2nd ANNUAL STUDENT EDUCATION PROGRAM

This is a free event for Middle and High School students and teachers.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

1:30 PM to 3:00 PM

San Francisco Film Society Cinema

1746 Post Street, San Francisco, CA

Fri 03.02 // 5:00 PM

SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St.

World Premiere, commemorating the 15th anniversary of Judi Bari’s death on March 2, 1997.

In person: Mary Liz Thomson & Darryl Cherney, filmmakers; Elyse Katz, Exec. Producer; Sheila Laffey, Co-executive producer; Kerry Reynolds, Videographer; Kevin Connelly, Associate Director, Earth Island Institute.

 

Sat 03.03 // 5:30 PM

SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St.

USA Premiere.

In person: Gary Marcuse, Director; Betsy Carson, Producer; Peter Bosshard. Policy Director, International Rivers; Katy Yan, China Program Coordinator, International Rivers.

*** Thank you all for the amazing response to our party invitation - THIS EVENT IS NOW FULL!

Festival tickets and passes will be on sale Feb 1st at sfgreenfilmfest.org

Get your tickets early to avoid disappointment - screenings will sell out fast! ***

Fri 03.02 // 7:45 PM

SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. 

San Francisco Premiere.

In person: Anthony Baxter

Special Double Bill Presentation with LOCAL HERO!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/6jpN8kI0-pY?rel=0&hd=1

Mon 03.05 // 7:45 PM SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. URBANIZED Gary Hustwit USA/UK, 2011, 82 mins Buy Tickets Urbanized is the third part of Gary Hustwit’s design film trilogy, joining Helvetica (2007) and Objectified (2009), and frames a global discussion on the future of cities. More than half the world’s population now lives in cities and statistics say that 75% will have migrated to a an urban area by 2050. Hustwit’s captivating and lively new documentary about the design of cities examines how major urban environments are adapting to the challenges of today and tomorrow, particularly climate change and population growth. It’s a study of how a city’s visual design can impact its daily life. Through thoughtful interviews and carefully selected images, this eye-opening film looks at the challenges and promises facing some of the world’s important cities from New York and Paris to Bogota and Cape Town. We learn about and see the impact of innovative solutions including new bike lanes, walkways and housing projects. Urbanized has been called "an idea-packed new documentary" by A.O. Scott of the New York Times, and Joshua K. Leon of Metropolis says "Urbanized posits that city dwellers must not only forge an innovative self-reliance, they must imagine higher forms of living." urbanizedfilm.com Preceded by: Second Hand, Isaac King, Canada, 2011, 7 mins.

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Following the screening, join a panel of architects, designers and innovators to discuss Our Future in Urban Sustainability. In a world where we are dealing with economic instability, climate action plans, and water and fuel stresses building upon the urban environment is more than just function. The triple bottom line is now a part of the process of urban development and the choices a community and government has to make when considering growth and development. Panelists will discuss the thought process and methods they use and feel are integral when meeting all the goals and initiative for the future of a sustainable urban plan and environment. Panelists include: ~ Lee Schneider, DocuCinema [moderator] ~ Allison Arieff, 'Opinionator' columnist, New York Times; Urbanist Editor, SPUR ~ David Baker, David Baker + Partners Architects ~ Michelle Kaufmann, Michelle Kaufmann Studio ~ Raquel Rivera Pinderhughes, Professor of Urban Studies, San Francisco State University

Tue 03.06 // 5:30 PM SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. TASTE THE WASTE Valentin Thurn, Germany, 2010, 92 mins. San Francisco Premiere. Buy Tickets According to Valentin Thurn's alarming, eye-opening new documentary on food waste, about half of all food globally produced ends up being thrown away, while some four billion people live in a state of constant food emergency. In an investigation that circles the globe, Taste the Waste examines the widespread causes of this massive squandering, interviewing everyone in the food chain from consumers to food producers to politicians and administrators as Thurn uncovers the truly shocking scale of food spoilage. Our desire for perfect produce, for constantly available items no matter the season, is key, as Turin uncovers a system that seems perversely dedicated to daily destroying half of its product. This activist documentary, which comes connected to an online effort to reform the food supply chain, also looks for solutions, interviewing dumpster divers, enlightened supermarket managers attempting to educate their customers into purchasing less harmfully sourced foodstuffs, consumer associations forming links between purchasers and smaller, local producers. If you eat, Thurn's film is of direct concern to you. ~ Vancouver Intl. Film Festival tastethewaste.com Preceded by: Green Ninja: Footprint Renovation, Marty Cooper, USA, 2011, 3 mins. Screening Sponsored by Recology. Co-Presented with Goethe-Institut in San Francisco.

