What Would Jesus Buy?

An examination of the commercialization of Christmas in America while following Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of humankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt.) The film also delves into issues such as the role sweatshops play in America’s mass consumerism and Big-Box Culture. From the humble beginnings of preaching at his portable pulpit on New York City subways, to having a congregation of thousands – Bill Talen (aka Rev. Billy) has become the leader of not just a church, but a national movement.



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A Place Called Chiapas

Another documentary about the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico.



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Coconut Revolution

This is the amazing story of how a small island nation resisted against the might of corporate globalization and won. Bougainville, with a populations of only 160,000 has managed to close and keep closed one of the biggest mines in the world. They have held their ground for a decade with antique weapons and homemade guns. These people have taken on the biggest mining company in the world and won. Ripped from the DVD “Indigenous Resistance in New Guinea” made by Solidarity South Pacific: www.eco-action.org/ssp - respect!



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Good Films

I just made the following comment in City Hippy’s article about good films:

I think The Take and The Revolution Will Not Be Televised are the best and most important films I’ve seen in a while.

Both HIGHLY recommended.

I also saw We… Unauthorised Arundhati Roy Documentary a few days ago. Great stuff.

I thought I could’ve been done a lot better, but The End of Suburbia should defo be on this list too, as one of the main movies so far to focus on Peak Oil.

The film I can’t wait for is Undercurrents’ Living in the Future - a DVD of self builders and ecovillagers.

You can sign this pledge, or this one to help support the films production. Please do!

Also, I don’t think it is out yet, but another important film will be Franny Armstrong’s (of McLibel etc.) forthcoming film Crude (see bottom of article).

Oh, and I just remembered, I saw Michael Franti’s film I Know I Am Not Alone at Sunday Sounds the other night. Very inspiring.

Enjoy!



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Indymedia Film Festival 7th - 15th July

Via Indymedia London

Not been invited to the G8 this year?

Never mind, indymedia’s hosting an eight day film festival in London venues with no obligation to buy a gallon of Coke or a bucket of popcorn.

Please note the revised listing that now substitutes Sat 8′th for previous Thurs 6th.

g8filmfest2g8filmfest2

Each day follows a theme ranging from debt to climate change to terrorism, kicking off on Friday 7th - the first anniversary of the London bombings - special screening with “The Power of Nightmares”, “Arabs and Terrorism” and “America, America”. Saturday 8th with Camcorder Guerillas “Why Close The G8?”, Pilton’s, “Won’t Be Fooled Again” and on also at Ramparts Social Centre.

Monday sees the festival moving west to Ladbroke Grove’s Inn on the Green for a couple of days, dealing with issues of The Media and, on Tuesday, International Financial Institutions.

On Wednesday 12th the festival’s back in the East End at Ramparts to consider “What’s happening in Russia’s unseen empire?”, Debt (thursday) and Peak Oil and Climate Change (Friday) The festival wraps on Saturday 15th on the topical issue of ‘Our brave New-Clear Future”



See also:

The Corporation, Zapatista, Space Hijackers and Lab of ii…


Film and Food @ The Synergy Centre
Another World Is Blossoming Screening

Thursday March 23rd from 6pm
Entry by donation

The Synergy Centre is located at:
220 Farmers Road
London SE5 0TW
Click here to see a map

Farmers Road is off Wyndham Road,
which is off Camberwell New Road.
Nearest Tube is Oval.
On Thursday it is the third in uniteddiversity’s series of Another World Is Blossoming screenings. This week we’re showing multi-award winning must-see film The Corporation.


Main Feature - 8pm Sharp

The Corporation

The Corporation
http://thecorporation.com

THE CORPORATION
explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Footage from pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda, illuminates the corporation’s grip on our lives. Taking its legal status as a “person” to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist’s couch to ask “What kind of person is it?” Provoking, witty, sweepingly informative, The Corporation includes forty
interviews with corporate insiders and critics - including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Michael Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.

Winner of 24 INTERNATIONAL AWARDS, 10 of them AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS including the AUDIENCE AWARD for DOCUMENTARY in WORLD CINEMA at the 2004 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL.?

Second Feature Film - 10pm

Zapatista

Zapatista<br />
http://bignoisefilms.com

It is New Year’s night 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) comes into effect. To the Mayan Indian communities in the Lacandon Jungle of Southeastern Mexico, NAFTA symbolizes the culmination of over 500 years of exploitation. That night, 2,000 Indian soldiers occupy several cities in the state of Chiapas and declare political and economic autonomy. They call themselves the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN).


“This is not the last gasp of guerrilla resistance in Latin America. What you see here is not communism or socialism or anarchism. This is something you have never before in your life imagined. . . this is the Truth.”

Shorts - from 6pm

Space Hijackers
Space Hijackers
http://www.spacehijackers.org

“The Space Hijackers are a group of Anarchitects which was set up at the beginning of 1999.

