Events

is a feature-length documentary about the 1998 racially motivated murder of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas. 2003. On June 7, 1998, a sleepy east Texas town awoke to the news of a horrifying crime. Early that Sunday morning, James Byrd Jr., an African-American, was viciously beaten, chained to the back of a pick-up truck, and dragged for three miles until his body was torn apart. Three white men, John William King, Lawrence Russell Brewer, and Shawn Berry - all with ties to the Arayan Nation - were arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder.

Directed by Nettie Wild
Produced by Don Haig
Producer Nettie Wild
Producer Cinematography by Kirk Tougas
Film Editing by Jeff Warren
Rating: NR

Review Summary from the New York Times website:

This film is part of a double bill, to be screened with Black and White.

RED WITHOUT BLUE is an artistic and groundbreaking portrayal of gender, identity, and the unswerving bond of twinship despite transformation.

An honest portrayal of a family in turmoil, RWB follows a pair of identical twins as one transitions from male to female. Captured over a period of three years, the film documents the twins and their parents, examining the Farley's struggle to redefine their family.

This film is part of a double bill, to be screened with Red Without Blue.

A film about food and globalization, fishermen and farmers, long-distance lorry drivers and high-powered corporate executives, the flow of goods and cash flow -- in a word, a film about scarcity and plenty. With its unforgettable images, WE FEED THE WORLD provides insight into the production of our food and answers the question: "what does world hunger have to do with us?"

L'Esmeralda est l'un des plus beaux voiliers du monde. C'est le navire-école de la marine chilienne et un objet de fierté nationale. Mais aujourd'hui la Dame Blanche, comme les Chiliens la surnomment, ne fait plus illusion. Cette beauté cache un passé trouble. Celui d'un bateau-prison utilisé dans le port de Valparaíso comme centre de torture au lendemain du coup d'État de 1973. Trente ans plus tard, l'impunité demeure et les autorités militaires continuent de nier. Aujourd'hui, les victimes de la dictature se mobilisent et demandent justice.

Directed by Milena Kaneva

Cast: Ka Hsaw Wa as Himself

Produced by Milena Kaneva

Original Music by Nikolay Ivanov

Sound mixer Vladislav Boyadjiev

ONE MAN, wanted by the law both in Burma and in Thailand - KA HSAW WA.

SLAVE LABOR, a common practice in BURMA, a country now called Myanmar, controlled by a military dictatorship.

Two WESTERN CORPORATIONS making business deals with a junta infamous for HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES.

This is the story of the construction of the UNOCAL/TOTAL oil pipeline in Burma.

A complex historical truth emerges in Nicolas Rossier's intelligent examination revealing the oft-supressed story of the 2004 coup d'etat in Haiti, as well as the systemic violence and human rights violations that erupted under the interim government. An interview with the deposed president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Pretoria, South Africa, is juxtaposed with the views of a wide range of supporters and critics, including US Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega.

The new film from the director of Megacities: 12 Stories of Survival.

Today's manual laborers are no longer celebrated with hymns of praise. They must be content with encouraging one another that backbreaking work is better than no work at all...

FAVELA RISING documents a man and a movement, a city divided and a favela (Brazilian squatter settlement) united. Haunted by the murders of his family and many of his friends, Anderson Sá is a former drug-trafficker who turns social revolutionary in Rio de Janeiro’s most feared slum. Through hip-hop music, the rhythms of the street, and Afro-Brazilian dance he rallies his community to counteract the violent oppression enforced by teenage drug armies and sustained by corrupt police.

The most stigmatized people in Calcutta's red light district are not the prostitutes, but their children. In the face of abject poverty, abuse, and despair, these kids have little possibility of escaping their mother's fate or for creating another type of life.

This special CANADIAN PREMIER will feature the director in attendance and is co-sponsored by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR).

A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike any other film ever produced on the conflict -- 'Occupation 101' presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the never ending controversy and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions.

An opus in three parts, IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS offers a series of intimate, passionately-felt portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Bagdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at the point of a gun; a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the US presence, which has allowed them a measure of freedom previously denied.

This first person documentary follows Julia Query, lesbian/stand-up comedian/peepshow-stripper, and daughter of a feminist activist, on her raucous journey to help organize the only union of strippers in the United States. Shot on a variety of formats, Live Nude Girls Unite! weaves backstage and dancing footage with labor organizing, street protests, stand-up comedy and comic-book style "animation" making an intelligent and dramatic cutting-edge film.

A feature-length, multi-award winning documentary by Native American filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin set in the thick of the armed confrontation between Native American Mohawks and Canadian government forces during the 1990 standoff in the
Mohawk village of Kanehsatake near the village of Oka in Quebec. The two-and-a-half month ordeal received brief national attention when the Mohawk warriors of Kahnawake, in support of their brothers from nearby Kanehsatake, temporarily held the busy Mercier Bridge leading to Montreal, in an effort
to bring world attention to the situation.