Sat 03.03 // 3:30 PM SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. ON COAL RIVER Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood USA, 2011, 81 min. Buy Tickets Ed Wiley is a former coal miner and is emblematic of the culture of the Appalachian Region – rugged, opinionated, community-minded, and unwilling to back down in the face of steep odds. Described by Variety as a story of “Hillbilly Davids” besting a “corporate Goliath”, On Coal River follows Wiley and his allies as they wage a campaign to relocate an elementary school which his granddaughter attends that is threatened by the likelihood that a pond containing toxic coal waste will engulf it when an aging retaining wall eventually fails. It also follows the story of ex-Marine Bo Webb, who is angry over the despoliation of the valley he loves by coal companies that engage in mountain top removal. The full environmental impacts of this practice, however, are felt by people like Maria Lambert and her neighbors, who have had their drinking water contaminated as a result. Giving time to both sides of the issue, the film-makers of On Coal River do an extraordinary job of capturing the struggles of ordinary people fighting to save what remains of a valley that they and their families have called home for generations. In the process, they beautifully capture the true human and environmental costs of “cheap”, dirty energy. ~ Mark Valentine oncoalriver.com Preceded by: The Windmill Farmer, Joaquin Baldwin, USA, 2010, 5 mins. Co-presented with the Bay Area Video Coalition and CounterCorp Anti-Corporate Film Festival.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/9LcmmeZ-V3g?rel=0&hd=1

Wed 03.07 // 5:30 PM SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. FUTURE OF HOPE Henry Bateman UK/Iceland, 2010, 75 min. San Francisco Premiere. Buy Tickets In 2008, Iceland’s entire banking system collapsed in the wake of the global financial crisis. As a consequence, the country’s economic and political systems were shaken to their core. Future of Hope tells the story of how a cross-section of Icelandic society decided to use the crisis as an opportunity to reconsider the country’s economic development path. Featuring imaginative use of animation, a killer soundtrack (featuring artists from Iceland, Ireland, and the UK, including Damien Rice), and Iceland’s ruggedly beautiful landscape, the film chronicles a grassroots movement determined to reinvent the Icelandic society and economy around the principles of sustainable development. Can organic farming, renewable energy, and green technology be the anchors of a new economy? Can a country with the oldest sitting parliament reinvent its model of democracy to create greater transparency and more accountability? With the emergence of the Occupy movement and the teetering of the Euro-zone economies, the issues being debated in Iceland’s parliament and on the streets of Reykjavik are now finally part of a global conversation. Filmed in 2010, the Future of Hope is in some ways prescient and tells a remarkable story of collapse, recovery, redemption, and reinvention to which the rest of the world should pay attention. - Mark Valentine www.futureofhope.co.uk Preceded by: National Parks Project: Sirmilik, Zacharias Kunuk, Canada, 2011, 10 mins. Screening sponsored by New Resource Bank and Presidio Graduate School. Co-presented with the Business Council on Climate Change [BC3].

