Awareness Film Night

The Marketing of Madness: The Truth About Psychotropic Drugs

The ‘Marketing of Madness’ is the definitive documentary on the psychiatric drugging industry. Here is the real story of the high income partnership between psychiatry and drug companies that has created an $80 billion psychotropic drug profit centre.

But appearances are deceiving. How valid are psychiatrists’ diagnoses – and how safe are their drugs? Digging deep beneath the corporate veneer, this three-part documentary exposes the truth behind the slick marketing schemes and scientific deceit that conceal dangerous and often deadly sales campaigns.

Watch on-line: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhwu4pSLBRk

Hello moviegoers……………”The Economics of Happiness” will screen this Wednesday, May 11th. Co-sponsored with Sooke
Transition Town, it will be the season finale for Awareness Film Night. This visually stunning film offers a refreshing take on the importance of local communities in shaping happy, healthy futures. The film connects the dots between climate chaos, economic meltdown and our own personal suffering – stress, loneliness and depression. Following the film there will be a panel discussion with Michael Tacon and Andrew Moore, two of the Sooke Transition Town initiators, Frederique Philip, co-owner of the Sooke Harbour House and John Horgan, our local MLA. The screening will be held at the Edward Milne Community School theatre, 6218 Sooke Rd. in Sooke at 7 p.m. Admission is by donation.

Info: http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/

Awareness Film Night and Sooke Food CHI will present their annual Gardening and Farming Gala. The featured film will be the Canadian premiere of  “The Greenhorns”, a film that explores the lives of young farmers, their spirit, hopes, practices and needs. The filmmakers journeyed across the U.S. meeting with enterprising greenhorn farmers. (Greenhorn: a new entrant into agriculture.) They found descendants of farm families, punky inner-city gardeners, homesteaders, radical Christians, anarcho-activists, ex-suburbanites, graduates with biological science degrees, ex-teachers, ex-poets, ex-cowboys, all shovel ready, shovel sharp. “They are popping up as we reclaim human spaces in the broad lazerland of monoculture that has engulfed America”, say the filmmakers, whose hope it is “to build the case for those considering a ‘career’ in agriculture – to embolden them, to entice them and recruit them into farming.”

To further entice moviegoers and budding farmers, the evening will be buzzing with activity. Following the film there will be a panel discussion with four Sooke and Victoria area young farmers: Marika Nagasaka from ALM Farm, Teresa Willman of Silver Cloud Farm, Ian King of Lobrunner Farm and Adam Saab of Sea Bluff Farm. They will discuss the rewards and pitfalls of establishing a farm in our area and will answer questions from the audience. The intermission between the screening and the panel will feature Sooke’s First Annual Nettle Festival with samples of tasty nettle treats (without the sting!) made by the EMCS Culinary Arts class, along with nettle recipes and maybe even a poem or two. There will also be a raffle for dinner for four at Marcus’ Restaurant. There will be booths with local farming information as well as local farming products for sale and a plant/seedling exchange table. Tea and goodies will be available by donation, created especially for the gala by Culinary Arts. This will be a kid-friendly evening; teens are especially encouraged to attend. Proceeds will go to purchasing picking equipment for the Sooke Food CHI’s Fruit Tree Gleaning Project. This project kicks into action in the late summer when fruit trees in our area are laden with fruit that often goes unpicked and unused except by wasps, raccoons and bears. A call to the Food CHI Project Coordinator will yield volunteer pickers with picking equipment who will pick the fruit, giving some to the tree owners, keeping some for themselves and donating the rest to the food bank, the crisis center, the Senior’s Center and any other free meal providers in Sooke.

The Gardening and Farming Gala will be held at the Edward Milne Community School. Doors open at 6:45; film starts at 7:15. Admission is by donation. Bring your favourite nettle recipe and any extra seeds or plants from your garden to share.

Info:http://www.thegreenhorns.net/

This Wednesday, March 9th, is the Awareness Film Night screening of British investigative journalist and filmmaker John Pilger’s latest documentary “The War You Don’t See”, about the media’s role in promoting and glorifying war. Usual time and place. By donation.

A powerful and timely investigation into the media’s role in war, tracing the history of embedded and independent reporting from the carnage of World War One to the destruction of Hiroshima, and from the invasion of Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan and disaster in Iraq.

Info: http://johnpilger.com/videos/the-war-you-dont-see-trailer

A reminder that Awareness Film Night is this Wednesday, Feb. 9th. We will be screening “Occupation Has No Future”, an inspiring and revealing 2010 film that focuses on Israelis and Palestinians peacefully organizing against militarism and occupation. The film will be followed by a talk by Kevin Neish, a Victoria resident detailing his experiences on board the Gaza aid boat the Mavi Marmara last May when it was ambushed by Israeli commandos resulting in 9 civilian deaths.

7 p.m. at the Edward Milne Community School theatre, 6218 Sooke Rd.
By donation.

Info: http://www.upheavalproductions.com/articles/17/occupation-has-no-future-militarism-resistance-in-israel-palestine

On January 12th Awareness Film Night will present an hour with George Galloway. An outspoken, anti-elitist Scottish M.P. for 25 years, George Galloway is a galvanizing speaker who recently completed a cross Canada tour in which he spoke of many things, wars and (would be) kings and the state of the Canadian government and its new image around the world. Galloway joined the Labour Party in Scotland at the age of 13 and was a Labour M.P. until 2003 when he was suspended by the party for his frank opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Galloway’s initial attempt at a speaking tour of Canada in the Spring of 2009 was aborted when he was deemed admissible to Canada on “security grounds”, being called a “street corner Cromwell” by the communication director of Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney. The matter eventually went to Federal Court where a judge, in a 60-page ruling, slammed the Canadian government for wrongly banning Galloway for political reasons.

