Past Selections

November 2015:  Wilderness Journey – The UUA and Black Empowerment

Wilderness Journey is an oral history of the controversy around race which nearly destroyed the fledgling Unitarian Universalist Association in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The movie consists of testimonies from first-hand participants in a contentious period of our history.

April 2015:  Energy Crossroads:  A Burning Need to Change Course

March 2015:  A Wisdom to Survive

Climate change is taking place. Will we have the wisdom to survive?  The film features thought leaders and activists in the realms of science, economics and spirituality.  The focus: how we can live creatively and even joyfully in the face of this catastrophe. Because they are doing the work that needs to be done, they inspire the viewer to want to join the “team.”

January 2015:  Collapse

A documentary on Michael Ruppert, a police officer turned independent reporter who predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter, From the Wilderness.  Michael Ruppert was born on February 3, 1951 in Washington, D.C., USA. He was a writer, known for Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (2011), The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream (2004) and Aftermath: Unanswered Questions from 9/11(2003).

November 2014:  Broken on All Sides: Race, Mass Incarceration & New Visions for Criminal Justice in the U.S.

“Broken on All Sides” graphically shows the injustices resulting from the drug wars, and offers a glimpse into the lives of prisoners and their families, many of them serving long sentences for minor offenses.  It speaks to the racism inherent in the system and the cruelty inflicted on the poor and defenseless.

September 2014:  Spaceship Earth and Power Shift

“Spaceship Earth” featured Sting, B-52’s, Ziggy Marley and Enya and was hosted entirely by young people.  The second, “Power Shift” included Cameron Diaz and others.  The music was great and the messages about the environmental sustainability were powerful.  Both films were suitable for teens and tweens.

June 2014:  Renewal

This documentary contains inspiring stories available to people and organizations who want to be a part of this growing movement to protect life on our planet and reverse the damage that humans have done to the environment.

May 2014:  Inequality for All

This film educates viewers about the need to approach the problem of widening income inequality from 6 different directions. The trick is to understand how they all fit together while choosing manageable actions that make sense to who you are.

April 2014:  Earth: The Operators’ Manual Part 2: POWERING THE PLANET

Case studies from nations that have made choices to tap local energy resources: Brazil for sugar cane, Denmark for wind, Spain and Morocco for sunshine, and China with “all of the above,” including clean coal and carbon sequestration… and a question as to whether America has made smart decisions for its own national energy policies.

March 2014:  Standing on Her Sisters’ Shoulders

This award-winning documentary about the Mississippi Civil Rights heroines has been shown worldwide and has inspired those who have seen it to register to vote and become active in the continuing struggle for equal rights.

February 2014:  Homeland:  Four Portraits of Native Action

Filmed against some of America’s most spectacular backdrops, from Alaska to Maine and Montana to New Mexico, Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action profiles the against-all-odds struggles of Native American leaders who are taking on powerful energy companies and government agencies to protect the environment for all Americans. A moving tribute to the power of grassroots organizing, Homeland is also a call-to-action against the current dismantling of thirty years of environmental laws.

January 2014:  Earth:  The Operators’ Manual (ETOM)

An operator’s manual helps keep your car or computer running at peak performance. Earth science can do the same for the planet. To illustrate the evidence and the way forward, host Richard Alley, takes viewers on a High-Definition trip around the globe, from New Zealand to New Orleans, telling the story of Earth’s climate history and our relationship with fossil fuels.

October 2013:  War on the Whistleblowers

Greenwald chronicles the sagas of four individuals — Michael DeKort, Thomas Drake, Franz Gayl and Thomas Tamm — with one experience in common: They discovered malfeasance within the government, reported the information to their superiors, were ignored and ultimately went to the press. OK, two experiences in common: The ordeal left their lives in tatters.

September 2013:  Chasing Ice

In the spring of 2005, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment for National Geographic: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. Even with a scientific upbringing, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change. But that first trip north opened his eyes to the biggest story in human history and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his very well-being at risk.

June 2013:  City 21

The underlying quest of the filmmakers is to re-frame the conventional and uninspiring visions of the urban futures with an unprecedented combination of fresh, invigorating, sustainable, economically viable, and life enhancing concepts.

May 2013:  Entre Nos

Entre Nos is a bio/true story about a woman’s struggle to survive in New York City with her two children after being abandoned by her husband. The main character, Mariana, totes her two children from the country and culture of Colombia to reunite with her husband in Queens, New York. Her life is devastatingly turned around when her husband abandons the family. As a result, Mariana now struggles with unemployment, eviction letters, eviction notice forms, how to speak fluent English, and experiencing the earliest signs of pregnancy. With no where to go Mariana starts experience various types of stress due to her misfortunes. Mariana and her kids have to now be equipped to survive in living in a foreign country as Mariana desperately searches for jobs hiring in NYC. In the end, Mariana resourcefully navigates a surprising avenue for making some money by using recycle containers to recycle for cash.

April 2013:  The Hungry Tide

The central Pacific nation of Kiribati is one of the countries in the world most vulnerable to climate change.  Sea level rise and increasing salinity are threatening the lives of  105,000 people spread over 33 atolls in this remote corner of the Pacific.  It’s the same ocean, which for generations has sustained the country that is now the source of its destruction.

March 2013:  I Am

I AM recounts what happened to a filmmaker after a cycling accident left him incapacitated, possibly for good. Though he ultimately recovered, he emerged a changed man. Disillusioned with life on the A-list, he sold his house, moved to a mobile home community, and decided to start life anew. Armed with nothing but his innate curiosity and a camera crew, Shadyac embarks upon a journey to discover how he as an individual, and we as a race, can improve the way we live.

February 2013:  The World According to Monsanto

There’s nothing they are leaving untouched: the mustard, the okra, the bringe oil, the rice, the cauliflower. Once they have established the norm: that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow.