Food for Thought: Taking Root

Food For Thought: An Evening of Socially Relevant Cinema
Taking Root

Thursday May 20th
Reception 6pm
Film 7pm
Discussion follows film
$6 at the door

Co-presented by the Honest Weight Food Co-op and WAMC’s Documentary Film Series, Food For Thought is a monthly evening of food, film and discussion with a focus on films of social, political, environmental and community interest. Held on the third Thursday of each month, the night will feature food samples by Honest Weight Food Co-op, a feature film screening, and an open panel discussion. For more information and ticket sales visit: http://www.wamcarts.org/

About the film: Taking Root: The Vision Of Wangari Maathai is the story of the growth of a woman and the grassroots movement she founded, the Green Belt Movement of Kenya. Together they have transformed their country and our understanding of the integral connections of sustainable development, ecological diversity, human rights, and democracy.

Planting trees for fuel and food is not something that anyone imagined as the first step toward the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet with that simple act, Wangari Maathai started down the path that led her to organize rural Kenyan women in a tree-planting project that reclaimed their land from 100 years of deforestation, restored indigenous agriculture, provided new sources of income, and gave these previously impoverished and powerless women a vital role in their country. They became Kenya's Green Belt Movement: their small organization found itself working successively against ignorance, against prejudice, against embedded economic interests, and political oppression, until they became a national force and in the face of violent government reaction helped to bring down Kenya's dictatorship. The Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 recognized Maathai for her 30-year struggle "to protect the environment, promote democracy, defend human rights, and ensure equality between men and women." In so doing, it also presented to the world a model of personal courage in her determination to follow the links from poverty to development, climate, economics, and democracy.

Guest panelists to include:
Lisa Merton, Director - Lisa started out her career as a weaver. She studied textile design and weaving in Scandinavia and, after returning to the U.S., worked professionally as a weaver for ten years. While studying in Norway she was inspired by a series of tapestries that depicted the occupation of Norway by the Nazis. Her intent was to weave tapestry and use it as an art form for social change but instead she ended up as a production weaver. It was not until she started making films in 1989 that she fulfilled her intent to weave images that could inspire social change. She has a Masters in Teaching English and has taught English as a second language in multi-cultural classrooms. She brings her interest in education, cultural diversity, and social change, as well as her skill as a craftsman, to the filmmaking process.

Hope to see you there!

Film and Reception: Addicted to Plastic

The Honest Weight Food Co-op will be co-sponsoring with the The Sanctuary for Independent Media a reception, screening, and discussion featuring the film








"Addicted to Plastic: The Rise and Demise of a Modern Miracle"

On Saturday, May 15, 2010 beginning at 7 PM. Admission is by donation ($10 suggested, $5 student/low income).

The Sanctuary for Independent Media is located at 3361 6th Avenue in North Troy (at 101st Street); visit www.MediaSanctuary.org, email info@MediaSanctuary.org or phone 518-272-2390 for more information and directions.

From 7-8 PM, there will be an interactive reception to offer everyday alternatives to using plastic. The Honest Weight Food Coop’s "Homemade To Go" demo will give ideas on how to stop buying ready-made food in plastic tubs, and start making your own to-go items. Other local ecological resources and businesses will be charting routes to a less plastic-filled life.

At 8 PM, the film "Addicted to Plastic: The Rise and Demise of a Modern Miracle" will show the history and scope of plastics pollution around the world, and explore solutions. Filmmaker Ian Connacher tells the story of plastic’s ubiquity, having filmed on 5 continents and visited the so-called plastic island floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The documentary presents grim facts, but offers viewers practical steps to address this environmental problem on a personal level.

From styrofoam cups to artificial organs, plastics are perhaps the most ubiquitous and versatile material ever invented. No invention in the past 100 years has had more influence and presence than synthetics. But such progress has had a cost.

For better and for worse, no ecosystem or segment of human activity has escaped the shrink-wrapped grasp of plastic. "Addicted To Plastic" is a global journey to investigate what we really know about the material of a thousand uses and why there's so darn much of it. On the way we discover a toxic legacy, and the men and women dedicated to cleaning it up.

Following the film, local recycling and reuse expert Steve Davis will facilitate a discussion on how to incorporate the film’s information and suggestions into everyday life on a personal level and beyond, at a community level. Davis’ company Ecolibrium helps residential and business customers be sustainable by providing multiple services in the area of reuse, resale and recycling.

Hope to see you there!