Mixed Greens (Monthly Screening)

Last Friday of Every Month, 6:45pm

Gardiner Museum
111 Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario

 

Pay-What-You-Can ($7.00 suggested)
No advance sales, admission at the door

 

Planet in Focus: 416 531 4689
Gardiner Museum: 416 586 8080
www.gardinermuseum.on.ca

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in the days when the auto industry was booming Motown was the model city, where the working class moved into the middle class. Now Detroit is a city of vacant lots and dangerous gangs; a city where finding fresh food and public transit are challenges. It's the last place you'd think of for a green revolution with teen moms at the wheel. Welcome to the Catherine Ferguson Academy where classes and childcare go hand in hand. Students learn planting, harvesting and bee-keeping on an urban farm and must figure out how they can profit from the fruits of their labour. The future is bright for these young moms - as future farmers cultivating healthy food for the residents of Detroit. With 500,000 pregnant girls in the US dropping out lets hope more of these schools sprout as well.

 

 

 

 

"For us to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other. Without these lies, deplorable acts would become impossibilities." These words from population ecologist Dr. William Rees introduce Crude Sacrifice, which catalogues the various lies, injustices and contradictions buried in Alberta's infamous Tar Sands. Incorporating a multitude of perspectives, the film digs into some of the area's most controversial stories. We meet Dr. John O'Connor, accused of causing 'undue alarm' for suggesting the cancer rates at a native community downstream of the Tar Sands could have environmental causes. We hear appeals from residents of Fort McMurray, who have reaped the economic benefits of the Sands. We get a glimpse into Alberta's Parliament, where the Tar Sands are the subject of petty squabbling. Produced without any financial assistance from government or corporate interests, Crude Sacrifice is thorough, angry, fair, honest and essential.

 

 

 

 

The Zabbaleen are a culture of Coptic Christians living in Egypt, who make a living through garbage collection and recycling. With a fluid, impressionistic style worthy of Kiarostami, this film gives a close-up look at the daily life of one Zabbaleen family, at the center of which is Marina, a young girl with luminous eyes, who hopes to one day become a doctor. Deeply empathic, rich in symbolism and filled with unforgettable scenes - a wrenching confrontation with a cruel landlady, a visit to a massive church carved out of the side of a mountain - Marina of the Zabbaleen is a haunting film that unwinds with the rhythms of a religious ritual. It is both a document of social stratification in Egypt, and an artwork of transcendent beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

This Land
Canada, 35 min
Canadian sovereignty over the Arctic is reaffirmed on the northernmost tip of Canadian soil. Seven Canadian and Inuit Rangers and one female documentary filmmaker set out to cover more than 2000 km of the harshest terrain on the planet, in March 2007. Their mission was to raise the flag, on the furthest reach of Canadian soil, 412 km from the North Pole. Enduring extreme temperatures hovering around -50C, they confronted blizzards, labyrinths of crushed sea ice and near-impassable glaciers while maintaining their optimism and solidarity throughout. Diane Whelan creates a captivating northern odyssey with the haunting soundtrack by Nunavut-born singer and narrator Tanya Tagaq and the spectacular footage of the Arctic landscape. A skidoo adventure, like no other.

 

 

 

The Evenk are the nomadic aboriginal guardians of the Taiga, located in eastern Siberia. They traverse this terrain with their beloved reindeer herds. School on the Move documents the attempt of these unique people to preserve their cultural traditions with the support of anthropologist Alexandra Lavriller. Shot on the move, the film wistfully portrays the Evenk as they retain their language and age old habits amidst encroaching contemporary demands

 

 

 

 

 

Modernization has reached the tropical forests of South Cameroon, where the Bagyeli Pygmies struggle to maintain their traditions while adapting to new ways of life. With remarkable access, the filmmakers watch the Bagyeli people as they hunt, learn, sing, start businesses, manage conflicts with neighbouring tribes, and deal with the changes in their environment. The film focuses on three central characters: Angeline, a fiercely determined young woman; Marcelline, who works as a cook at the local hostel; and Pascal, the first Bagyeli mechanic. When the World Bank comes, on the heels of a massive EXXON oil pipeline, and introduces AIDS screening to the Bagyeli community, the pygmies find themselves pitted against the forces of global bureaucracy, in a fight to maintain their very existence. This is an urgent and compelling documentary on a unique culture in crisis.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roses are thorns in Jane's hands - with a lot of chemicals. We buy roses from Holland where the world's biggest flower auction sells 4 billion Euros of blooms a year. The 65 farms exist in Naivasha, Kenya because pay can be low and environmental constraints are flexible. Flower farm worker Jane fears being raped if she goes to the village toilet at night. She needs to have sex with her supervisor for fear of being fired. Oscar was fired and now collects water, selling it from his donkeys instead of being a job-less man. Kennedy is a fisherman who catches only one fish a day as the lake is sucked up by the flower farms. And Eunice from Worker's Rights Watch asks where do the flowers go? Only those with a fair mark can be sold in Holland, and few farms have certification. Jane's dream for her own business and school for her children float above these troubles, like the scent of a rose.

 

 

 

 

 

The Internet has arrived in Cameroon enchanting young women. There are no jobs, visas to Europe are difficult to obtain and marriage has become the only escape from poverty. The Internet has become a lottery where Cinderellas look for Caucasian Prince Charmings. North-south.com is not a fairy tale but a cautionary story about young women hoping to meet rich husbands in France and Belgium on-line. Yolande and Marie are two naive girls to whom Europe is a paradise. They have yet to meet the perverts who will ask for photos of their private parts. Josy and Sylvie have met their Prince Charming, but are greeted with cold receptions in Europe. And then there are the internet consultants who provide connections and reality checks and Mandy, the girl with the horror story. Africa is surfing because Africa is suffering, but internet marriages are not the happy-ever-after these Cinderellas had hoped for.

 

 

 

In Pançevo, Serbia, a biohazard alarm goes off every few days, announcing that the air has gone toxic again. Thanks to the astronomical levels of benzene pumped out by a nearby petrochemical plant, the local newspaper has declared the city 'the largest gas chamber in the world.' The citizens here feel betrayed, by the government, by the UN, by the owners of the industrial complexes that pollute its air, and by climate change crusader Al Gore, who gets singled out for his role in the Balkan war - a role that, some in Pançevo claim, directly contributed to the poisoning of their environment. A blistering j'accuse from a choked city tired of seeing their infants in oxygen masks.
 

 

Global travel and the transformation of a seaside community in India are the subjects of this film by Hasse Wester, a Swede who lived among the Halakki Gowdas people for more than a year, learning their language and customs. When Wester returns to the beach 20 years after his first visit, much has changed: villagers who once farmed together now run competing cafes to service the growing number of Western tourists, and money has replaced peace as the treasure of choice. By integrating himself into the story, Wester has made a film that questions what happens when our fantasies overlap with other cultures’ homes, and illuminates the moral ambiguities of pleasure seeking in foreign places.

 

 

 

 

As even ecologists reconsider nuclear as an alternative to burning carbon, Radioactive Waste: The Nuclear Nightmare examines the impact of nuclear waste for the near future and next hundreds of thousands of years. The 'energy of the future' is astutely dissected- clearly outlining how nuclear power is generated, how waste is created and systematically uncovers what happens to waste produced in nuclear plants in France. The public relations myth that 'waste is recycled' unravels as the final destination of tons of contaminated material is revealed. Key to this film is its use of Google map imagery and clear animation to counter the red tape and political double-speak. Radioactive Waste is allowed incredible access to French nuclear plants, recycling facilities, and the archives of Greenpeace Europe and testing facilities of CRIIRAD. And while some hope is presented for the future, you'll want answers from our own government about what is happening to nuclear waste in Canada.

 

 

 

In a village inhabited by the Miao minority culture in China's Ghuizhou province, a young boy named Jia Xiangma receives a letter from his father, who is in Beijing working on the Bird's Nest. His friends think it must be a home for birds, but Xiangma knows it's for the Olympic Games - and decides to go to Beijing to prove it. His quest combines elements of a fish-out-of-water tale with reflections on the changing face of China, in a heartwarming story that heartily entertains as it spotlights the predicament faced by migrant workers and their families. As a portrait of a cultural minority in China, it also shows the rich diversity of a country often assumed to be culturally homogenous. Finally, the young protagonist, played by Gun Shengdiu, is a plucky hero in the tradition of Jim Hawkins or Oliver Twist - a determined youngster who's impossible not to root for.