The Real Dirt on Farmer John" epic tale of a maverick Midwestern farmer. An outcast in his community, Farmer John bravely stands amidst a failing economy, vicious rumors, and violence. By melding the traditions of family farming with the power of art and free expression, this powerful story of transformation and renewal heralds a resurrection of farming in America. The movie charts the end of this idealistic era as the farm debt crisis of the 80’s brings about the tragic collapse of the farm. Defying all odds, the real-life Farmer John gradually transforms his land into a revolutionary farming community, a cultural mecca, where people work and flourish providing fresh vegetables and herbs to thousands of people every week. The Peterson family farm has become one of the largest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in the United States, a beacon of today’s booming organic farming movement.
"Crude: The Real Price of Oil" travels to South America, where it investigates the mammoth "Amazon Chernobyl" case from a variety of angles, refusing to take the side of any single person or side. Though it is a non-fiction documentary in form, Berlinger’s film has the pull of a legal drama where human life and the environment are at stake. ‘Crude’ explores the efforts of two mismatched characters – small-town rural advocate Pablo Fajardo and New York legal eagle Steve Donziger – to bring a class-action lawsuit against oil giant Texaco for a series of alleged ecological crimes against the land and people of Amazonian Ecuador. But this is more than a simple David v Goliath tale, as director Joe Berlinger widens his scope to examine the impact of cultural change on agrarian folk struggling to keep up.
Narrated by Canadian actress and environmentalist Neve Campbell, this beautifully photographed and much anticipated feature documentary from Academy Award Nominated director Leslie Iwerks goes deep behindthe-scenes into the strip-mined world of Northern Alberta, Canada. Here, vast and toxic oil sands supply the U.S. with the majority of its oil. Extracting oil from tar sands emits three times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil and uses four times as much water and heat per barrel of oil. Told through the eyes of scientists, "big oil" officials, politicians, doctors, environmentalists, and aboriginal citizens directly effected by "the largest industrial project on the planet today", the filmmakers journey to both sides of the border to uncover the emotional and irreversible toll this "black gold rush" is taking on our planet. The film is produced by Albertaborn and Emmy Award winning producer Philip Alberstat, and coproduced by Canadians, Mark Cranwell and Randy Bradshaw.
"Food, Inc" lifts the veil the US food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the consumer with the consent of government regulatory agencies. The food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of farmers, the safety of workers and the environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults. Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
Director: Robert Kenner Starring: Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser Running Time: 94 mins Country: U.S.A. Website: http://www.foodincmovie.co.uk
Our Last Movie Show
Turning Point - July 2010
"The Turning Point: a return to community" explores the vital importance of community in the 21st century and its role in helping us to create a life-sustaining society. The film takes an inspiring look at some of the sustainable community solutions that have grown up over the last 20 years around the Findhorn Foundation community in Scotland. This ecovillage aspires to create a positive and sustainable future. Featuring visionary leaders and pioneers in the fields of Human Ecology and Global Transition, this film takes an inspiring look at our potential to create a life-sustaining society as we face the twin challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change.
Shown for the first time in High Wycombe at the Friends Meeting House on Wednesday 28th July 2010 at 7.30pm
Previous Movie Show: The 'In Transition' & 'The Powerdown Show' Double bill - January 2010
Where Your Donation Goes
From August 2009 we will start asking for a minimum Donation for everyone attending our film shows. This will be set initially at £2. This reflects new demands from the Environment Centre that we pay for each event in addition to the yearly subscription. Previously events attracted no charge after the yearly fee as paid. Now we pay both. This is a significant increase in cost to us and reflects the financial problems of the Environment Centre. They need the revenue to continue their good work so we should all contribute a little more. We hope you won't mind.
Each Film Show is run as a one-off event planned way in advance. We now show fewer but BIGGER Movies with all the glitz and glamour they deserve. The licence fee to show such Movies now has to be covered from the donations you make when you see a film with us. We promise you that the movies you see will NOT be on at the Cinema and cannot be seen on TV! The £2+ you pay is far less than Cinemas charge and significantly less than the cost of buying or renting the DVD. In some cases we show the Movies before the DVD is even in the shops.
After-show Chats
The Transition Town High Wycombe Team will be available after the show to answer questions. This normally leads to quite a debate. People can get quite carried away so the first half hour of any ensuing discussion will be time-limited. Each participant will be allowed to speak for only three minutes at first. As a guideline we suggest that people will make best use of those three minutes if they keep to the Movie topic, how it relates to themselves and High Wycombe. After each person has been allowed to speak the debate will become free-form so it can go where ever the participants wish it to go.
By the way - no individual is obliged to contribute so you can sit back, relax and listen to your fellow citizens shape the Transition Vision for High Wycombe.
Previous Movies
The Great Warming
Stonehaven Productions, 82 minutes, 2006
Features Keanu Reeves and Alanis Morissette. Filmed in eight countries on four continents, endorsed by dozens of the world's leading scientists, this is the most factually accurate, visually stunning and wide-ranging production ever mounted about this complex, fascinating subject. "[It] should be required viewing by all. Future generation's lives, and maybe even ours, depend on it" New York Times, Nov '06
With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. How will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? What can be done?
Debt has reached astronomical proportions but how could there be that much money to lend? The answer is there isn't. Today money is debt. If there were no debt there would be no money. If we can't keep paying our debts then money will disappear from the economy. The economy can never slow down, stop or contract or it would collapse. This highly entertaining animated feature explains today's magically perverse debt-money system in terms that are easy to understand.
The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
The Community Solution - 53 minutes, 2006
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call "The Special Period."
In this important film world leading experts give us a direct insight into what Peak Oil is really about. Retired world experienced geologist Dr. Colin Campbell, founder of ASPO, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil, explains the aspects of oil discovery, the production increase and the subsequent decline on a local as well as on a world scale. Dr Campbell serves as our ‘anchor man’ throughout the documentary, although he is just one of the many informed and informative analysts featured.
Throughout this film, activist Annie Leonard, the film’s narrator and an expert on the materials economy, examines the social, environmental and global costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. Her illustration of a culture driven by stuff allows her to isolate the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. The “Story of Stuff” examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of consumerism — and how those notions are still driving global economies today.
The Real Dirt on Farmer John" epic tale of a maverick Midwestern farmer. An outcast in his community, Farmer John bravely stands amidst a failing economy, vicious rumors, and violence. By melding the traditions of family farming with the power of art and free expression, this powerful story of transformation and renewal heralds a resurrection of farming in America. The movie charts the end of this idealistic era as the farm debt crisis of the 80’s brings about the tragic collapse of the farm. Defying all odds, the real-life Farmer John gradually transforms his land into a revolutionary farming community, a cultural mecca, where people work and flourish providing fresh vegetables and herbs to thousands of people every week. The Peterson family farm has become one of the largest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in the United States, a beacon of today’s booming organic farming movement. 
"Food, Inc" lifts the veil the US food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the consumer with the consent of government regulatory agencies. The food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of farmers, the safety of workers and the environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults. Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here. 
