Gabriola
Film Festival 2010
Jan. 29th & 30th
Community Hall, South Rd., Gabriola Island, B.C.
Movie lists for Film Festivals 2007, 2008, 2009
Admission at the door - prices as listed below
Please bring your own water
community group displays
hot beverages in the afternoon only
sweet treats all the time
bring a cushion for comfort
FRIDAY Jan. 29th ... doors open at 6:45 pm
7:30 PM... $7
The Age of Stupid
movie website
The Age of Stupid is a cautionary look at our changing climate. It is an eco-documentary with a sci-fi orientation – a series of modern day vignettes seen through the eyes of humanity’s sole survivor, an archivist, in 2055.
British director Franny Armstrong is an activist filmmaker. As a teenager she learned about the greenhouse effect which could alter our planet’s ability to sustain life … and then she was to go on to her next class! She is fully aware that despite warnings by scientists, not everyone agrees that human activities have contributed greatly to global warming.
The Age of Stupid asks big questions about contradictory human desires. How we make a living may be contrary to what we believe, and we may even express concern over environmental problems. Yet we may feel trapped in a lifestyle that we know is unsustainable, and be personally unable to do what is necessary to solve our problems.
Armstrong and her team intended to galvanize 250 million viewers world-wide into demanding some meaningful agreements at UN climate talks in Copenhagen.
One reviewer has this comment about The Age of Stupid: “There should be room for an essay on the most screamingly important problem that we all now face.... Rome is burning and Franny Armstrong is fiddling the right tune."
- The Telegraph: "Bold, supremely provocative, and hugely important, Armstrong's film is a cry from the heart as much as a roar for necessary change."
- The New York Times: "a much sterner and more alarming polemic than An Inconvenient Truth."
90 minutes … 2008
SATURDAY Jan. 30
Doors open at 12 NOON ... $7 for whole afternoon
12:45 PM
PETROPOLIS
Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands
movie website
Shot primarily from a helicopter, Petropolis by filmmaker Peter Mettler offers an unparalleled view of the world's largest industrial, capital and energy project. It is an epic story of our times, unprecedented in world history.
Giving us a few short facts through words on the screen, Mettler lets his images tell the horror story of the Alberta Tar Sands.
The process involves extracting the crude oil called bitumen from underneath the unspoiled wilderness of Canada’s boreal forest. It is estimated that 2 tons of earth must be excavated, and as much as 3 barrels of fresh water used, to produce 1 barrel of thick tar-like bitumen. Furthermore, producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands creates 3 times more greenhouse gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil.
It is undeniable that this massive industrialized project has far-reaching impacts on the land, air, water, and climate.
It is also undeniable that Alberta's "blue-eyed sheiks" stand to make billions of dollars from carving up northern Alberta in order to meet North American demands for oil. Each day Canada exports 1 million barrels of bitumen to the United States.
Energy experts ask: Are we nearing the end of cheap oil by relying on oil-soaked sand to meet North American's energy needs?
And how long will we place the short-term economic value of the tar sands above the priceless value of our environment and our health?
This movie is produced by Greenpeace Canada. It is also a distinctly Peter Mettler film, a filmmaker who accepts the power and responsibility inherent in capturing an image. Petropolis is an visually stunning film that packs a social conscience.
43 minutes … 2009
Colour, HDCAM SR, Colour, Dolby 5.1
1:45 PM
movie website
Homegrown is the inspiring true story of the amazing Dervaes family who are living off
the grid in the heart of urban Pasadena, California.
They harvest over 6,000 pounds of produce on less than a quarter of an acre, make their own bio diesel, power their computers with the help of solar panels, and maintain a website that gets 4,000 hits a day. The film is an intimate human portrait of what it's like to live like "Little House on the Prairie" in the 21st Century.
According to the director, Robert McFalls:
“Many people are becoming aware of the environment. We may have gone to see “An Inconvenient Truth”, changed our light bulbs, or started to recycle more. But how many of us are really walking the walk? I know I’m not.
When I heard about the Dervaes family, I sensed that there was a human story behind the headlines about global warming or buying organic produce. I wanted to find out what it takes to live the life of an environmental pioneer. I don’t wish to simply glorify or romanticize their way of life, however. I want to show that along with the positive benefits there are also sacrifices. Truly living by your ideals can have costs. I believe that recognizing the hardships the Dervaes have faced makes their work all the more inspiring.”
