The public is invited to the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire to the fifth annual Progressive Film Festival. The festival starts on April 1 and goes through April 12.
I've attended this event in the past and have always been intrigued with the variety of films shown and lively discussions that follow. Below is the press release concerning this festival and a listing of the films that will be shown.
PRESS RELEASE: 2010 EAU CLAIRE PROGRESSIVE FILM FESTIVAL
WHEN AND WHERE: Friday, April 1-10, 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival 2011 runs from Friday April 1 through Sunday April 10 on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. 30 films will screen, followed by facilitated post-screening discussion. Admission to all films is FREE and open to the public.
The Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival (ECPFF) is now in its fifth year of production. The broad aims of the Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival are to raise awareness and encourage activist engagement within ongoing struggles for human emancipation, social justice, collective equality, ecological sustainability, and a peaceful world. As a result, ECPFF does not just show films; it includes discussions afterward–in the interest of sharing perspectives on and reactions to the films, and the issues they address, as well as in the interest of forging and strengthening progressive networks, coalitions, and alliances throughout the Chippewa Valley region–and beyond. ECPFF strives to help reclaim and carry forward our state’s proud progressive heritage. To this day, ECPFF represents a uniquely unrivaled and unprecedented 10 days-long, independent, non-profit, all-volunteer, campus- and community- based, small city, progressive film festival.
Below is a schedule with descriptions of all screenings.
FRIDAY, APRIL 1
Looking for Eric, 7:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 102, UWEC
When down-and-out postal worker Eric Bishop (Steve Evets) reaches the end of his rope, he finds some unexpected motivation to turn his life around and win back the love of his life from none other than his idol, the legendary footballer Eric Cantona of Manchester United.
SATURDAY, APRIL 2
An Injury to One, 12 noon, Hibbard Humanities Hall 323, UWEC
An Injury to One chronicles a particularly volatile moment in early 20th century American labor history: the rise and fall of Butte, Montana and the mysterious death of Wobbly organizer Frank Little, a story whose grisly details have taken on a legendary status in the state.
Tapped, 12 noon, Hibbard Humanities Hall 321, UWEC
This timely documentary is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and unseen world of the bottled water industry, an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our water.
Presumed Guilty, 2:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 323, UWEC
Presumed Guilty tells the heart-wrenching story of a man who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and was sentenced to 20 years for murder based on the testimony of a single, shaky eyewitness. Shot with unprecedented access to the Mexican courts and prisons, this dramatic story is a searing indictment of a justice system that presumes guilt.
The End of the Line, 2:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 321, UWEC
Exploring the tragic collapse of the cod fishery in Newfoundland in the 1990s, the imminent extinction of the prized bluefin tuna, and the devastation caused by illegal catches and surpassed fishing quotas, this film uncovers the dark ecological story behind our love affair with fish as food.
I Am Slave, 5 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 323, UWEC
Currently in London, England, thousands of people are living in what could be considered a contemporary incarnation of slavery. They have no legal papers, no freedom of movement, no pay for the work they do. They live invisibly in a thriving, democratic metropolis – and of course London is not alone. I Am Slave tells the story of one such modern captive.
Money-Driven Medicine, 5 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 321, UWEC
Inspired by Maggie Mahar's acclaimed book, Money Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, the film goes beyond health insurance to offer a behind-the-scenes look at the $2.6 trillion U.S. healthcare system, how it went so terribly wrong and what it will further take to fix it.
The Tillman Story, 7:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 102, UWEC
When Pat Tillman gave up his professional football career to join the Army Rangers in 2002, he became an instant symbol of patriotic fervor and unflinching duty. But the truth about Pat Tillman is far more complex, and ultimately far more heroic, than the caricature.
SUNDAY, APRIL 3
Stolen Land, 12 noon, Hibbard Humanities Hall 323, UWEC
For the Nasa indigenous community, a tightly knit and fiercely proud people, in southern Colombia, the land is their “Mother Earth.” However, since the European conquest, the Nasa have been repeatedly displaced from their land. Stolen Land tells the history of the Nasa’s resistance movement.
South, 2:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 323, UWEC
Inspired by her love of William Faulkner and James Baldwin, renowned director Chantal Akerman had planned to produce a meditation on the American South. However, just days before she was to begin filming, James Byrd, Jr. was murdered in Jasper, Texas. Instead of following the story in a typical American media fashion, Akerman allows the story to slowly unfold on its own.
Living with Emergency: Stories of Doctors without Borders, 5 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 323, UWEC
Bosnia. Rwanda. Kosovo. Sierra Leone. Pakistan. Whether the result of war or nature, disasters devastate populations and cripple health systems. Despite the immense dangers and difficulties of the work, one organization, Doctors Without Borders, has continuously intervened at these frontlines of overwhelming human need.
Rachel, 7:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 102, UWEC
Rachel is a startlingly rigorous, fascinating and deeply moving investigatory documentary that examines the death of peace activist and International Solidarity Movement (ISM) member Rachel Corrie, who was crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003.
MONDAY, APRIL 4
Bananas!*, 7:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 102, UWEC
Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez is on his biggest case ever. On behalf of twelve Nicaraguan banana workers, he is tackling Dole Food in a ground-breaking legal battle for their use of a banned pesticide that was known by the company to cause sterility. Can he beat the giant, or will the corporation get away with it?
