costs of materialism and overconsumption.
Escape from Affluenza is the solution-oriented sequel to Affluenza. Hosted by Wanda Urbanska, co-author of Simple Living, Escape picks up where Affluenza left off by profiling people and organizations that are reducing consumption and waste, choosing work that reflects their values and working to live in better balance with the environment.

http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/escape/index.html

King Corn

By growing an acre of corn in Iowa two friends uncover the devastating impact that corn is having on the environment, public health and family farms.
KING CORN is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In KING CORN, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the East Coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat - and how we farm.
Features Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Earl Butz, former US Secretary of Agriculture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiCRwMMh9k8

The Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Cleaner Cotton: A Good Fit for Our Environment

Sustainable Cotton Project
Located in California's Central Valley, the Sustainable Cotton Project (SCP) focuses on the production and use of cotton, one of the most widely grown and chemical-intensive crops in the world.
The Sustainable Cotton Project (SCP) was founded in 1996 to expand and disseminate knowledge about alternatives to chemical farming systems in cotton, and to promote their use in the textile and apparel industry. As a private non-profit group (501c) working under the direction of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, SCP is dedicated to helping build bridges between cotton farmers, manufacturers and consumers.
The project has two major focuses: a BASIC (Biological Agricultural Systems in Cotton) Program that works directly with growers; and a Developing Demand Program that encourages major apparel companies to use U.S. organic or our own BASIC cotton .
Direct results of this marketing effort include:

• 44 companies are now either using organic cotton or actively preparing to launch organic cotton blending programs
• the economic viability of organic cotton has been scientifically demonstrated,
• dozens of farmers have been taught to use organic and reduced-spray techniques

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQVjp7I7Saw

The Greening of Southie

In the traditionally Irish-American working-class neighborhood of South Boston, MA, a new kind of building has taken shape. From wheatboard cabinetry to recycled steel, bamboo flooring to dual-flush toilets, the Macallen building is something different: a leader in the emerging field of environmentally friendly design. But Boston's steel-toed union workers aren't sure they like it. And when things on the building start to go wrong, the young developer has to keep the project from unraveling. Building Boston's first LEED Gold-certified building turns out to be harder than anyone thought. Yet among the I-beams and brickwork emerges a small cadre of unlikely environmentalists who come to connect their work with the future of their children.

http://www.greeningofsouthie.com/

Addicted To Plastic

From styrofoam cups to artificial organs, plastics are perhaps the most ubiquitous and versatile material ever invented. No invention in the past 100 years has had more influence and presence than synthetics. But such progress has had a cost. For better and for worse, no ecosystem or segment of human activity has escaped the shrink-wrapped grasp of plastic. Addicted To Plastic is a global journey to investigate what we really know about the material of a thousand uses and why there's so darn much of it. On the way we discover a toxic legacy, and the men and women dedicated to cleaning it up. Addicted To Plastic is a point-of-view style documentary that encompasses three years of filming in 12 countries on 5 continents, including two trips to the middle of the Pacific Ocean where plastic debris accumulates. The film details plastic's path over the last 100 years and provides a wealth of expert interviews on practical and cutting edge solutions to recycling, toxicity and biodegradability. These solutions - which include plastic made from plants - will provide viewers with a new perspective about our future with plastic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_rS1WJL6so

Designing A Great Neighborhood

In DESIGNING A GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD, director David Wann follows the progress of the Wild Sage Cohousing Community project, where future residents participate in the design of their own neighborhood. The stated architectural goal at the Wild Sage site in Boulder is a "zero emissions" neighborhood in which solar energy, energy efficiency, and changes in behavior eliminate the need for fossil fuels.

Grandma Builds an Earth-Ship

Pascha's passion for twelve years went beyond her Spartan high-mountain-lifestyle. This 67-year-old grandmother actually did all the building of her own earth-ship home. That means digging trenches, placing timbers, wiring the outlets, building cabinets and trawling the walls. Part way through her projects, Pascha's cardiologist told her she couldn't live at her 9,000 foot altitude anymore and would have to leave her yet-to-br lived-in home. That was in addition to others telling her that she couldn't build her energy self-sufficient home, much less in one of the US's harshest environments. Follow Pascha's inspirational and heart warming story as she overcomes many challenges to achieve her life's dream.

Reviving a Watershed

Acid water leaking from long abandoned mines is wreaking havoc on various watersheds across the country. This short documentary focuses on Eastern Pennsylvania and the efforts being made to rehabilitate these streams and rivers. Reviving a Watershed explores the beginnings of the Bay's problems and solutions.

Arribada

Arribada is a half-hour documentary by prefacto productions about a group of animal law students volunteering at a sea turtle preserve in Baja California, Mexico. The film details the plight of the Oliver Ridley sea turtles and how a non-profit environmental organization is working to save the population by collecting the eggs every night and reburying them in an egg sanctuary. Poachers steal the eggs, and the turtles themselves, and sell them on the black market. Turtle eggs are considered an aphrodisiac in parts of Mexico.

Going Green

GOING GREEN provides a step-by-step guide to reducing the "unfriendly" impact of your household on the environment. Join the Tomachich family who show us practical ways to reduce waste and who set an admirable example -- they have only one and a half bags of garbage per year! Learn easy methods of sorting recyclables, alternatives to common household hazardous chemicals, the benefits of composting and of buying in bulk. This excellent video workshop helps people translate their environmental concerns into daily actions. The message: "You can do a lot when you take it a step at a time."

Mixing: A Dialogue on Wastewater

MIXING is a 4-minute artumentary that asks the question, Why do we use drinking water to flush our toilets? Architects, environmentalists and artists discuss the longevity of civilization against a backdrop of hypnotic images of sludge blankets, retention ponds and mixing basins at a wastewater treatment plan.

Green Warriors of Chandi's Fortess

A one-man crew; zero-budget film, shot on recycled tapes using a handycam, transforms into the biggest environmental campaign of the city and finally saves the city's Natural Heritage from the Administration's insensitive plans to build VIP's club, thus living up to the Utopian vision of the city's designer, Le Corbusier, who in his 'Edicts of Chandigarg' said: 'The Citizen be the guardian of the city and save it from the whims of the individuals in power..'

Rio Grande: River of Connection

Thousands of years ago, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Pyramid Peaks birthed a great river, the Rio Grande, El Rio Bravo del Norte. The images in this documentary portray the beauty of the Rio from its headwaters in Colorado, through the Middle Rio Grande Valley, to the Bosque del Apache NWR. The narrative is geared to awareness, restoration - conservation efforts of passionate people working with the river, listening to the river's voice. Finding solutions. Only when change happens in the psyche, at the soul level, do we understand our place. Otherwise everything continues to be about us - including solutions.