2008 … 53 minutes
2:40 - 3:15 PM break ... stretching & browsing community group displays
If you come in at this break, admission is $3 for the rest of the afternoon
3:15 PM
7 minutes 36 seconds
Animation by Gabriolan, Paul Grignon, creator of internationally acclaimed feature, Money as Debt
Charming medieval tale explains how people can re-invent money
movie website
This is a rap music video with hard-hitting lyrics you can read.
By Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, creator of a crusading natural health website.
3 minutes 14 seconds
3:45 PM
Ubuntu
movie website
Ubuntu, a traditional African philosophy, recognizes how we are inextricably bound in each other’s humanity.
Translated as, “I am because you are,” Ubuntu describes a sense of unity between people through which we each discover our own strengths and virtues.
This glimpse of South Africa shows compassion as a way of life.
From Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
“Africans have a thing called ubuntu. It is about the essence of being human, it is part of the gift that Africa will give the world. It embraces hospitality, caring about others, being willing to go the extra mile for the sake of another. We believe that a person is a person through other persons, that my humanity is caught up, bound up, inextricably, with yours. When I dehumanize you, I inexorably dehumanize myself. The solitary human being is a contradiction in terms. Therefore you seek to work for the common good because your humanity comes into its own in community, in belonging.”
2008 … 8 min. 17 sec.
Global Oneness Project
www.globalonenessproject.org
3:55 PM
Hannah’s Story
movie website
At the age of 5, Hannah Taylor spotted her first homeless person in the back alleys of Winnipeg. This experience not only troubled her but it drove her to do nothing less than change the world, leading to the establishment of the impressive Ladybug Foundation. Under Hannah’s leadership, that charity has raised over a million dollars, literally making change for those lacking life’s basic needs.
With her huge heart and can-do attitude, she preaches a simple message of. “share a little of what you have and always care about others.”
Whether it’s organizing Big Boss lunches, speaking to students or to a prime minister, Hannah’s capacity to help others is huge, unflagging, and, ultimately, humbling. We all have a lot to learn from Hannah’s Story.
2007 … 29 min.
Director: Juanita Peters
4:25 PM
movie website
A Thousand Suns tells the story of the Gamo Highlands of the African Rift Valley and the unique worldview held by the people of the region. This isolated area has remained remarkably intact both biologically and culturally, and its people have been farming sustainably for 10,000 years.
Shot in Ethiopia, New York and Kenya, the film explores the modern world's untenable sense of separation from and superiority over nature.
We observe how the interconnected worldview of the Gamo people is fundamental in achieving long-term sustainability, both in the region and beyond.
27 min. 34 sec. … 2009
Global Oneness Project
SATURDAY NIGHT
7:30 PM ... $6
 
Crossovers from Another Dimension
Crop circles appear every summer in farmers' fields. Crossovers from Another Dimension is a Norwegian production that explores this mysterious global phenomenon.
Since 1980, more than 10,000 crop circles have been documented, in over 50 countries. However it is the fields of southern England that have been visited by the circle-makers most often.
Many of the formations are enormous, and consist of highly complex and mathematically perfect designs. Others contain symbols that are connected to sacred teachings.
Who are the circle-makers and what is their intent?
Are Humans capable of creating complex formations in a field, in a matter of minutes, while not breaking any stalks of the crop, while simultaneously swirling and interweaving the stalk patterns on the ground … ALL with magnificent mathematical precision?
Crossovers explains these amazing mathematical relationships in terms of planetary proportions. The movie clearly shows flying orbs of light and the instantaneous creation of a formation as we watch!
In this absorbing movie, we hear from scientists, researchers and enthusiasts, and enjoy some great aerial photography. Many who have studied crop circles for years say that they can touch us at a very deep psychic level. People inside a formation say they feel energized, and uplifted.
We live in times of great transformation. We are witness to enormous suffering and chaos. At the same time, there is a world-wide feeling that humans are poised to make a quantum leap forward in our evolution as a species.
Could crop circles be templates for this new human reality?
80 minutes … 2005
Director: Terje Toftenes
For more information 250 247 8350
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