Posters

Plaza Theatre - YES, new location! (1133 Kensington Road NW)
$10 at the Door, Calgary Dollars Accepted

In the Gutter and Other Good Places (1993, Shot in Calgary by Writer/Director/Producer Cristine Richey) is the powerful account of three Calgary men, Colin, Jean, and Ron who survive by "dumpster-diving" - collecting bottles out of refuse containers for cash. The film is a detailed and compassionate look at the choices and circumstances which have shaped their lives.

Challenging the conventional assumptions many of us may have about street people and how they got there, the film reveals that one of the characters, Ron, has a Masters in engineering science and that he gave up both his family and career at Gulf Oil because of alcoholism. Colin meanwhile, has access to a substantial inheritance and yet refuses to touch it, preferring to live on what he can collect from the dumpsters. Perhaps the film's most laudable feat is the trust with which the stories are told, bringing us closer to those who normally pass unseen.

Although this film is over 10 years old, the issues are still the same and number of homeless in Calgary has increased. We have scheduled a phone link up with The Partnership to End Homelessness in Chicago and NYC Department of Homeless Services to share information about their 10 year plan working with the issues of homelessness.

Co-sponsored by the Calgary Low Income Coalition.

Uptown Stage and Screen, 612 - 8 Avenue SW
$10 at the Door, Calgary Dollars Accepted

Children's education is more than just ABCs and 123s. With today's global landscape dominated by pressing issues like poverty, human rights, AIDS and ethnic genocide, how can the world's most-watched children's television show bridge cultures while remaining socially relevant? THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SESAME STREET explores the dramas, challenges and complexities behind producing international versions of the beloved television program. The film follows productions in Bangladesh, Kosovo and South Africa and examines how producers from New York's Sesame Workshop take the iconic American television show and localize it with indigenous songs, puppets and curricula while facing cultural, political and production challenges.

When it first aired in 1969, Sesame Street was considered groundbreaking. A product of the era's progressive and civil rights movements, it boasted the first mixed-race cast and first urban setting on a children's television show. One of the program's goals was to help level the educational playing field for all pre-school children. Sesame Workshop's international co productions now illustrate the current political and social environments of their home countries. As fascinating primer on art, media and intercultural dialogue, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SESAME STREET illustrates both the many cultural differences and similarities of producing the children's television program on a global level.

Uptown Stage and Screen, 612 - 8 Avenue SW
$10 at the Door, Calgary Dollars Accepted

"Wake up and smell the coffee with this probe into the global grind behind your indulgent latte... The film asks why just one or two cents of the $3 to $4 per cup Americans and Europeans pay for designer caffeine go to the bean farmers. As bracing as a double espresso..." - Toronto Star

"As coffee drinkers know, not all beans are equal, but the meaning of inequality gets an entirely different spin in Marc and Nick Francis' handsome and astute doc,

"Black Gold..... The Francises are aces behind the camera, displaying an elegant sense of composition that makes their subject visugorgeous score lends doc a grand quality."

Film trailer: www.blackgoldmovie.com

Uptown Stage and Screen, 612 - 8 Avenue SW
$10 at the Door, Calgary Dollars Accepted

Robert Greenwald, as his feisty Brave

New Films studio did with "Wal-Mart," focuses on the true stories of victims of companies the likes of Halliburton, Blackwater, and many others who operate at tremendous profit with virtually no accountability in Iraq, either for insuring that our GIs receive appropriate and timely support.

Don't think this is an American issue! Alberta companies and those with Calgary offices are active and profitable in Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones.

Come learn about Calgarian war profiteers and hear from Calgarians what the Iraq situation is actually like.

Film trailer: www.iraqforsale.org

Uptown Stage and Screen, 612 - 8 Avenue SW

A documentary film by PeÅ Holmquist and Suzanne Khardalian, 2005. 73 min.

Her opponents call her "The Green Killer". They gave her "The Bullshit Award" for sustaining poverty. TIME says she is a hero of our times, an icon for youngsters all over the world.

