Awareness Film Night

The Northern Gateway Pipeline Project is a proposal by Calgary’s Enbridge corporation to construct a 1,170 kilometer oil pipeline from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat, B.C.  The pipeline would cross 773 watercourses and bring supertankers to B.C.’s pristine North coast for the first time ever in order to deliver Tar Sands bitumen to Asian markets.  In the summer of 2010, filmmaker Frank Wolf and his friend Todd McGowan biked, hiked and rafted and kayaked the GPS track of the pipeline  in order to uncover the truth about the proposal.  Through the voices of the people they meet along the way, their rough and tumble journey reveals the severe risks and consequences associated with this 5.5 billion dollar mega project.

The screening will be attended by Celine Trojand of the Dogwood Initiative who will be able to update moviegoers and answer questions about the current status of all the proposed pipelines for B.C.  and about how we can most effectively voice our concern about these pipelines and the potential for a serious environmental disaster that they pose.  Celine earned a degree in Anthropology from UBC Okanagan and began working for the Dogwood in 2009. She has weathered 2 election campaigns, the BC Liberal leadership race and countless rallies.  She still does not enjoy rally chanting but is unfalteringly devoted to building power in communities and empowering individuals across the province.

An inspirational film focusing on the Transition movement. Sixteen stories from 7 countries around the world of people doing such things as printing their own community money, growing their food in unexpected places, localizing their economies and setting up their own community power stations.  In a world of increasing uncertainty, here is a story of hope and ingenuity.

The screening will be followed by a discussion featuring two Sooke Transition Town members:  Erik Bjornson of Natural Landscape Solutions and Mary Coll, a local farmer who studied permaculture in Ireland with Transition Movement founder Rob Hopkins.  The discussion will be facilitated by Sooke Transition Town Society’s Margaret Critchlow.  The focus will be on what projects filmgoers would like to see the local Transition group tackle in the Sooke area, such as a local Time Bank and/or organizing street or “pod”-based initiatives in the community where neighbors gather together to work on concerns or plans for the streets or areas where they live or work.  Come and bring your own hopes and ingenuity.

Here is a reminder that on Sunday Sept 23rd we are having the second annual Sooke Slow Food Cycle. It is looking like it will be bigger and better than last years, with a slightly changed venue. The ride starts and finishes at EMCS in Sooke, where there will also be the “Collective Transitions”, a Bike and Sustainability Expo and Farmers Market that will be open to the public. Lots of workshops on the ride as well, which is about 30k if you do the whole route.

Awareness Film Night will be screening 4 hours of short films on a wide variety of sustainability and resilience-related topics in the theatre at EMCS as part of the Sooke Slow Food Cycle.

For details about the Cycle go to the webpage, or the Sooke Slow Food Cycle Facebook Page, or follow SookeSlowFood on Twitter.

An exploration of working cooperatives, both as businesses and service providers, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, the U.S. and Canada. The film will be followed by a discussion on the possibilities for cooperatives in the Sooke area led by Andrew Moore and Don Brown both of whom have education and expertise in the work of establishing cooperatives and decades of experience in guiding people who are interesting in doing so.

Filmmaker Richard Boyce embarks upon a notably heartfelt and thought-provoking journey contrasting the tree farms that dominate the landscape surrounding his home with the ancient rainforest on Vancouver Island.  “RainForest” recently won the Best Mountain Culture Film Award at the Whistler Film Festival 2011. The jury praised the film for “re-exposing our most critical environmental issue while at the same time pushing the cinematic experience and limits of storytelling, cinematography and editing.”

Inspired by the Kwakwaka’wakw chief Kwaxsistalla, this powerful and moving documentary provides us with an intimate glimpse into the First Nation’s traditional relationship with the forest, juxtaposed with Boyce’s very personal perspective on the decades-long fight to save Vancouver Island’s thousand year-old trees from clear-cutting practices. Boyce takes his camera high up into the forest canopy, providing us with a unique cinematic experience of the rich forest ecosystem.

After the hour-long screening there will be a discussion and question session with TJ Watt from the Ancient Forest Alliance. TJ is a local conservation photographer and avid big tree hunter from Metchosin.  Two years ago he and long time activist Ken Wu co-founded the Ancient Forest Alliance, an organization that works to protect BC endangered old growth forests and forestry jobs.  The group recently celebrated their first campaign victory with the protection of the spectacular Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew.

