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

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.

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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

WHY DON’T YOU KNOW THIS AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST? Learn more about the history he has documented, the stories behind the headlines of corporate media, the political and economic mechanisms that construct today’s world, his journalism, and his 40 years of film-making and television programming in Britain.

Don’t miss the chance to hear perspectives of a journalist who goes for the story and not a public relations gloss. John Pilger, whose career in journalism began as a copy-boy at the Sydney Sun in his native Australia, and today has columns in the Guardian and The New Statesman, says it is a “myth that the readers didn’t want a serious approach to journalism in a popular newspaper.”

Pilger states the Internet has “changed so much” and today, his columns reach broad audiences, even in the United States.  He encourages journalism students to “keep your principles as you navigate the system”.

“If journalists can look behind the press-release version of events, or push back the screen of what is often propaganda but rarely recognized as such,” he says, “then we will produce true journalism, not a form of PR.  We ought to be the agents of people, not power.”  http://www.johnpilger.com/

This event was originally held at the Town & Country Performing Arts Center, November 4th, 2008.

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.

Book and story of a unique friendship told by co-authors, Lois Ramondetta, physician and associate professor of gynecologic oncology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and Deborah Rose Sills, patient. Books available for purchase and signing. Presentation by Author Lois M. Ramondetta, M.D.

Showtime:

October 1st, 12:30 p.m.

Link:

• The Light Within Official Book Site

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

Showtime:

September 3rd, 12:30 p.m.

Links:

• http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking