Events

Set both in Latin America and the United States, the film explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Pilger claims that the film "...tells a universal story... analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". According to Pilger, the film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow".

For this double-bill screening, the event's co-sponsor, 2110 Center for Gender Advocacy, will be speaking about the upcoming campaign to block the Harper government's "back door legislation" that could once again lead to the criminalization of abortion in Canada. To provide context to the issues, we are screening a classic NFB documentary followed by a more contemporary film from Women Make Movies that is a series of ten five-minute interviews with women who have had abortions in the USA.

A story about peak oil in Cuba, the country's dedication to independence and how it survived crises related to resource shortages. Many Cubans express the belief that living on an island with its natural boundaries breeds awareness that there are limits to natural resources. Everyone who has worked on the documentary hopes that, seeing this film, people will see the world as another, much larger, island.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens.

In Collaboration with London Indymedia.

Resistencia offers a rare look at the Hip Hop street subculture in civil war-torn Colombia, while at the same time exploring how traditional Latino music is being infiltrated by rap.

Resistencia: Hip Hop in Colombia - Plan Colombia

Water is the liquid gold of the 21st century. While corporations urge local governments to privatize municipal water, communities around the world are organizing to ensure affordable access to this life sustaining resource. THE WATER FRONT is the story of one community's determination to fight the seemingly inevitable path of water privatization.

Screening Partner: Metropole Films Distribution.

GARBAGE WARRIOR will be preceded by the short film STILL LIVES (Anna Sarkissian / Canada / 2007 / 12 min), and experimental documentary that points a lens at the rebuilding of New Orleans. For more info visit the film's official site.

In collaboration with Journalists for Human Rights, Cinema Politica at UBC will be screening When Silence is Golden.

In 1969 Palestinian Leila Khaled made history by becoming the first woman to hijack an airplane. As a Palestinian child growing up in Sweden, filmmaker Lina Makboul admired Khaled for her bold actions; as an adult, she began asking complex questions about the legacy created by her childhood hero. This fascinating documentary is at once a portrait of Khaled, an exploration of the filmmaker’s own understanding of her Palestinian identity, and a complicated examination of the nebulous dichotomy between "terrorist" and "freedom fighter."

Each year, millions of people the world over are driven to forced displacement. From the Maldives to Brazil, and even closer to home, here in Canada, the disturbing accounts of people who have been uprooted are amazingly similar. The enormous pressure placed on rural populations as a result of the degradation of their life-supporting environment is driving them increasingly further from their way of life. The Refugees of the Blue Planet sheds light on the little-known plight of a category of individuals who are suffering the repercussions of this reality: environmental refugees.

In Collaboration with London Indymedia.

It was the summer of 2000 and the country watched with disbelief as federal fishery officers appeared to wage war on the Mi'gmaq fishermen of Esgenoopetitj, or Burnt Church, New Brunswick. Why would officials of the Canadian government attack citizens for exercising rights that had been affirmed by the highest court in the land? What happened at Burnt Church?

In the Dominican Republic, a tropical island-nation, tourists flock to pristine beaches unaware that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians have toiled under armed-guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, much of which ends up in U.S. kitchens. They work grueling hours and frequently lack decent housing, clean water, electricity, education or healthcare. Narrated by Paul Newman, "The Price of Sugar" follows Father Christopher Hartley, a charismatic Spanish priest, as he organizes some of this hemisphere's poorest people to fight for their basic human rights.

This double-bill screening is co-sponsored by Tadamon!.

Brazil is a nation where political and economic corruption and violent crime are a way of life for many, and filmmaker Jason Kohn examines some of the more unusual ways they manifest themselves in this documentary.

The Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign is challenging one of the fastest growing threats to the world’s tropical forests: the rapid expansion of industrial agriculture. Fueled in part by the growing demand for biofuels, U.S. agribusiness giants ADM, Bunge and Cargill are establishing soy and palm oil operations in some of the planet’s most biodiverse forests.

In Collaboration with London Indymedia

This DWD Compilation, featuring 6 short films and bonus material, is “DIY” film making at its best. Filmed in a cross section of locations in North and South America this DVD captures the essence of the modern global justice movement. WARNING! May incite urgent radical action. Over 100 minutes of radical memetic replication.

Data Reel: Episode 1

Landmine survivors become solar energy technicians: one of many initiatives of Falls Brook Centre to develop sustainable livelihoods.

Heralded as "a masterpiece of animated art," this timeless film tells the inspirational story of a solitary shepherd who patiently plants and nurtures a forest of thousands of trees, single-handedly transforming his arid surroundings into a thriving oasis.

Headstrong Ayan, a refugee from Somalia, has big dreams. New to Canada, she’ll show anyone she can provide for her family. Still, it’s difficult to keep it all together. On top of the soaring rent, her daughters, 16-year-old Nasrah and 13-year-old Leila, need braces. And even working two jobs as a cleaner, it’s tough to find enough money to send to her anxious husband and two sons still stuck in East Africa.

As part of a conference focused on the 50th anniversary of Isaiah Berlin's 'Two Concepts of Liberty' essay, this film will be screened for critical review. The conference will be a major academic event at UBC, with scholars coming from around the world to present their thoughts on both Berlin's historical significance and the ideal of freedom more generally.

The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom is a BBC documentary series by English filmmaker Adam Curtis, well known for other documentaries including The Century of the Self and The Power of Nightmares.

This groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring acclaimed author Dr. Jack Shaheen, the film explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs--from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-wielding "terrorists"--along the way offering devastating insights into the origin of these stereotypic images, their development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much today.

“My ancestors have farmed this land generation after generation, and I just about ended the whole thing. What do you do when nothing is left? And in a rural community where you aren’t welcome because you’re kind of different.” —Farmer John Peterson

In Collaboration with London Indymedia.

War Dance is a powerful documentary that follows a group of schoolchildren as they overcome nearly insurmountable odds in their quest to participate in the annual Kampala Music Festival. For over 20 years, Northern Uganda has been a war zone, as a vicious rebel force, the Lords Resistance Army, has run rampant, destroying villages, kidnapping children, and murdering parents. The survivors are forced to live in refugee camps, where conditions are bleak and resources are scarce.

The government of New Brunswick has handed the management of millions of acre of Crown land to six multinational corporations. In Forbidden Forest, we meet two very different men united by a passion to save the forest and to bring some of this public land under community control. Jean Guy Comeau is an Acadian woodlot owner who fought his way out of poverty and retired after nearly 40 years in a pulp mill. Born to a wealthy family, Francis Wishart is a painter and winemaker with homes in France and New Brunswick.