Our group is dedicated to battling the constant oppressive encroachment onto public spaces of institutions, corporations and urban planners. We oppose the way that public space is being eroded and replaced by corporate profit making space.

We oppose the way that users of space are being put under increasing
scrutiny and control by those who own or run it. Be this via CCTV installed to monitor us, or architectural elements designed to control our moods.

We oppose the blanding out and destruction of local culture in the name of global economic progress. Newer and Bigger is not always better, it is usually both impersonal and imposing.

Through our various actions we attempt to raise awareness of issues within spaces and change how these spaces are used and percieved in the future. We intend to destroy heirarchies within spaces and claim back public ownership. Our projects act as another voice within space, and become engrained upon the places we Hijack.

Our aim is to change the way that ownership and usage of space is percieved, to put users of space in a more level position. We want to have a say in how we all exist within public space, on where and how we meet. We are fed up with being treated like criminal cattle by the institutions and corporations that decide on the shape and content of our environment.

The Space Hijackers in no way want to become leaders of some kind of
resistance movement, our actions detailed on this site should act as a catalyst for others. If we can, you can. However we want to expand our membership in order to create a forum for discussion and development of these ideas. Our agents area is a space where interested parties can meet in a non heriarchical manner and help each other in their quests.

Our first major event was the hijacking of a Circle line carriage on London Underground . Since then we have expanded our operations to include everything from building miniature “City farms” all over the square mile through to producing “Experimental Pedestrian Schemes” in Brixton, and the production and design of Hijacker Equipment.”


Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imanagination
Lab of ii
http://www.labofii.net

“The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (lab of ii) is a network of socially engaged artists and activists whose work falls in between resistance and creativity, culture and politics, art and life.

We believe that playful forms of cultural intervention in everyday life and the development of convivial spaces that enable participants to cultivate full confidence in their own creative capacity are fundamental tools for social change.

The Lab of ii was launched in London during the European Social Forum, in October 2004, with 4 days of presentations, training’s, performances and actions. Several hundred people from across Europe took part in the events. We then went on tour leading up to the G8 Summit Gleneagles 2005, with 2 day intensive training’s, interventions and a free outdoor event.”

Other Another World Is Blossoming events:

Another World Is Blossoming Screening 4
6pm - 11.30pm, Thurs March 30th @ The Synergy Centre

Another World Is Blossoming Benefit Gig
7pm - 3am, Fri March 31st @ The Synergy Centre

Buy Tickets Now!

uniteddiversity.com



See also:

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Screening

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Thursday March 9th
Film and Food @ The Synergy Centre

Another World Is Blossoming Screening
March 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th from 6pm
Entry by donation

This month The Synergy Centre is hosting uniteddiversity’s series of Another World Is Blossoming events, including four weeks of screenings starting this Thursday 9th, and a big Centre fundraising party on Friday March 31st. It’s all taking place as part the NODE.London Season of Media Arts.

Thursday March 9th
Main Feature - 8pm Sharp
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
http://www.chavezthefilm.com/
International Jury: “The best television programme in the world this year”

Hugo Chavez, elected President of Venezuela in 1998, is a coulful unpredictable folk hero, beloved by his nation’s working class and a tough-as-nails, quixotic opponent to the power structure that would see him deposed. Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when he was forcibly removed from office. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably, he returned to power amid cheering aides. Their film records what was probably history’s shortest-lived coup d’état. It’s a unique document about political muscle and an extraordinary portrait of the man The Wall Street Journal credits with making Venezuela “Washington’s biggest Latin American headache after the old standby, Cuba.”

Second Feature Film - 10pm
Network (1976)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/
Won 4 Oscars and Voted one of the best 100 films of all time.

Howard Beale (Peter Finch) is an ageing TV anchorman for UBS who is fired, effective in two weeks, after his ratings have been steadily deteriorating. He reacts to this by sensationally announcing on live television his intention to commit suicide on air. In doing so, Beale becomes a major TV icon and one of the most valuable assets to the Communications Corporation of America (CCA), the company that is gradually taking control of UBS. As a result he is given his own show as `the mad prophet of the air-waves’. He appears live on television every week-day evening to tell the real truth to the people of America. The programme is a huge success but Beale uses his power to make startling revelations about CCA, leaving the company executives with a serious problem.

Shorts - from 6pm

Real2Real
http://www.real2reel.co.nr

Founded as an off-shoot of Lifecycles (Pedal Powered Cinema And Multimedia Outreach Collective) in mid 2002, Real2Reel is a small group of video artists making short and occasionally amusing films about counter-cultural activities, social struggles and environmental concerns, all with a strong grassroots direct action bias.

Reclaim Love
http://www.o-i-l.org

Footage from the annual Reclaim Love event that takes place at the Eros Statue in Picadilly Circus each year. Check the website for more info and what its all about.

There will also be healthy food from the Synergy Sattva Cafe, served from 7pm.

(more…)



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