The film is about Vandana Shiva, Indian environmental activist and nuclear physicist, who was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1993. It's a film on globalisation and patenting, on genetic engineering, bio-piracy, indigenous knowledge.

In this documentary, the filmmakers follow Vandana Shiva over a two-year period, from her organic farm at the foot of the Himalayas to institutions of power all over the world. Here Vandana Shiva does battle with one of her toughest opponents, Monsanto, a huge American biotech company, when they try to patent an ancient Indian strain of wheat. Together with Dalits she tries to close down a Coca-Cola plant in Kerala, in a conflict involving groundwater pollution. In this film Vandana Shiva also tackles the question of farmers' suicide, a backlash of the globalisation.

The filmmakers describe Monsanto from the inside and arrange what proves a shaking meeting between Vandana Shiva and Barun Mitra, liberal think-tank, lobbyist and fierce critic of Vandana Shiva - and the man who gave her the "Bullshit Prize".

Film trailer: www.peaholmquist.com/bullshit/

An up-to-the minute documentary about AIDS treatment activism. It examines the national and international grass roots demand for access to affordable treatment for 40 million people living with HIV, most of whom live in poor countries.

"This is one of the best films about AIDS I've ever seen. It's a moving portrait of the global struggle to expand treatment access for millions of poor people with HIV/AIDS, and underscores the critical role that grassroots activists are playing in forcing 'Big Pharma' and other powerful interests to adopt responsible AIDS policies."
—Dr. Paul Zeitz, Global AIDS Alliance

This is the music of the other America, the America of the South - popular, dynamic, rebellious and often... anti-American. It's the rhythms and voices of displaced communities in Columbia, of "los piqueteros" blocking access to a refinery in Buenos Aires, of indigenous Mexicans hunted down at the US border, of peasants staging vast land occupations in Brazil.

From Tierra del Fuego to the Rio Grande the

Americas ?are in turmoil, and in the midst of the social and political movements rocking the region are some amazing rebel musicians. They are well-informed and more than aware of their role in the world as pawns in global politics and economics. Four of them take centre stage in the feature-length documentary film Rebel Music Americas directed by Marie Boti and Malcolm Guy and produced by Lucie Pageau.

Film trailer: www.pmm.qc.ca/mram/en/

All About Darfur offers an opportunity to hear it explained by eloquent and diverse voices from within Sudan. The director talks to ordinary Sudanese in outdoor tea shops, markets, refugee camps and living rooms about how deeply rooted prejudices could suddenly burst into a wild fire of ethnic violence. How can war break out only two months after peace accords were signed between the ethnic groups in Darfur and the government in Khartoum.

"A highly personal documentary that is touching and illuminating."
-Jennie Punter, Toronto Globe and Mail

"A provocative and intelligent film."
-Henry Sheehan, President, Los Angeles Film Critics Association

Opening remarks from MLA Dr. David Swann. Cosponsored by Canada Democracy and International Law and The African Sudanese Association of Calgary.

Film website: www.allaboutdarfur.com

(Fountainhead Pictures, 89 minutes)

Characterized by their environmentally friendly lifestyle, love of chaos and rejection of the automobile, the NYC Black Label Bicycle Club became a kind of impenetrable fortress for Howard, the filmmaker behind BIKE. Falling into drug and alcohol problems, Howard's quest to be accepted by the group becomes a central arc for the film.

"A bike is an elegant symbol of resistance to mainstream consumer culture. And even though it is a consumer item made by companies, it doesn't require any fuel or live off waste. It's sort of a pure symbol," says Jacob Septimus, the film's co-director.

"The tallbike riders of New York ride double frame bicycles six feet high, engage in punk rights of heraldry, ritualistically jousting each other on the night-shrouded streets of NYC. ... A stylishly directed leftist rant against big oil and consumer conformity..." Boxoffice Reviews.

"A documentary about something most of the world knows nothing about, a slice of sociology arrestingly filmed, daringly cut and vividly revealed." Five Stars, Orlando Sentinel.

Calgarians! This screening will be an opportunity to showcase your trick bikes.