South of the Border    2010  78 minutes    

Friday Evening, 7 PM – Feb 24
Directed by Oliver Stone

There’s a revolution underway in South America, but most of the world doesn’t know it. Oliver Stone sets out on a road trip across five countries to explore the social and political movements as well as the mainstream media’s misperception of South America while interviewing seven of its elected presidents. In casual conversations with Presidents Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Lula da Silva (Brazil), Cristina Kirchner  (Argentina), as well as her husband and ex-President Nėstor Kirchner,  Fernando Lugo  (Paraguay), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), and Raúl Castro  (Cuba), Stone gains unprecedented access and sheds new light upon the exciting transformations in the region.

Resource Person: Mrs Merli Vanegas, Venezuelan Consul General

 Rainforest: The Limit of Splendour    2011  52 minutes  

Saturday Morning, 10:00 AM – Feb 25 
Filmmaker, Richard Boyce

Inspired by Kwaxsistalla, a Kwakwaka’wakw clan chief, the filmmaker embarks upon a cinematic journey contrasting the tree-farms that dominate the landscape surrounding his home on Vancouver Island with an ancient rainforest on the Pacific Coast of Canada.

Guided by passion and a determination to honor reality, Richard Boyce travels to the most remote corner of Vancouver Island, through some of the most intensive logging on the planet, into a wilderness that is on the brink of extinction. Massive trees, ranging in age between 1,200 years old and seedlings, thrive along the banks of an ancient river floodplain, which provides for diverse life forms in the temperate rainforest.  This film is an evocative journey, contrasting forestry as practiced for ten thousand years by First Nation’s people with modern logging.

Resource Person: Director, Richard Boyce

Myths for Profit      2009  60 minutes  

Saturday Morning, 11:30AM – Feb 25 
Directed by Amy Miller

Canada the global good guy? Lets examine that claim. Essential intro to geopolitics and profits, from NATO to Afghanistan via Kosovo. 'Myths for Profit: Canada's Role In Industries of War and Peace' takes a different approach to peacekeeping, the military and development, raising all sorts of questions along the way. An entertaining, well argued documentary.

MYTH 1) 'Canada is a peacekeeping nation' examines the changes within the Canadian military policies and what has been the agenda of these actions. Particular focus is given to the role Canada has taken in NATO, the current perpetual war in Afghanistan, and how Canada played a pivotal role in pushing the policy of ‘humanitarian bombing’ in Yugoslavia in 1999.
MYTH 2) 'Canada’s military purpose is defence' By investigating the magnitude of the Canadian military industrial complex, this section probes the intersecting relationships between various government agencies and corporations as well as public complicity in this vast industry
MYTH 3) 'Canada's aid is helping people around the world' investigates how various government agencies and ministries have specific agendas they are implementing around the world.

Resource Person: Peter Prontzos

Blood and Oil     2008  52 minutes  

Saturday Afternoon, 2 PM – Feb 25 
Directed by Jeremy Earp

The notion that oil motivates America's military engagements in the Middle East has long been dismissed as nonsense or mere conspiracy theory. Blood and Oil, a new documentary based on the critically-acclaimed work of Nation magazine defense correspondent Michael T. Klare, challenges this conventional wisdom to correct the historical record. The film unearths declassified documents and highlights forgotten passages in prominent presidential doctrines to show how concerns about oil have been at the core of American foreign policy for more than 60 years – rendering our contemporary energy and military policies virtually indistinguishable. In the end, Blood and Oil calls for a radical re-thinking of US energy policy, warning that unless we change direction, we stand to be drawn into one oil war after another as the global hunt for diminishing world petroleum supplies accelerates.

Resource Person: Peter Prontzos

Queen of the Sun   2011   82 minutes 

Saturday Afternoon 3:40 PM – Feb 25  
directed and edited by Taggart Siegel

Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us? investigates the long-term causes behind the dire global bee crisis through the eyes of biodynamic beekeepers, commercial beekeepers, scientists and philosophers. QUEEN OF THE SUN features world renowned biodynamic beekeeper Gunther Hauk, New York Times bestselling-author Michael Pollan, Indian Activist Vandana Shiva, and a compelling cast of characters from around the world. Together they take us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and into the mysterious world of the beehive. The film unveils 10,000 years of beekeeping, illuminating the deep link between humans and bees and how that historic and sacred relationship has been lost due to highly mechanized industrial practices. Beekeeper Gunther Hauk calls the crisis, "More important even than global warming. We could call it Colony Collapse of the human being too." Bees are the engines that keep the earth in bloom. QUEEN OF THE SUN presents the bee crisis as a global wake-up call and illuminates a growing movement of beekeepers, community activists and scientists who are committed to renewing a culture in balance with nature.

Resource Person: John Gibeau, Bee Master

Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound    2009   85 minutes    

Saturday Evening 7:00 PM – Feb 25
Directed by Mary Wharton

Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound follows Baez on her 2008/2009 world tour, capturing Baez in performance as well as in intimate conversations with individuals whose lives parallel hers.

Shot in high definition with a natural, filmic look, Joan is also joined on screen by, David Crosby, Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn and Reverend Jesse Jackson, among others, to illuminate this extraordinary life. Rich historical archival footage – Baez’ controversial visit to North Vietnam, where she is seen praying with the residents of Hanoi during the heaviest bombing of the war; Martin Luther King Jr. outside a California prison where he visited Joan to offer his support after she was jailed for staging a protest; Joan at her first Newport Folk Festival in 1959 and Joan as a teenager performing at the historic Club 47 – is woven into the story so viewers can experience scenes from Joan’s life that have never been uncovered.

The grit of the film is Baez’ power as a musician – from her tentative teenage years in the Cambridge, Mass coffee houses to her emergence onto the world stage and the 50-year career that followed – Joan Baez is a musical force of nature and this film captures her strength as a performer and the influence she has brought to bear on successive generations of artists.

Council of Canadians: works to protect Canadian independence by promoting progressive policies on fair trade, clean water, energy security, public heath care and other issues of social and economic concern. One of the goals is to create a compelling civil society movement in search of social justice both here in Canada and internationally whose core mandate is the creation of participatory, living democracy for all the peoples of the world.