So Fresh and So Clean: Food and Environment Film Series

@ the Maysles Cinema Supported by The Whole Foods Market

Pairing films about food and the environment to think holistically about our most pressing collective human needs. Related speakers, food demonstrations, tastings and workshops will make the connections between food reform, gardens and green economies.

Food Inc.

Dir. Robert Kenner, 2007, 94 min.

Food, Inc. lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment.

Saturday, July 10th, 7:30pm

The Cove

Dir. Louis Psihoyos, 2009, 90 min.

In a sleepy lagoon off the coast of Japan lies a shocking secret that a few desperate men will stop at nothing to keep hidden from the world. In Taiji, Japan, former dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry has come to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was O'Barry who captured and trained the 5 dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation "Flipper." One fateful day, a heartbroken Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures must never be subjected to human captivity again. This mission has brought him to Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the sleek, playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast. But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and "Keep Out" signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt. The Cove won the 2010 Academy Award for best feature documentary

Followed by a Q&A with Fisher Stevens, Actor, Cove Producer

Reception to follow sponsored by Sugar Hill Beer

Monday, July 12th, 7:30pm

Doc Watchers Presents: Curated by Hellura Lyle

Has God Forsaken Africa?

Musa Dieng Kala, 2008, 52 min.

Brussels, Belgium - August 1999. Two teenagers are found dead in the undercarriage of a plane from Conakry, Guinea. In the pocket of one of the young men was a letter in which he had written, “There’s too much suffering in Africa”.  Each year, thousands of young Africans risk their lives in search of a brighter future. Many drown or die of cold, hunger and fatigue.  Shocked by this growing phenomenon, director Musa Dieng Kala returns to Dakar, Senegal, where he grew up, and asks the painful question: Has God Forsaken Africa?  The film follows five young adults who seek to immigrate to the West at any cost.  This moving film makes the case for a global ecology in which no nation or people is abandoned.

Discussion & Reception to Follow Screening