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.

October 27 // 7pm - 10pm // Buck Tavern, 1655 Market Street // SFGFF brings you our first round of trivia, music and munchies. We’ll take you on a hilarious journey of all things green (and maybe even some not-so-green). Start the Halloween madness at 7pm on Thursday, October 27 at the Buck Tavern. Bring your friends, your thinking caps and a little cash and enjoy a night of drinks, food and some good green competition. We’ll have great prizes such as tickets to the festival opening night party on March 1, tickets to films at the festival, and cool festival merch, plus a few spooky prizes too. Come dressed as your favorite green character (come on, everyone in this town loves a costume) and you’ll be eligible for special tickets to the festival. TOP PRIZE Tickets to 2012 Opening Night! TICKETS: $40 for a team of four people, or $10 for an individual ticket. This is a group event and we encourage you to bring 3 friends so you have a full team! Book your team table early - space is limited! This event is a fundraiser for the San Francisco Green Film Festival. Ticket sales and bar proceeds go towards supporting our mission to present forward-thinking programs of films and discussions that inspire environmental action and advocacy. Your support helps SFGFF reach its fundraising goal to bring back top-notch films and events in 2012!

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78 DAYS: A TREE PLANTING DOCUMENTARY // BACK TO THE GARDEN: FLOWER POWER COMES FULL CIRCLE // GENERAL ORDERS NO. 9 // THE GREENHORNS // PATAGONIA RISING //
The 10th San Francisco Documentary Festival returns October 14-27 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco and Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley. SFGFF will be co-presenting the following films - please join us!:
78 DAYS: A TREE PLANTING DOCUMENTARY Jason Nardella, 62 min, Canada, 2011, World Premiere Roxie: Sun 10/16 245p, Sat 10/22 715p; Shattuck: Mon 10/17 245p What happens in the northern wilderness when the loggers leave? “Reforestation.” Which is tree planting, one wee tree at a time, a form of mentally and physically demanding piecework that attracts a certain kind of person: committed, motivated, and a little bit peculiar. In this brand-new documentary, filmmaker (and former planter) Nardella documents one such crew for one especially grueling season, 78 days in all. BACK TO THE GARDEN: FLOWER POWER COMES FULL CIRCLE Kevin Tomlinson, 70 min, US, 2010 Roxie: Tue 10/18 930p, Sun 10/23 715p; Shattuck: Sat 10/15 245p In 1988, filmmaker Kevin Tomlinson interviewed a group of back-to-the-land hippies living off-grid and isolated from mainstream culture. In 2006, he found out what had become of their utopian plans and dreams. The result is a time-lapse narrative, told with stories of lots of freedom but little cash, unflinching political activism, and non-conforming tribal families… including the kids, who have to wonder if the “free love” was really free. GENERAL ORDERS NO. 9 Robert Persons, 72 min, US 2009, California Premiere Roxie: Sat 10/15 1230p, Sun 10/16 5p; Shattuck: Tue 10/18 245p “Somewhere between a straight up documentary and an avant-garde experiment rich in mood and atmosphere. It is one of those films that populate the festival circuit, equally wowing and perplexing audiences, picking up critical acclaim and then all but disappearing from the public eye… It carries with it a melancholy and grace, a slowly closing eye for the good ol' days when men were farmers, and the land was the land...a place.” -Ben Umstead, Twitch THE GREENHORNS Severine von Tscharner Fleming, 50 min, US, 2010 Roxie: Sat 10/15 245p, Tue10/18 715p; Shattuck: Wed 10/19 715p “The Greenhorns” explores the lives of America's young farming community: its spirit, practices, and needs. It is the filmmaker's hope that by broadcasting the stories and voices of these young farmers, we can build the case for those considering a career in agriculture—to embolden them, to entice them, and to recruit them into farming. PATAGONIA RISING Brian Lilla, 89 min, Chile, US, 2011 Roxie: Sat 10/22 930p, Sun 10/23 5p; Shattuck: Thu 10/20 245p Chile is on the verge of a monumental decision. Just as scientists are investigating major climate change in the Northern Patagonia Ice Field, five proposed hydroelectric dams could destroy two of the purest free-flowing watersheds in the world, and push a frontier culture even closer to extinction. Bringing those human voices to the forefront of the controversy, “Patagonia Rising” illuminates an alternative path forward.

October 11 // 8:45 pm // Roxie Theater // In person: Filmmakers Mark Dixon and Ben Evans. 50 States. 1 Year. Zero Garbage? Called to action by a planet in peril, three friends hit the road - packing hope, and humor, searching for innovators and citizens solving humanity's greatest environmental crises. Piling on personal challenges as they explore every state in a year (the good, the bad, and the weird), an unexpected turn of events pushes the team to the brink in this award-winning docu-comedy. Featuring Bill McKibben, Wes Jackson, Will Allen, Janine Benyus, Joel Salatin, David Orr, and others. More at http://www.yert.com Don’t miss this Bay Area premiere which was the recent winner of the Audience Awards at the Effy Film Festival. CLICK HERE to buy tickets in advance. JOIN US AT THE 2011 BIONEERS CONFERENCE October 14-16, 2011 to explore the forefront of positive change in deeply inspiring keynote talks, panels, workshops and intensives. Connect with leading-edge people and ideas. Network with dynamic changemakers. See Moving Image Festival screenings and attend networking receptions. Discover powerful opportunities and strategies for creating positive change in your work, life and community. This year’s plenaries include Gloria Steinem, Amory Lovins, Paul Stamets, Rebecca Moore from Google Earth Outreach, and many other luminaries.

September 28 // 12:00-2:00pm // Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Public Library Main Branch // Can People and Endangered Species Live Together? SFGFF and the San Francisco Public Library present a film that deals with the dilemma of economic growth versus species preservation. Join us for a FREE lunchtime screening of BUTTERFLIES & BULLDOZERS and a Q&A with the filmmakers Ann & Steve Dunsky following the film. San Bruno Mountain is the largest intact fragment of wild San Francisco. For fifty years, many people have fought to protect the mountain and its rare butterflies. The fight resulted in a significant change to the federal policy on endangered species, and in the process, turned allies into enemies. Told with humor and insight from those involved with the battles, this is a tale of right vs right. It is also a story about the rights of nature and the rights of people, one of compromise and commitment, and one about the difficult choices we all have to make. http://www.butterfliesandbulldozers.com/ This is a Stegner Environmental Center and Green Stacks Program. http://www.sfpl.org/index.php?pg=1007452401

[caption id="attachment_3325" align="alignright" width="300" caption="DARK SIDE OF THE LENS by Mickey Smith"][/caption] September 14 // 5:30pm-8:00pm // Bently Reserve // Another chance to see many of the brilliant short films from the 2011 San Francisco Green Film Festival! Join us on Wednesday, September 14 to celebrate A Common Green at the Bently Reserve where we will be screening a selection of the festival’s short film highlights in the Farallon Room. The free film program will run throughout the event and includes: SKYLIGHT, David Baas, Canada 2009, 5 min THE HERD, Ken Wardrop, Ireland 2008, 4 min DARK SIDE OF THE LENS, Mickey Smith, UK 2010, 6 min PLASTIC STATE OF MIND, Ben Zolno, USA 2010, 3 min HOW YOUR MONEY WORKS, Tobias Knipf & Andreas Kronbeck, Germany 2010, 3 min GARBAGE ANGELS, Pierre Trudeau, Canada 2008, 6 min PLASTIC & GLASS, Tessa Joosse, France 2009, 10 min VARMINTS, Marc Craste, UK 2008, 24 min At A Common Green, San Francisco's leading nonprofits, foundations, and businesses will gather under one roof for an extraordinary chance to meet face-to-face. Sponsored by the Bently Reserve, Larkspur Hotels & Restaurants, Back to Earth Organic Catering, and the Business Council on Climate Change [BC3], A Common Green is a meeting of minds for the Bay Area's environmental communities and leaders, giving them the chance to join their efforts in improving the quality of life for San Francisco. The possibilities for new partnerships, projects, and initiatives are endless — but the goal for a greener future is common to all of the participants! More info at http://acommongreen.com/ Find our table in the Farallon Room next to the Banking Hall to meet with the festival team and pick-up a festival t-shirt or bag! NOTE The event is free but all participants must register to attend; space is limited. Please register at http://acommongreen.com/ to receive an invitation and confirmation via email a week before the event. DIRECTIONS All attendees are encouraged to take public transportation to the event. Bently Reserve is located at 301 Battery Street near the Embarcadero MUNI / Bart station.

Star in your own 60 seconds-or-less video that shows what you are doing to promote pollution prevention and see your film on the big screen at the 2012 San Francisco Green Film Festival! Video submission deadline is September 14. Entry form, rules, plus news on the latest prizes (including Grand Prize of a screening at SFGFF in March 2012!) at: http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/pollutionprevention/p2week.cfm Sponsored by Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and Western Sustainability and Pollution Prevention Network.