Les rives du plus grand lac tropical du monde, considéré comme le berceau de l’humanité, sont aujourd’hui le théâtre du pire cauchemar de la mondialisation.

En Tanzanie, dans les années 60, la Perche du Nil, un prédateur vorace, fût introduite dans le lac Victoria à titre d’expérience scientifique. Depuis, pratiquement toutes les populations de poissons indigènes ont été décimées. De cette catastrophe écologique est née une industrie fructueuse, puisque la chair blanche de l’énorme poisson est exportée avec succès dans tout l’hémisphère nord.

This screening is co-presented by the Centre for Native Education at Concordia.

Dawn Crey. Ramona Wilson. Daleen Kay Bosse. These are just three of the estimated 500 Aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in Canada over the past thirty years. Directed by acclaimed Métis filmmaker Christine Welsh, Finding Dawn is a compelling documentary that puts a human face to this national tragedy.

Director's statement:

men rule the world and try to dominate women and their lives. violence against women has many forms – physical, psychological, economical and social. the frameworks and names that allow violence are called honor, family peace, paid sexual workers, culture...

the only chance against violence directed towards women is to change the culture of male domination – in all senses.

Eighty-year-old Jimmy Mirikitani survived the trauma of WWII internment camps, Hiroshima, and homelessness by creating art. But when 9/11 threatens his life on the New York City streets and a local filmmaker brings him to her home, the two embark on a journey to confront Jimmy's painful past. An intimate exploration of the lingering wounds of war and the healing powers of friendship and art, this documentary won the Audience Award at its premiere in the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.

This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973.

Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk.

Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA.

Source:

EARTHLINGS is a feature length documentary about humanity's absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and ... all » scientific research) but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called "non-human providers." The film is narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix (GLADIATOR) and features music by the critically acclaimed platinum artist Moby.

SCREENING POSTPONED DUE TO STRIKE

Iraq In Fragments illuminates post-war Iraq in three acts, building a vivid picture of a country pulled in different directions by religion and ethnicity. Filmed in cinema verité style, the film powerfully explores the lives of ordinary Iraqis: people whose thoughts, beliefs, aspirations, and concerns are at once personal and illustrative of larger issues in Iraq today.

China Blue takes us inside a blue-jeans factory, where Jasmine and her friends are trying to survive a harsh working environment. But when the factory owner agrees to a deal with his Western client that forces his teenage workers to work around the clock, a confrontation becomes inevitable.

Shot clandestinely in China, under difficult conditions, this is a deep-access account of what both China and the international retail companies don’t want us to see – how the clothes we buy are actually made.

Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.

But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields.

OilCrash, produced and directed by award-winning European journalists and filmmakers Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack, tells the story of how our civilization’s addiction to oil puts it on a collision course with geology. Compelling, intelligent, and highly entertaining, the film visits with the world’s top experts and comes to a startling, but logical conclusion – our industrial society, built on cheap and readily available oil, must be completely re-imagined and overhauled.

Dawn Crey. Ramona Wilson. Daleen Kay Bosse. These are just three of the estimated 500 Aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in Canada over the past thirty years. Directed by acclaimed Métis filmmaker Christine Welsh, Finding Dawn is a compelling documentary that puts a human face to this national tragedy.

Enemies of happiness, the winner of the international premiere award is a powerful, remarkable and inspiring film. From its stunning opening, emerges a gripping story of opposition and women's rights in today's Afghanistan as the country tries to reconstruct life after the Taliban. At its heart, it's a portrait of Malalai Joya on the campaign trail in the first democratic elections in Afghanistan in 30 years.

Les rives du plus grand lac tropical du monde, considéré comme le berceau de l’humanité, sont aujourd’hui le théâtre du pire cauchemar de la mondialisation.

En Tanzanie, dans les années 60, la Perche du Nil, un prédateur vorace, fût introduite dans le lac Victoria à titre d’expérience scientifique. Depuis, pratiquement toutes les populations de poissons indigènes ont été décimées. De cette catastrophe écologique est née une industrie fructueuse, puisque la chair blanche de l’énorme poisson est exportée avec succès dans tout l’hémisphère nord.

Breaking the Spell is a 1999 anarchist documentary, directed by Tim Lewis, Tim Ream, and Sir Chuck A. Rock.

Using amateur camera footage recorded by protesters at the scene of the 1999 WTO riots, it documents the riot from the perspective of the anarchists, their opinions of fellow protesters, local politicians, and includes footage which aired nationally on 60 Minutes.

The film is currently distributed by CrimethInc. on the CrimethInc. Guerilla Film Series, Volume One DVD.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_the_Spell_(film)

website:
www.crimethinc.com

ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS is a film about personal courage ­ courage to change the world and the courage to stand in the forefront of this battle. Malalai Joya is a 28 year-old woman from Afghanistan. This film follows her parliamentary campaign to her election as a delegate in Wolesi Jirga, or National Assembly. It is the first democratic parliament election in Afghanistan in over 30 years. Surrounded by security, Malalai Joya spreads her political beliefs despite several death threats. There have been 4 attempts against her life.