Sun 03.04 // 1:00 PM SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. CAFETERIA MAN Richard Chisolm USA, 2011, 65 min. San Francisco Premiere. In Person: Richard Chisolm Buy Tickets Follow Tony Geraci, a charismatic chef from New Orleans, on his passionate and tenacious journey to kick-start school lunch reform serving 83,000 students in Baltimore’s public schools. As the new food-service director, Geraci goes on a food crusade to change the face of child nutrition and proposes a completely different paradigm from what existed in the Baltimore school system. Battling bureaucracy and a system resistant to change every step of the way, the film explores the daunting task of making healthy and nutritious meals available to all Baltimore students. With unstoppable passion and commitment, Geraci and his team work with these inner city youth to harvest vegetables at the school’s 33-acre teaching farm nearby, to prepare and create student-designed menus and meals. His bold vision introduces meatless Mondays into the school menu, nutrition education in the classroom and a citywide culinary vocational training program. “It’s about trying to help a city heal itself using food as a vehicle,” says Geraci in the film. Voices and images of students, parents, teachers, administrators and farmers are woven throughout the film. With appearances by food activist and best-selling author Michael Pollen, First Lady Michelle Obama and Assistant White House Chef Sam Kass. Winner of the CINE Golden Eagle Award 2011. ~ Daniela Rible cafeteriaman.com Preceded by: Dig It!, Dona Turner, USA, 2010, 7 mins. In Person: Dona Turner. It Starts with Me: The Time is Now and 2day=2morrow, USA, 2011, 1 min. In Person: student film winners of the 2011 Pollution Prevention Video Contest, sponsored by the Department of Toxic Substances Control and SFGFF. Short awards presentation will precede the screening.

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Screening will be followed by Chew the Fat: Reinventing School Lunches panel. After watching Cafeteria Man please just us and filmmaker Richard Chisolm for a panel discussion around agriculture and the challenges of eating locally and sustainably within our current system. We will talk with panelist who are meeting those challenges while dealing with the established norms of institutions and systems geared in the opposite direction. We hope to provoke a conversation that will motivate those in their community to ignite or flame the movement around food security, health, and sustainability. Panelists include: ~ Karen Brown, Creative Director, Center for Ecoliteracy ~ Richard Chisolm, director, Cafeteria Man ~ Helen de Michiel, www.lunchlovecommunity.org ~ Christina Goette, MPH, Sr. Health Program Planner, San Francisco Department of Public Health ~ DeAnthony Jones, 2010 Brower Youth Award Winner ~ Rivka Mason, School Garden Teacher, Berkeley Unified School District ~ Willa Murphy, Student Activist, Senior, Sir Francis Drake High School, Founder & President, Drake Youth Politics Club

Tue 03.06 // 8:00 PM SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. URBAN ROOTS Mark MacInnis USA, 2011, 93 min. In Person: Mark MacInnis Buy Tickets Against all odds, in the boarded-up shops, empty lots and defunct factories, seeds of change are taking root in Detroit. With the most vacant lots in the country, citizens are reclaiming their spirits by growing food. A small group of dedicated citizens have started an urban environmental movement with the potential to transform not just a city after its collapse, but also a country after the end of its industrial age. Urban Roots shows dedicated Detroiters working tirelessly to fulfill their vision for locally-grown, sustainably farmed food in a city where people - as in much of the county - have found themselves cut off from real food and limited to the lifeless offerings of fast food chains and grocery stores stocked with processed food. The people of Detroit have taken on the enormous task of changing this for themselves, and to understand their story is to understand how we can change it for us all. It’s a story that in the most difficult of places, new hope emerges. This growing movement of urban farmers is changing the way people think about food-and life in the "D". It took men like Henry Ford, William Durant, and Lee Iacocca to build this city, but it's taken a bunch of strong willed self-taught urban farmers to save it. ~ Vancouver Intl. Film Festival “Urban Roots is an inspiring film about the emergence of urban farming in Detroit; it shows what’s possible after the collapse of the industrial era and how we begin building a sustainable future for all.” - Leonardo DiCaprio. www.urbanrootsamerica.com Preceded by: Animal Beatbox, Damon Gameau, Australia, 2011, 2 mins Screening sponsored by East Bay Regional Park District. Co-presented with Green For All.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/P3GExD8djwo

