Showing posts with label Silverdocs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silverdocs. Show all posts

Monday, June 18, 2012

Films of Interest at Silverdocs

By Gary Berg-Cross
AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival, takes place June 18-24, 2012. The shows are in and around downtown Silver Spring, Maryland so if you are in the MD-Washington, DC area it’s a great event.
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s “Detropia” film about Detroit is getting buzz & kudos. It tells the familiar story of the city’s demise through a slightly new lens, focusing on the poor and working-class African American communities that have been displaced, not just by the economic crisis but also by proposed responses to it.
Two candidates of high interest to Secular Perspective readers are THE REVISIONARIES and “The Source”. At the center of The REVISIONARIES is Don McLeroy, whom Texas governor Rick Perry appointed to chair the Board in 2009, and who waged the war over intelligent design instruction. A full-time dentist, over-time ignoramus, and character straight out of a Christopher Guest film, McLeroy — who believes that the earth is 6000 years old — represents more than just his own state's problem with science.

Of “The REVISIONARIES the WAPO review said:
‘Forget “Prometheus”; the scariest movie of the summer is this revealing look at the Texas State Board of Education, led by evolution-denier and dentist Don McLeroy. Director Scott Thurman chronicles the board’s review of textbook standards, which McLeroy and his cohorts seek to revise by emphasizing creationism and casting doubt on scientific empiricism.‘
The schedule is:
6:00 PM Fri, Jun 22
AFI Silver Theatre 2
8:15 PM Sat, Jun 23

The Source takes place in an early 1970s LA. We see a man called Jim Baker who opened a vegetarian restaurant, called The Source, on Sunset Boulevard. It became a hot spots on the Sunset Strip, “catering to a who’s who of actors, musicians, scenesters” and celebs like John Lennon and Frank Zappa dropping in to dine on creations like Rainbow Salad. Another favorite was a huge bowl called "Aware Salad," which, featuring lettuce, grated beets and carrots, red cabbage, alfalfa sprouts, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, cucumbers, tomatoes and avocado.
But it was also home base to one of L.A.’s most notorious cults, The Source Family:
“ a 140-strong New Age congregation presided over by that eccentric restaurateur James Baker, A.K.A. Father Yod.

The film shown on Fri, Jun 22, 10:45 at the PM AFI Silver Theatre uses archival footage and contemporary interviews to provide:
“ a fascinating psychedelic journey into the life and death of a cult.” 

For more see the full schedule.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

DC Filmfests- Humanist Treats


by Gary Berg-Cross

March has snuck up on me. I didn’t know that it was World Water Day March 22nd until it was upon me. Lots of events in DC around the same week. The DC Water For People group helps people in developing countries improve quality of life by supporting the development of locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities, and hygiene education programs organized. They have a new video here and an info page too!


In celebration with this year’s Environmental Film Festival (ongoing till March 25th) they are premiering Last Call at the Oasis at the film festival on Wednesday, he 21st.

Which brings me to DC's annual 20th Environmental Film Festival (EFF). It is just one of several film festivals we have that make the area a real film going pleasure. The 26th Annual Filmfest DC is April 12 – 22 and Silverdocs is June 18-24. Many of them offer secular and humanistic gems that advance public understanding of things like the environment through the power of film. And they often are shown in culturally interesting venues such as the National Geographic Society, the Carnegie Institution for Science, National Building Museum, various universities and embassies. There’s something for everyone with topics on water, sustainability, architecture, nature. I’d love to see Happy, IN ORGANIC WE TRUST or BIOPHILIC DESIGN: THE ARCHITECTURE OF LIFE shown as part of the multi-day, multi-venue Health and the Environment Film Series. The summary for BIOPHILIC is catching:

Embark on a journey from our evolutionary past and the origins of architecture to the world’s most celebrated buildings in a search for the architecture of life. The film showcases buildings that connect people and nature...



LIFE: CHALLENGES OF LIFE is another one:

Capturing the extraordinary things animals and plants must do to survive and reproduce, this film documents the actions of an array of creatures. Witness amazing behavior, captured at 1,000 frames per second...

And its being shown with BROKEN TAIL: A TIGER'S LAST JOURNEY, ELSA: THE LIONESS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, HELGOLAND: ISLAND IN THE STORM and MY LIFE AS A TURKEY

Too many good things to catch them all. That’s one reason I was excited to see that SnagFilms is presenting select documentary films from the festival online. Bravo.