*** CALL FOR ENTRIES IS NOW CLOSED FOR THE 2012 FESTIVAL *** The final deadline was October 29, 2011. If you already submitted a film, notifications will be sent out in January 2012. Call for Entries for the 2013 Festival will open in Fall 2012. Our programming team can be contacted at films@sfgreenfilmfest.org

July 23 // 4:30 pm // Castro Theatre // A huge hit at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, the kaleidoscope of clips and mind boggling animation in this wide-ranging documentary are so entertaining one could happily watch it with the sound off. But it would be a shame to miss Tiffany Shlain’s meditations on modern life and technology. The Bay Area–based filmmaker delves into everything from the honeybee crisis to her household’s weekly “technology shabbat” to her father’s struggle with brain cancer, all in an effort to understand our need to connect. The director will attend the 7/23 screening. Tickets are $12 general/$10 Jewish Film Forum Members. Screening as part of the 31st San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, taking place July 21-August 8, 2011 in theaters throughout the Bay Area. For information, tickets, and full schedule visit www.sfjff.org or call 415-621-0523

July 10 & 11 // Roxie Theater, 3117 16th Street // Harry Shearer IN PERSON after the 7:00 pm & before the 9:00 pm shows! In 2005, a disaster struck New Orleans. In THE BIG UNEASY, humorist and New Orleans resident Harry Shearer gets the inside story of a disaster that could have been prevented. Shearer speaks to the tireless investigators and experts who poked through the muck and uncovers a courageous whistle-blower from the Army Corps of Engineers. His dogged pursuit of facts reveals that some of the same flawed methods responsible for levee failure during Hurricane Katrina are being used to rebuild the system expected to protect the "new" New Orleans from future peril. Click here for more info, trailer, showtimes and tickets.

July 15-21 // Landmark’s Lumiere Theatre, San Francisco and Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas, Berkeley // On December 7, 2005, federal agents conducted a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF)—an organization the FBI has called America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” A hit at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, IF A TREE FALLS follows the remarkable story of the ELF’s rise and fall, told through the transformation and radicalization of one of its members, Daniel McGowan. Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a chronicle of McGowan facing life in prison with a dramatic investigation of the events that led to his involvement with the ELF. Showtimes and tickets will be available by July 12 at landmarktheatres.com/tickets/ and theatre box office.

July 5-18 // San Francisco Public Libraries (various locations) // Another chance to see our popular 2011 Opening Night film BAG IT. We are partnering with SFPL GreenStacks and SF Department of the Environment to present five neighborhood library branch screenings and a grand finale screening at the Main Branch at Civic Center. Follow “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he travels through our entangled plastic world. Jeb is not a radical environmentalist, but an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with everything plastic. What he learns quickly grows far beyond plastic bags in this humorous and insightful film. The FREE screenings will include intros and experts. July 5 // 7:00 pm ~ West Portal Branch Library July 9 // 2:00 pm ~ Portola Branch Library July 13 // 6:30 pm ~ Mission Bay Branch Library July 18 // 7:00 pm ~ Western Addition Branch Library July 26 // 6:30 pm ~ Anza Branch Library July 28 // 5:45 pm ~ Main Branch Library

The SFGFF 2011 Centerpiece film is now available to watch online HERE. (Please don't forget to rate the film too!) In 1988, filmmaker Kevin Tomlinson filmed & interviewed a group of back-to-the-land "hippies"—living off-grid, insulated from mainstream culture. In 2006 he tracked down his subjects again to find out what had become of their families’ utopian plans and dreams. The film captures a time-lapse view of these back-to-the-landers told with moving personal stories of dedicated tribal families— lots of freedom but little cash, unflinching grass-roots activism and hippie kids who today ask whether free love was really free. Watch online at cultureunplugged.com

June 29 // 6:15pm // San Francisco Public Library Main Branch // Here’s your opportunity to see 2011 festival film GREEN by Patrick Rouxel one more time. This multi-award winning film explores the devastating impacts of logging and the palm oil industry on Orang-utan habitat in Indonesia.

DIVE! by Jeremy Seifert is now available on DVD and will be on Netflix from July 19. Follow filmmaker Jeremy Seifert and friends as they dumpster dive in the back alleys and garbage bins of Los Angeles’ supermarkets. In the process, they salvage thousands of dollars worth of good, edible food – resulting in an inspiring journey that is equal parts entertainment, guerilla journalism and call to action about food waste in America. There are some bonus goodies on the new DVD edition including short vignettes featuring each of the dumpster bros. Click here to order DVD at 30% off. The Festival’s 2011 Green Tenacity Award winner BANANAS!* by Fredrik Gerrten is now available on DVD here. In this suspenseful courtroom drama, Fredrik Gertten, Sweden’s pre-eminent documentarian and investigative journalist, courageously examines a highly controversial legal case pitting a dozen Nicaraguan plantation workers against Dole Food Corporation. GOOD FORTUNE by Landon Van Soest is now available on Netflix to watch instantly. Jackson, Silva, and Okech fight against the odds as they confront massive international development projects threatening to destroy their homes and livelihoods in rural Kenya. Though the West spends trillions of dollars in charitable aid, many of our best intentions have actually undermined the communities they aimed to benefit.