Rodale Institute Second Annual Fall Film Series

Come on out to the farm and join us for our Second Annual Fall Film Series!  The series will feature films about pressing environmental and social issues every other Wednesday night at 7pm.  Admission is free and we hope you will enjoy our local and organic snacks!  Following each screening, there will be an open discussion led by Rodale staff, local activist groups, or in some cases individuals involved in the making of the film.


Wednesday September 16, 2009
Blue Gold: World Water Wars

7pm-9pm

In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level as population and technology grows. The rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing and industry increase the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth.

Corporate giants force developing countries to privatize their water supply for profit. Wall Street investors target desalination and mass bulk water export schemes. Corrupt governments use water for economic and political gain. Military control of water emerges and a new geo-political map and power structure forms, setting the stage for world water wars.

We follow numerous worldwide examples of people fighting for their basic right to water, from court cases to violent revolutions to U.N. conventions to revised constitutions to local protests at grade schools. As Maude Barlow proclaims, “This is our revolution, this is our war”. A line is crossed as water becomes a commodity. Will we survive?

Wednesday September 30, 2009 
Flow

7pm-9pm

Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question "CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?"

Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.

Wednesday October 14, 2009 
Sludge Diet with post-screening discussion led by Sludge US-FA activist Darree Sicher

7pm-9pm

Some call it poison others hail it as environmentally friendly. Who’s telling us the truth about Fertile Residual Material (FRM) aka sludge and who’s lying? The foods that we eat are mostly produced on land fertilized by digester sludge containing dangerous substances. The consequences have been disastrous so far and most feel that governments need to ban its usage instead of regulating it.

The continued use of sewage sludge in agriculture and regulating its use to prevent harmful effects on soil, vegetation, animals and man - is an ongoing debate

Wednesday October 28, 2009  
The First Millimeter: Healing the Earth with post-screening discussion led by HMI CEO Peter Holter

7pm-9pm

The First Millimeter: Healing the Earth takes us on a journey around the world and addresses the most crucial issue of our time, how to solve global warming. “We would only have to improve carbon percentage by 1% on our 450 million hectares of agricultural soil in Australia and we could sequester all of the planet’s legacy load of carbon,” states Christine Jones, PhD. James Hansen, PhD, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies adds, “Our agricultural practices could be modified to bring CO2 back down much more quickly.”

This groundbreaking documentary includes interviews with leading scientists as well as personal stories from farmers and ranchers on three continents to examine how carbon sequestration in top soil can not only curb global warming; but increase biodiversity and fertility, lessen the use of fertilizers and pesticides and utilize rainfall much more effectively.  

The “how”, according to experts, may come from an unusual source; the hooves and mouths of domesticated animals.

RESCHEDULED!
Wednesday November 18, 2009 
Fresh post-screening discussion with local CSA farmer and food activists

7pm-9pm

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

Wednesday December 2, 2009
Renewal


RENEWAL is the first feature-length documentary film to capture the vitality and diversity of today's religious-environmental activists. From within their Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim traditions, Americans are becoming caretakers of the Earth. With great courage, these women, men and children are re-examining what it means to be human and how we live on this planet. Their stories of combating global warming and the devastation of mountaintop removal, of promoting food security, environmental justice, recycling, land preservation, and of teaching love and respect for life on Earth are the heart of RENEWAL.