This week’s two films and speaker deal with the “public commons”: what do humans/ citizens have a right to in the world? Are clean air and clean water rights? (Don’t humans need both to survive?) Should everything be “commodified” – made into a “good” for the profit of corporations to be sold only to those who can pay for these natural resources?

11:00a.m. Film: “Flow” (For the Love of Water 2008 – 84 min.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

This feature deals with the World Water Crisis in what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century. The film takes us to Bolivia, South Africa, India, and Michigan and presents the the essential issues in the” water wars” -  privatization, pollution and profit.  The filmshows people around the world who are being harmed by corporations which claim rights over their water.   This is an Award-Wining Film and discloses what Michael Klare termed, “resource wars”.

1:00p.m.  “Fighting Goliath: The Texas Coal Wars”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Film: Fighting Goliath (2007, 30 min.)

Narrated by Robert Redford, this film follows the story of Texans fighting a high-stakes battle for clean air. The story centers around unlikely partners-mayors, ranchers, lawyers, cities, citizens, green groups, and CEO’s-who came together to oppose the construction of 18 coal-fired power plants in Texas.

Speaker: Ryan Rittenhouse

Following the short film, Mr. Ryan Rittenhouse of Texas Public Citizen, a public advocacy group that was part of the coalition that successfully prevented the construction of one coal-fired plant in Texas, will bring us up-to-date with the issues presented – clean air and water resources in our state.

Online Resources

• Official Web Site
• Watch the entire film online

Click here to view the embedded video.

Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine – wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week! This film presents the face of war as a naked and honest portrayal of what it’s like inside the body, heart and soul of this extraordinary and heroic young man and a critique of the political process that sanctioned the war.

Producer Ellen Spiro 1:00 p.m.-2:15 p.m.

“Seeing Ourselves: The Power & Passion of Film” 

Ellen Spiro will speak on “making” the Body of War–knowing Tomas; working with Phil Donahue; dealing with politics of war and issues of Iraq war veterans and other social and political realities. Currently Ms. Spiro teaches film at the University of Texas. An award winning Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellow and Emmy Award winner, her films have been shown at festivals and broadcast worldwide on PBS, HBO, BBC, CBC (Canada), and NHK (Japan).

Does Historic Preservation Matter – Manhattan to Houston?

Speaker and short film with Christopher Moore, the journalist who, despite the effort to suppress it, broke the story  and later produced a film for the History Channel that tells about the 1991 discovery  – under what is today some of the most expensive real estate in the world – of the vast (more than 20,000 remains) burial ground used by the Africans – most of them slaves – in the  1600’s through the 18th century in downtown Manhattan – New York City.

A host of questions, both logistical and ethical, followed this discovery during the excavations for construction of a federal office building. How does one properly handle heritage and who ‘owns’ history?   Could a burial ground containing more than 20,000 remains be simply forgotten?  Does knowledge that can be gained justify the excavation of a burial site?

This dramatic discovery set off a major political firestorm pitting citizens concerned with the history and heritage represented in burial ground against the U.S. Government which initially planned to destroy the cemetery.  Excavation of the vast slave burial ground allowed scholars a chance to learn from the large number of remains – both about the Africans and the society in which they lived.  Ultimately, the process led to the creation of the first, and only, National Monument honoring the contributions of slaves to the building of America.

Thanks to the  Houston Society of Archaeological Institute of America, Northwest College has the opportunity to host Mr. Christopher Moore.  He will tell the story of the African Burial Ground discovery, reflect on what became a “cause celebre” in the African American Community and in American anthropology

Dr. Michael Botson, professor of history at Northwest College,  will introduce our speaker and reflect on sites of historical significance for the African American presence in Texas.

11:15 a.m. – “Sick Around the World” (Film, 60 min.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

Reform in U.S. Healthcare is an urgent economic and policy issue. Can the U.S. learn anything from the rest of the world about how to run the health care system? Five capitalist systems and how they “do” it. How does the United States with over $1 trillion dollars spent on medical care each year compare with other industrialized countries? (United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, Switzerland).

12:45 p.m. – “Unnatural Causes” (Film, 55 min.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/

Fascinating reports on Health of Americans across the social spectrum: “Chronic stress, like other conditions that threaten or promote health, is distributed unevenly through society along class and racial lines.” See why Health is more than health care, individual behaviors and “genes”.  How does social inequality relate to health outcomes? Important research about “low birth weights” in African American women, declining health of new immigrants, diabetes and obesity in Indigenous populations, health risks in inner city neighborhoods, and more.

11:15 a.m. – “2 Million Minutes” (Film, 54 min.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Reflecting on the student generation of the U.S. and their global “peers”, this film follow the daily routines
of 2 students in each of three global superpowers – China, India and the United States. See how students spend the 2 million minutes from the completion of 8th grade to High School graduation. Who will be well prepared for living in a future of greater global “inter-connectivity”?  See how U.S. education compares with the others.

URL: http://www.2mminutes.com/about.asp

12:45 p.m. – “Consuming Kids” (Film, 67 min.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Excellent analysis and critique for all who would understand today’s society.  Dare to ask critical questions about  how marketing to kids has constructed a world with expectations, motivations, values and a way of living as “consumers”.

“Children today are plagued by a variety of ills, from violence to hyper-sexualization to obesity to rampant materialism…Watching this movie will open the eyes of everyone who cares about children to the disturbing new realities of our consumer culture.” Tim Kasser -The High Price of Materialism & “the best possible parent education product” – Mary Pipher – Author of Reviving Ophelia

A lively discussion led by Professor Donna Rhea will follow.

URL: http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=134

When: Wednesday, October 29th  – 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Where: Eagle Room at Town & Country Center – Northwest College

11:00 a.m. Welcome to Australia: The Secret Shame Behind the Sydney Olympics (1999)

(50 min) With focus on sports and the Sydney Olympics, John Pilger and Alan Lowery take a look at Australia’s Aborigines who are still excluded, impoverished and mistreated, while their part in the brilliant history of Australia’s sports successes goes virtually unrecognized.

12:30 p.m. Inside Burma: Land of Fear (Updated 1999)

(52 min) John Pilger goes undercover in one of the world’s most isolated and extraordinary countries, Burma, which Amnesty International calls ‘a prison without bars’. They discover slave labour preparing for tourism and foreign investment. Historic interview with Aung San Suu Kyi.

1:30 p.m. South Africa: Apartheid Did Not Die (1998)

(90 min) John Pilger describes how despite the promise of social change and democracy in South Africa, economic apartheid that is a pattern in much of the world remains in South Africa -  and how resistance has begun again in the country where apartheid was said to be in the past.

Showtime: October 22nd, 12:30 p.m. (100 minutes)

Award-winning, filmmaker Tom McCarthy (”The Station Agent” and “Sideways”) reaches into the lives of transnationals and some of the hot-button questions regarding immigration policies and the realities they create for the Middle Easterners living in New York city. Stunning character development backgrounds this poignant and often funny film as it discloses post-9/11 situation for Tarek, his mother and girlfriend. The story unfolds with what follows the chance encounter of a disillusioned Connecticut economics professor whose empty life is transformed as he becomes engaged with strangers, their visa issues, humanity, and music.

SEE – Official film web site – http://www.thevisitorfilm.com/

A nonpartisan, clear-eyed look at the secrecy, cronyism and incompetence of elections in present-day America as it captures a citizen’s movement intent on taking back elections – and DEMOCRACY ITSELF. Documents American citizens investigating anomalies and irregularities with ‘e-voting’ (electronic voting) systems that occurred during America’s 2000 and 2004 elections, especially in Volusia County, Florida. Nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“It is hard to imagine…a documentary…more important to the civic life of the nation.”
-Baltimore Sun

Presenter:

Selected/presented by professor Donna Rhea, Government Faculty at Northwest College

Recent media focus on this issue:

• New York Times article
• Democracy Now – Greg Palast on Vote Rigging and Suppression Ahead of
  the 2008 Election

John Merrow  spent over two decades reporting on education and youth-oriented topics for both PBS’s MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and National Public Radio after obtaining his doctorate from Harvard. He also taught students in high school, college, and federal prison. As host of a comprehensive series, John Merrow has examined some of America’s most critical educational issues.

The film will be followed by Q&A with Stephen McCormick, currently a 1st & 2nd grade teacher in Spring Branch I.S.D.

Requested and Presented by Professor Helen Jones, HCC Northwest.

Award-winning film follows career of Pastor Carroll Pickett who served 15 years as the death house chaplain and presided over 95 executions, including the world’s first lethal injection. Film’s directors are Steve James (”Hoop Dreams”) and Peter Gilbert (”Vietnam: Long Time Coming. Question & Answer with Reverend Carroll Pickett, retired “death row” chaplain from Hunstville & David Atwood, Founder, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Q & A -  Reverend Carroll Pickett, retired, death row chaplain from Hunstville, Texas and David Atwood, Founder, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Showtime:

September 24th, 12:30 p.m. (96 min.)

Links:

• Official film web site
• Texas Coalition to Outlaw the Death Penalty
• New York Times article