Sun 03.04 // 7:00 PM SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. MINDS IN THE WATER Justin Krumb USA, 2011, 90 min. San Francisco Premiere. In Person: Justin Krumb, Director; Jonny Vasic, Producer; Kyle Thiermann, Surfer and 2011 Brower Youth Award Winner Buy Tickets 5 years in the making, this beautiful documentary chronicles professional surfer Dave “Rasta” Rastovich’s path to protect dolphins, whales and their ocean environment. Rasta’s latest campaign to increase ocean awareness - a 660km, 36-day sailing expedition coinciding with a humpback whale migration along Australia’s Gold Coast – provides the backdrop for his 5-year exploration “that unexpectedly blossomed into a movement.” Inspired by interactions with dolphins while surfing, Rasta's international quest to gather support from fellow professional surfers including Andy Irons and Kelly Slater, seek guidance in the Galapagos and Chile from eco-warrior Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd, and visit with California’s first coastal population, the Chumash Indians, eventually leads to a showdown in the dolphin-killing waters of Taiji, Japan, made notorious in the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove. With special appearances by Ric O’Barry, Hayden Panettiere, Joel Parkinson, Louie Psihoyos, and featuring music by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jack Johnson, Minds in the Water showcases one of surfing’s great talents on a single-minded mission to answer the call to protect the ocean and its inhabitants. - Pamela Campbell www.mindsinthewater.com Preceded by: Bottle, Kirsten Lepore, USA, 2011, 5 mins.

Sat 03.03 // 1:00 PM SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. SUSHI: THE GLOBAL CATCH Mark Hall USA, 2011, 75 min. In English and Japanese with English subtitles. San Francisco Premiere. In Person: Mark Hall Buy Tickets How did sushi become a global cuisine? What started as a time honored reverence of fish is now an international phenomenon that is consuming oceanic fish exponentially. Once a dish limited to Japan, the film examines how sushi is spreading across the globe and a beautiful tradition experienced by a few has become a common global fad. The story of raw fish travels the world and includes interviews of chefs in five nations from Japan to Texas and even Poland, giving insight into the long, seven-year apprenticeships undergone by aspiring chefs and the specialized, traditionally made knives used throughout the trade. San Francisco’s first sustainable sushi bar, Tataki, is also featured. The filmmakers visit tuna farms, open ocean factory ships and the infamous fish market of Tsukiji Japan, where ocean predators such as Bluefin Tuna are auctioned at astronomical rates. We see that sushi is big money and these fish are gold. A Special Jury Award Winner in the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival, the film demonstrates that the demand for sushi is depleting apex predators in the ocean, including Bluefin tuna. It leaves the viewer hungry for solutions and shows that a few pioneers have already begun to lead the way. - David McGuire www.sushitheglobalcatch.com Preceded by: eXtinction, Clayton Haskell, USA, 2011, 5 mins. In person: Summer Rayne Oakes, eco-model. Co-presented with Sea Stewards.

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Screening will be followed by Sushi, Sustainability, and the Fate of Fish panel. Join us after the film Sushi: The Global Catch to discuss the health of sushi for humans and the oceans. Among the panelists is Mark Hall, the film's director, who will expand on the sustainability of fishing and fish consumption around the globe. Other panelists will include sushi restauranteurs, fisherman, and advocates who will address the challenges of sustainability, fish and the future of the ocean. Panelists include: - David McGuire, Sea Stewards [moderator] - Mark Hall, director, "Sushi: the Global Catch" - Catherine Kilduff, Staff Attorney, Oceans Program, Center for Biological Diversity - Dr. Wallace "J" Nichols, Research Associate, California Academy of Sciences and LIVEBLUE.org - Casson Trenor, co-owner, Tataki Restaurant

Sun 03.04 // 5:00 PM SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. ALMA Patrick Rouxel France, 2011, 65 mins. Director's Choice. USA Premiere. Buy Tickets Beautifully shot, alternately joyful and horrifying, Alma captures the ecological, and even spiritual, cost of meat, dairy, and leather production in the Amazon. Since 2003, Patrick Rouxel has dedicated his time to making films aimed at raising awareness of deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and the ethical treatment of animals. The multi-award winning Green (which premiered at SFGFF 2011) presented a heartrending account of the life of an Orangutan against a backdrop of palm oil production and natural habitat loss. In Alma, Rouxel continues his cinematic journey into the world’s forests and the industries that are destroying them, this time heading to Brazil to explore the devastating impacts of the cattle industry. Here he creates a powerful statement about the global industrial economy and the speed with which virgin forests are being cleared for timber and new grazing land. The film offers a unique and visually stunning exposition of a colorful cowboy culture and the millions of animals used to satisfy our voracious global appetite for meat and dairy products. In almost-wordless contemplation, the film wanders from forest to pasture to rodeo to slaughterhouse to market to tannery. In essence, Alma is a journey into the soul of humanity and a testimony of the damage inflicted by humans on the natural world. ~ Rachel Caplan
Preceded by: Buriganga, Michelle Coomber, Bangladesh/UK, 2010, 12 mins. Co-presented by Amazon Watch.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/iQED4YEMx9A

