The Public Commons: Access to Water/ Clean Air
Wednesday, April 8th at 11 a.m. & 1 p.m.
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.)
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”
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
Hope and Courage in Our Times: Kathy Kelly Tells Her Story
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 12:30 p.m.
KATHY KELLY, nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2000, is a Co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and co-founder of the Voices in the Wilderness (VitW), a campaign that worked to lift economic sanctions against Iraq and delivered medical supplies to Iraqis from 1996-2003.
Kathy challenges us to “speak truth” to power and keep hope and courage with her moving narratives about ordinary people from her work in places of war and conflict. Kathy is a veteran of active engagement against violence and author of Other Lands Have Dreams, a collection of her writings from war zones and prison. She is most recently back from Gaza.
Body of War: Film and Talk by Ellen Spiro
Body of War Film Screening at 11:00 a.m.
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).