Parrots, Free Screening of Food Inc., Veg Documentaries
July 15, 2009
Hello all in BVS,
The top two items are timely, and the third item is a resource list of some veg/ animal/ environment related new or newish films that are now available online or on DVD.
1) CBS News on Parrot Crisis (ref our Peace Abbey speaker this Saturday)
2) Free Screening of FOOD, INC Thursday & The Free-Range Myth
3) Resource List of Veg/ Animal/ Environment Related Films
1) CBS NEWS ON PARROT CRISIS
This beautifully presented recent (6/21/09) piece by CBS News on the parrot crisis is a good introduction for our speaker this Saturday at the Peace Abbey.
Bye Bye Birdie
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5101167n&tag=contentMain;contentBody
or try http://tinyurl.com/knd5ef
2) FREE SCREENING OF FOOD, INC., & THE FREE-RANGE MYTH
If you haven't yet seen Food, Inc., you have a chance to see it for FREE tomorrow, Thursday, July 16, at 7:30 P:M. at
Coolidge Corner Theatre
290 Harvard Street
Brookline MA
Will be in theatre 2 that holds 220. Ticketing will begin at 6:30 PM, though you can arrive earlier in case there is a line.
If you miss the free screening, you can still pay admission to see this film before it leaves the area. It does not mention veg*m but should, through images not generally available to the mainstream moviegoer, move some viewers in this direction, as it did this reviewer from Stuff Boston:
"I learned a lot in this movie, and think you will too. Who knew that a sweet two-year-old kid could drop dead from eating two yummy little burgers?... Go once, take a friend the next time, and you can both take the veggie pledge together."
http://stuffboston.com/daily/archive/2009/06/19/food-for-thought.aspx
http://www.foodincmovie.com/
More Reviews: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/foodinc
It is at the Coolidge Corner Theatre and also at
Kendall Square Cinema
1 Kendall Square, Cambridge MA
And since Food, Inc. ends with some bucolic scenes of "free-range" pigs, this recent article in Slate.com should be companion reading to the film:
Slate.com
June 29, 2009
Hog Heaven? Life is no picnic for free-range pigs.
"In this age of deeply convincing attacks on factory farms, consumers must be careful not to immediately assume that every alternative to factory farming is as 'all natural' or humane as its advocates will inevitably declare." Read full article:
http://www.slate.com/id/2221754/
And this: How Free Is “Free-Range”?
http://www.cok.net/lit/freerange.php
3) VEG, ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH, ANIMAL RELATED FILMS
While we are talking about movies, I've compiled a list of relatively new films that are now available online or on DVD that promote environmentally and animal friendly veg eating. A few we have screened at BVS, and a couple I have not seen yet and thus cannot vouch for them. Here is a list of film resources that you can explore.
A Delicate Balance (Australia)
84 minutes
A Delicate Balance documents the latest discoveries of some of the most prominent experts on nutrition in the world. Over 50 years of research is skilfully woven into what feels like a detective unravelling the mysteries behind the disease epidemic which has struck affluent countries with a vengeance - disease has been escalating over the last 50 years resulting in 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women being diagnosed with cancer. Watching this film will help you make informed choices about your health and the environment around you and how to reduce your personal impact
http://adelicatebalance.com.au/
A Life Connected
12 minutes
"We believe people are born with values that connect them to humanity and the rest of the world in which they live -- values of justice, kindness and compassion. Our task is to help each other reconnect."
http://www.nonviolenceunited.org/veganvideo.html watch it online
Eating
88 minutes
"Join over 20 million people throughout the world who have watched this award-winning film. It covers a lot of ground very comprehensively. Among the many highlights are interviews with Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Neil Pinckney, Dr. Ruth Heidrich and Dr. Joseph Crowe... What you will get is a virtual one-on-one consultation with some of the world's leading authorities on heart disease reversal." Includes environmental and ethical segments.
www.ravediet.com
Meat the Truth
73 minutes
A Dutch-produced documentary, Meat the Truth is done in the style of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and presents the case for meat production's impact on climate change. It is a must-see companion film to An Inconvenient Truth, presenting the critical information omitted from the earlier film and contributing to societal discussion about movement towards plant-based diets and thus also a more humane society.
www.meatthetruth.com
http://www.meatthetruth.nl/content/view/114
Peaceable Kingdom : The Journey Home
"Offers a touching portrait of five animal farmers struggling with the ethical tensions inherent in their way of life."
and
The Witness
43 minutes
"THE WITNESS is one man’s truth that cries out for mass exposure… may be the most important and persuasive film about animals ever made.”
The Witness and Peaceable Kingdom are both available from
http://www.tribeofheart.org/
Processed People
"Processed People features in-depth discussions with leading health and environmental experts/advocates detailing why so many of us are sick, and offers solutions to our current devastating health crisis. It features insightful interviews from nine preeminent health and environmental experts/advocates. They discuss how and why Americans got into this mess, and what we can do to break the “processed people” cycle. The DVD contains the full documentary (40 minutes) along with 140 additional minutes of extended personal interviews with the experts, plus another 25 minutes of special feature items."
www.processedpeople.com
Seeing Through the Fence
83 minutes
Through a series of humorous and poignant interviews conducted across the US and in Greece with "random people," the documentarian's family, and activists, "Seeing Through the Fence" explores our attitudes about the role of food in modern society and our connection, or lack of connection, with both the processes and animals from which our food originates, asking the question, 'What prevents ethical principles from being advanced to action?'
http://www.porchlifeproductions.com/
Sustainable Table
52 minutes
Over nine months, Mischa Hedges and Digital Sense Productions traveled the west coast to learn more about our food system. During production, he found that the standard methods of producing food do not take environmental or human health costs into consideration. He also explored the many alternatives to the current agricultural system. Includes interviews with Howard Lyman ("Mad Cowboy") and Kenneth Williams (vegan bodybuilder).
http://www.sustainabletablemovie.com/home.html
The Animals Film
25th Anniversary Edition, 120 minutes
"The most impressive film maudit, possibly too hot to handle, is Victor Schonfeld's The Animals Film, a polemical onslaught, stuffed with footage never before shown, and a wealth of newly-shot material often taken undercover, which documents...mankind's degradation, exploitation, and often pointless torture, of the creatures who share our planet... I do not know when I have come out of a screening so moved by the power of the cinema as a medium to transform the entire sensibility of an audience."
http://www.victorschonfeld.com/
The True Cost of Food
by The Sierra Club Sustainable Consumption Committee Mission
15 minutes, and a 7-minute abridged version; DVD or watch online
To encourage people to think about the environmental impacts of their consumption choices by providing specific information.
http://www.sierraclub.org/truecostoffood/movie.asp watch online
Earthlings
90 minutes
Narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, music by Moby
Award-winning documentary film about the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment and medical research. Caution: Content is extremely graphic and disturbing throughout.
http://www.earthlings.com/
I hope something here is useful to you!