Mon 03.05 // 5:00 PM SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. GREEN FIRE: ALDO LEOPOLD AND A LAND ETHIC FOR OUR TIME Ann and Steven Dunsky USA, 2011, 74 min. San Francisco Premiere. In Person: Ann and Steven Dunsky, filmmakers; Cella Mitchell, Wallace Stegner Environmental Librarian, San Francisco Public Library Buy Tickets Local filmmakers Ann and Steven Dunsky (Butterflies & Bulldozers, SFGFF 2011) create a fascinating look into the life of a brilliant individual, Aldo Leopold. This beautiful film, narrated by Peter Coyote, features commentary from some of today’s most recognized scholars and conservation leaders, as well as many members of Leopold’s family. It tells the story of Leopold’s life, which is also the story of the dawning of our nation’s ecological awareness. Leopold’s work led him to develop a theory of land and wildlife conservation based on the interconnectedness of the natural world. The “Green Fire” of the title refers to a key incident in Leopold’s life, where the impact of his own gunshot from a rimrock in Arizona changed his thinking about the land ethic, leading to the key insight that was the culmination of his life’s work. His legacy continues today through the publication of A Sand County Almanac, a classic in American literature, published posthumously in 1949, about living on and being a part of the land. Through his work and writings, Aldo Leopold continues to influence the modern environmental movement around the world. This documentary has inspired audiences at numerous film festivals and this screening comes on the heels of the annual "Aldo Leopold Weekend" where Wisconsin communities coordinate events across the state during the first weekend of March. ~ Cella Mitchell www.greenfiremovie.com Preceded by: An Ill Wind, Chris Jordan-Bloch, USA, 2011, 8 mins. In Person: Chris Jordan-Bloch. Co-presented with the Aldo Leopold Foundation, Earth Island Institute, Earth Justice, and the Wild Equity Institute.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/wQhlLuBwOtE

Sun 03.04 // 5:00 PM SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. BLOOD IN THE MOBILE Frank Piasecki Poulsen Denmark/Germany, 2010, 82 min. Buy Tickets Poulsen, a Danish version of Michael Moore but less self-publicizing, adopts a faux-naïf persona to investigate how far Nokia, one of the world's biggest mobile manufacturers, is aware that minerals essential to its product (most significantly cassiterite) are illegally mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by slave laborers and finance the lethal activities of local warlords. The intrepid Dane's journey takes him to parts of the Congo that the United Nations' peace-keeping force is too afraid to enter. There he inspects the hellish mines where teenage workers are exploited and robbed, and he meets a cast of characters who might have been created by Greene, Waugh and le Carré. Back in Europe and Washington he speaks to dedicated people connected with NGOs seeking equity and transparency for the trade in these "conflict minerals", and manages to interview bland Nokia representatives with advanced degrees in public obfuscation, but not the Finnish corporation's CEO. ~ Philip French, The Observer Blood in the Mobile arrives at a time when recent legislation passed by Congress in the US requiring more transparency in the extractive industry seems to already be making an impact in Africa, even before its implementation. Similar legislation is now being sought at an EU level. "We can't leave it up to the companies themselves to solve," says Poulsen, "because they have had a fair chance at it." bloodinthemobile.org Preceded by: Gloop, Gaby Bastyra & Joe Churchman, UK, 2010, 4 mins. Co-presented with the Bay Area Science Festival.