This a spellbinding film of George Galloway’s sold-out, no words minced talk in Vancouver in November that naturally serves to uproot complacency and stir up the dreary month of January.

The film will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Edward Milne Community School theatre. Admission is by donation.

Info:http://www.votegeorgegalloway.com/

In the season of giving, Awareness Film Night will be presenting December’s moviegoers with a chance to learn about and make a meaningful difference in the lives of children in Ethiopia who require corrective surgery for birth defects and accidental deformities. On December 8th there will be a screening of the Oscar-winning short documentary “Smile Pinki”. This is the story of a 5 year old girl and an 11 year old boy in India, both born with cleft lips and palates, whose lives are changed forever when they undergo a simple 45 minute operation made possible by a non-profit organization. In cinema verite tradition, this beautifully made 40 minute film concisely tells the story of the 2 childrens’ journeys from rejection and pain to a truly new life.

The evening will be a benefit for long-time Sooke resident Hum (Eric Anderson) who has been volunteering with a small non-profit group that is doing the same service in remote Ethiopian villages. Hum will be presenting a slide show and talk showing the work and the children he has been helping over the years during his annual 1 month sojourn to Ethiopia (on his own dime). His task has been to get himself to often very remote villages and seek out and gather up children with cleft lips, club feet or other birth defects or physical deformities caused by accidents and arrange for them to have surgeries in Addis Ababa. Here is an excerpt from the International Children’s Outreach Network newsletter: “Hum arived in Galela on market day and locals from miles around had gathered to buy, sell and visit. He made it known that we were interested in finding kids with birth defects, burns, etc. It appeared that most of the locals had never seen a doctor. Not only did he locate 15 new cleft lip cases, but there were numerous polio cases, many cases of goiter and various other maladies.” The hospital time and surgeon fees are donated, but transportation costs and food and lodging after the surgeries are expenses that are born by donations from people in more fortunate countries. Hum will be headed to Africa in January and Awareness Film Night is hoping we can add some checks, big or small, from the people of Sooke to his suitcase. Showtime is at 7 p.m. in the Edward Milne Community School theatre. Admission is by donation.

Info: http://www.smilepinki.com/

Hi moviegoers………….here are the details of the upcoming November Awareness Film Night

Imagine half a million adults skipping town and leaving their children behind. Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across this planet, literally vanishing from their hives. Not only do bees abandon their hive, but the queen and brood as well. Unnatural. Unheard of. Even the predators that usually raid the hive for honey stay far away. On November 10, Awareness Film Night will present the documentary “Vanishing of the Bees”. The screening will be followed with a discussion and information session with master beekeeper Bob Liptrot of Tugwell Creek Honey Farm and Meadery.

For the past 5 million years this furry insect has been a creature of special sanctity. Prehistoric petroglyphs depict women on honey hunts and ancient Egyptians farmers floated beehives on rafts down the Nile to pollinate crops. Today commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every 3 bites of food on our tables. “Colony Collapse Disorder” has brought beekeepers, and, potentially, our very food supply, to a crisis. Filming across the U.S., Europe, Australia and Asia, “Vanishing of the Bees” unfolds as a tale of science and mystery, illuminating this extraordinary crisis and its greater meaning about the relationship between humankind and mother earth. Do we need to rethink our ways of living and of beekeeping? This film provides viewers with tangible solutions they can apply to their everyday lives.

Following the screening, moviegoers will have the opportunity to learn more about what is taking place in hives on Vancouver Island and specifically in Sooke and what we can do to help save our honeybees.  Local beekeeper Bob Liptrot has more than 30 years of beekeeping experience, has a Masters Degree in Apicultural Sciences and teaches courses in beekeeping. His fascinating wealth of information on bees, their delight and their plight, is not to be missed.  “Vanishing of the Bees” will not be in the Awareness Film Night film library, as we only have it on loan for the screening. Showtime is at 7 p.m. at the Edward Milne Community School theatre. Admission is by donation.

Info: http://www.vanishingbees.com/

This Wednesday, October 13th Awareness Film Night kicks off its 17th season with the film “Black Wave: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez”. Twenty years later the environmental, economic and social devastation persists, reminding us that as yet no safe effective technology exists for cleaning up oil spills and that the oil industry is wont to make lots of promises and assurances that it does not keep. Film followed by a discussion with Eric Swanson of the Dogwood Initiative on what we can do to prevent oil spills in B.C.  7 p.m. Edward Milne Community School theatre, 6218 Sooke Rd. in Sooke. Admission is by donation. (This film will not be in the AFN library after the screening.)

Info: http://www.blackwavethefilm.com/

Just a reminder that this Wednesday (June 16)  Awareness Film Night presents “In Transition”, a 2009 film that shows how to imagine and build more resilient communities using less fossil fuel than our present lifestyles. The film is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour. It shows how to begin rebuilding local economies and communities. The film is positive, focused on solutions, and fun. After the screening, representatives from Transition Victoria will join Transition Sooke initiators to discuss issues and opportunities to make Sooke and the region more resilient in the face of coming global changes. This is the final Awareness Film Night of the season. Showtime is 7 p.m. at the Edward Milne Community School theatre, 6218 Sooke Rd. in Sooke. Admission is by donation.