Proceeds from the film night will go to the Ancient Forest Alliance.

More info: http://rainforestmovie.ca/

Annual Farming and Gardening Gala co-presented with Sooke Region Food CHI and featuring the film “To Make a Farm”, a visually beautiful and very real exploration of the ups and downs in the lives of 5 young Canadian farmers over the course of an entire year. The evening will also feature a chance to discuss gardening/farming questions with local growers, booths, a seed exchange and tea and goodies (by donation) prepared by the EMCS Culinary Arts class. It takes a community to feed a community. 7 p.m. to 9:30 Edward Milne Community School Theatre, 6218 Sooke Rd. in Sooke. By donation. Proceeds this month to: Farmer2Farmer Network

Info: http://tomakeafarm.ca/

Feb. 8th is the Awareness Film Night screening of “Peace Out”, a beautifully put together and dynamic film that explores the plans afoot for energy extraction in the vast Peace River region of B.C., including a mega dam, tens of thousands of hydro-fracked shale gas wells and a nuclear power plant.

The screening will be attended by Fabio Wilkinson, one of the filmmakers, local MLA John Horgan and award-winning investigative journalist and CCPA policy analyst Ben Parfitt, who will present a short power point on fracking in the Peace, what it is and what it does.  Showtime is at 7:00 and the evening will adjourn at 9:30 rather than the usual 9:00 so that there will be time for discussion and questions from the audience for Fabio, Ben and John.  Admission is by donation to the Peace Valley Environment Association.

This film will not be in the Awareness Film Night library after the screening, so come out and see it on the big screen and be there for the discussion.

Info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2016259/plotsummary

“2012: Time for Change” presents an optimistic alternative to apocalyptic doom and gloom. Directed by Emmy Award nominee João Amorim, the film follows journalist Daniel Pinchbeck, author of the bestselling 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, on a quest for a new paradigm that integrates the archaic wisdom of tribal cultures with the scientific method. As conscious agents of evolution, we can redesign post-industrial society on ecological principles to make a world that works for all. Rather than breakdown and barbarism, 2012 heralds the birth of a regenerative planetary culture where collaboration replaces competition, where exploration of psyche and spirit becomes the new cutting edge, replacing the sterile materialism that has pushed our world to the brink.

Just a quick reminder that the Awareness Film Night’s screening of “2012: Time For Change” will be this Wednesday (Jan.11) at 7 p.m. in the EMCS theatre (as usual). There will be a brief discussion after the film, open to all moviegoers who wish to participate, focusing on ideas for implementing change in the new year. 

Info: http://www.2012timeforchange.com/

Wednesday (December 14th) is the screening of the film “Schooling The World: The White Man’s Last Burden”. This is a beautifully filmed one hour long documentary that explores what happens when we replace a traditional culture’s way of learning about and understanding the world with that of the Western world, designed to prepare children for a world that, for the most part, is unavailable to them.

The evening will be a benefit for International Children’s Outreach Network (www.iconforkids.org), the organization that Sooke resident Hum (Eric Anderson) donates his January to every year, at his own expense. Hum presented a slide show and talk at the December 2010 Awareness Film Night describing his work in the remote areas of Ethiopia, seeking out and transporting children who have birth defects or disabling burns to a distant city hospital where they can be given life-changing surgeries and even lengthy rehabilitation for free or minimal costs. This is a good chance to donate to a small organization that is volunteer-run so that it can give 100% of its donations to the work at hand with people who have few material possessions and no money.

Showtime is at 7 p.m. at the Edward Milne Community School theatre. Admission is by donation.

Info: http://schoolingtheworld.org/

Hello moviegoers………….just a reminder that Awareness Film night’s SMART METER INFORMATION NIGHT will be this Wednesday (Nov. 9th) The evening will feature the hour long film “Full Signal” followed by a question period with Saanich electrician Walter McGinnis. The film is a basic primer in RF radiation that talks to scientists from around the world who are investigating the health effects related to our rapidly increasing array of RF-producing technology. Walt McGinnis has been an electrician for over 25 years and has been researching and testing for electromagnectic and RF radiation for over 10 years. Bring your curiosity and your smart meter questions. 7 p.m. Edward Milne Community School, 6218 Sooke Rd. in Sooke. By donation.

Info: http://fullsignalmovie.com/