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Following the screening, join leading experts for a discussion on electronics and green cradle-to-cradle design. The panel will be driven by questions from the audience but will include consumer actions and solutions including: consumer campaigns, emerging green labels, supply chain responsibility, and innovative breakthroughs in the sustainable design community. Panelists include: ~ Heidi Quante [moderator] ~ Sheila Davis, Executive Director, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition ~ Michael Watts, Professor of Geography and Development Studies, UC Berkeley ~ Conflict Mineral Guide Representative TBA

http://www.youtube.com/embed/tktMnj_wP5I

CENTERPIECE SCREENING Sat 03.03 // 8:00 PM SF Film Society Cinema, 1748 Post St. THE CITY DARK Ian Cheney USA, 2011, 84 min. In Person: Ian Cheney Buy Tickets Filmmaker Ian Cheney ponders what the impact of a world without night would be. Having moved from Maine to New York City, Cheney discovers himself in a place so flooded with light that it is hard to make out a star in the night sky. The curiosity of what is lost with the darkness of night, in an environment with such dense light pollution, leads him to startling revelations including the impact of light pollution on human health, animal migration, and the safety of our planet from asteroids. Told in six chapters, through expert interviews, a strong personal narrative, stunning astrophotography, and music that garnered the film the Jury Prize for best Score/Music at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival The City Dark provides a holistic view of the relationship between humans and the sky and shines new light on the meaning of the dark. ~ Ambika Jain www.thecitydark.com Preceded by: Tuned In, Kevin Gordon, USA, 2010, 5 mins. In person: Kevin Gordon. Yelp: With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl, Tiffany Shlain, USA, 2011, 3 mins. Co-presented with the Bay Area Science Festival and Chabot Space & Science Center.

Did you know that SFGFF screens films from the festival year-round at the SF Public Library? Our free programs this year include Bag It, Green, Butterflies & Bulldozers, and, this Wednesday, Dive! Living off America's Waste. Join us to close our 2011 season at this free screening of an audience favorite from the 2011 festival. Follow filmmaker Jeremy Seifert and friends as they dumpster dive in the back alleys and garbage bins of Los Angeles’ supermarkets. www.divethefilm.com DIVE! Living off America's Waste Directed by: Jeremy Seifert USA, 2009, 39 min. Wednesday, November 30 Free Screening: 6:00pm Koret Auditorium, SF Public Library Main Branch, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco Tickets: Free This is a Stegner Environmental Center, San Francisco Green Film Festival and Green Stacks Program.
TAKE ACTION Please consider volunteering with Food Runners this Holiday Season. Food Runners picks up excess perishable and prepared food from San Francisco businesses such as restaurants, caterers, bakeries, hospitals, event planners, corporate cafeterias, and hotels and delivers it directly to shelters and neighborhood programs that feed the hungry. To get involved with Food Runners and their great work, please contact Nancy at (415) 929-1866 or nancy@foodrunners.org Further information at foodrunners.org

[caption id="attachment_3931" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Photo Credit: Josh Lopez, courtesy of tarsandsaction on Flickr."][/caption]

Wednesday, November 16 at 7:00 pm

San Francisco Film Society | New People Cinema

1746 Post Street, Japantown, SF

Join us for a special screening this new film by Academy Award® nominated director Leslie Iwerks followed by panel discussion with the director and special guests. Coming on the heels of the massive protest in DC -- where over 12,000 protesters encircled the White House -- the film explores the threat posed by the Keystone XL pipeline as well as the sustainable alternatives to dirty tar sands oil. Following the screening a panel of experts will discuss what has become the most controversial environmental battle in the U.S. today.

TICKETS are available on a sliding scale $15-25. All proceeds will help bring films and filmmakers to the 2012 festival. Space is very limited so please get your tickets early to avoid disappointment. Please note that at the theater we can accept cash only.

PIPE DREAMS (USA, 2011, 40 min.) Narrated by Daryl Hannah. Directed by Leslie Iwerks. Across the heartland of America, farmers and landowners are fighting to protect their land, their water, and their livelihood. Routed over 1,700 miles from the tar sands of Alberta to the refineries of the Texas Gulf Coast, this pipeline is set to cross the country’s largest freshwater resource, the Ogallala Aquifer, and the fragile Sandhills of Nebraska. A spill along the Keystone XL pipeline's proposed route could threaten the water supply of millions, and pose devastating consequences to human health, livestock, agriculture, and endangered wildlife. Further film information and trailer at pipedreamsdoc.com
PANELISTS: Leslie Iwerks, Writer, Director, Producer, PIPE DREAMS Leslie Iwerks is an Oscar® and Emmy® nominated documentary director and producer. Leslie's 2010 feature documentary Dirty Oil, narrated by Neve Campbell, exposes the environmental and human rights issues in Alberta’s toxic oil sands and traces the environmental and social impacts of Canadian oil on both sides of the U.S. border. Leslie’s short film Downstream was short-listed for a 2008 Academy Award® and her documentary short film, Recycled Life, was nominated for an Academy Award® in 2006 and has won nine top film festival awards. Other recent films include Industrial Light & Magic-Creating the Impossible and The Pixar Story. Matt Leonard, Project Manager - Tar Sands Action, 350.org Matt Leonard lives in Oakland, and has been involved in social and environmental justice campaigns for 15 years. From working with grassroots groups to international non-profits, he prioritizes using people-powered strategies to merge organizing, campaigning, and movement building. He has been coordinating the Tar Sands Action for the past few months, helping organize one of the largest civil disobedience efforts ever from the environmental movement - resulting in 1,253 people being arrested peacefully sitting-in at the White House to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Brant Olson, Freedom from Oil campaign director, Rainforest Action Network Brant Olson is a leading anti-tar sands activist in the United States. This August, he broke the story of how Keystone XL proponents created fake Twitter accounts to promote the pipeline. The story was subsequently picked up by The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Mother Jones, The Hill, and others. Brant has worked as a strategist on national corporate campaigns in the retail, finance, energy and forest sectors for more than seven years. While working at RAN, he has negotiated agreements from The Home Depot, Lowes, Centex Homes, ProBuild, BlueLinx, Boise Cascade, Georgia Pacific and others. His research into campaign finance and corporate supply chains have been featured in national publications including Business Week and the New York Times. Brant can be found on Twitter: @branto Shirin Sadeghi (panel moderator), independent radio/television Host and Producer Shirin Sadeghi is an independent radio/television Host and Producer. She is also a regular columnist for the Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, and two of Pakistan's national daily newspapers, Pakistan Today and The Express Tribune. Her reporting and analysis focuses on the Middle East (especially, Iran and the Persian Gulf nations), Pakistan, minorities in the United States and comparative media. Her broadcast career began as a Producer and Reporter for the BBC and Al Jazeera. She did her PhD at the University of London. Find Shirin on Twitter: @shirinsadeghi Michael Watts, Professor of Geography and Development Studies, UC Berkeley Michael Watts is the "Class of 1963" Professor of Geography and Development Studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he has taught for over twenty-five years. He served as the Director of the Institute of International Studies from 1994-2004. Watts' research has addressed a number of development issues especially food security, rural development, and land reform in Africa, South Asia and Vietnam. Over the last twenty years he has written extensively on the oil industry, most recently completing a book on the natural and social history of oil in Nigeria entitled Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta.
TAKE ACTION: Lights! Camera! Action Steps! is a new SFGFF program that provides audience members with materials on how to get involved once a film ends. These materials are developed in collaboration with the filmmaker and festival partners to inspire audience members to action once the credits roll and the lights go up. Here is further action you can take from PIPE DREAMS. PIPE DREAMS - Lights! Camera! Action Steps! [PDF download] Letter to President Obama requesting a veto on the pipeline [PDF download]
Transportation: The SF Film Society | New People Cinema is located in Japantown on Post Street between Webster and Buchanan. Click for map. It is close to MUNI lines 2, 3, 22, 38, & 38L. The Japan Center Garage entrance is located right in front of the cinema on Post Street, and can also be accessed from 1610 Geary Boulevard.
Can't attend the screening but still want to support the San Francisco Green Film Festival? Please make a donation or become a sponsor.