TUESDAY, APRIL 5
The Baader-Meinhof Complex, 7:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 102, UWEC
Germany 1967. The children of the Nazi generation have grown up in the devastation their parents created. They vowed fascism would never rule again. In their fight for freedom they lost themselves in the cause and ignited a revolution around the world. Meet the original faces of terrorism, the Baader Meinhof Gang, also known as the Red Army Faction.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6
Hunger, 7:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 102, UWEC
Hunger, the first feature film by the British artist Steve McQueen, recounts the final weeks of Bobby Sands, the imprisoned Irish nationalist who died in 1981, 66 days into a hunger strike. It is a visceral film with a philosophical bent, a meditation on will and endurance, on the human body as the ultimate site of protest.
THURSDAY, APRIL 7
Trudell, 7:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 102, UWEC
Trudell follows the life work of Native American musician/poet/activist John Trudell, chronicling his travels, spoken word and politics in a poetic and naturally stylized manner.
FRIDAY, APRIL 8
A Prophet, 7:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 102, UWEC
Condemned to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena, cannot read or write. Arriving at the jail entirely alone, he appears younger and more fragile than the other convicts. He is 19 years old. Malik is a fast learner and rises up the prison ranks, all the while secretly devising his own plans.
SATURDAY, APRIL 9
Brick by Brick: a Civil Rights Story, 12 noon, Hibbard Humanities Hall 323, UWEC
Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story shows that segregation has been as virulent and persistent in the North as in the South and that it too has resulted from deliberate public policies based in deep-rooted racial prejudice. The film uses the bitter struggle over equal housing rights in Yonkers, New York during the1980s to show the "massive resistance" the Civil Rights Movement confronted when it moved north.
Africa Rising: the Grassroots Movement to End Female Genital Mutilation, 12 noon, Hibbard Humanities Hall 321, UWEC
Every day, 6,000 girls from the Horn of Africa to sub-Saharan nations are subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). With fierce determination and deep love for their communities, brave African activists are leading a formidable, fearless grassroots movement to end 5,000 years of FGM. An insightful look at the frontlines of a quiet revolution taking the continent by storm, this extraordinarily powerful film is one of the first to focus on African solutions to FGM.
Maquilapolis (City of Factories), 2:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 323, UWEC
Maquilapolis is a wonderful fusion of expose and imagination, delivering an unprecedented look into the realities of life in the border communities where the maquiladoras reign. Made in collaboration with the women whose lives center on these secretive factories, Maquilapolis succeeds in crossing borders and peering around corners to capture how the women caught in the contradictions of global capital understand their own positions.
After the Rape: The Mukhtar Mai Story, 2:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 321, UWEC
In 2002, Mukhtar Mai, a rural Pakistani woman from a remote part of the Punjab, was gang-raped by order of her tribal council as punishment for her younger brother’s alleged relationship with a woman from another clan. Instead of committing suicide or living in shame, Mukhtar spoke out, fighting for justice in the Pakistani courts—making world headlines.
Megamall, 5 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 323, UWEC
Twelve years in the making, Megamall documents the origins of the massive Palisades Center mall and its impact on the suburban community of West Nyack, New York, 18 miles north of Manhattan.
Sin by Silence, 5 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 321, UWEC
From behind prison walls, a group of extraordinary women are shattering misconceptions of domestic violence. An important film that profiles Convicted Women Against Abuse (CWAA), the US prison system’s first inmate initiated group and led by women, Sin By Silence is an essential resource about domestic violence, and more.
Howl, 7:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 102, UWEC
It’s San Francisco in 1957, and an American masterpiece is put on trial. Howl, the film, recounts this dark moment using three interwoven threads: the tumultuous life events that led a young Allen Ginsberg to find his true voice as an artist, society’s reaction (the obscenity trial), and mind-expanding animation that echoes the startling originality of the poem itself.
SUNDAY, APRIL 10
The Bill Douglas Trilogy, 11 am, Hibbard Humanities Hall 323, UWEC
Three of the most compelling films about childhood and adolescence ever made, Bill Douglas's award-winning films - My Childhood, My Ain Folk and My Way Home, are three of the most compelling and critically acclaimed films about childhood ever made. The narrative is largely autobiographical, following as he grows up in a poverty-stricken mining village in post-war Scotland.
The Sari Soldiers, 12 noon, Hibbard Humanities Hall 321, UWEC
Filmed over three years during the most historic and pivotal time in Nepal’s modern history, The Sari Soldiers is an extraordinary story of six women’s courageous efforts to shape Nepal’s future in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents, and the King’s crackdown on civil liberties.
Comrades, 3 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 323, UWEC
This film tells the epic story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, six Dorset laborers deported to Australia in the 1830s for forming a trade union. Unfolding in the pastoral haze of Dorset and blinding light of Australia, this beautiful film is rich with carefully layered visual illusions and nuances.
Which Way Home, Hibbard Humanities Hall 321, 3 pm
As the United States continues to build a wall between itself and Mexico, Which Way Home shows the personal side of immigration through the eyes of children who face harrowing dangers with enormous courage and resourcefulness as they endeavor to make it to the United States. The film follows several unaccompanied child migrants as they journey through Mexico en route to the U.S. on a freight train they call "The Beast."
Raging Grannies: The Action League, 8 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 102, UWEC
Raging Grannies is a lively and thought-provoking 30-minute documentary that tells the story of The Action League of the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula. They are women over 50, some as old as 90, who are enraged by the conditions under which some people are forced to live, by threats to our environment, by war, and by injustice wherever they find it.
What Would Jesus Buy?, 8:30 pm, Hibbard Humanities Hall 102, UWEC
What Would Jesus Buy? follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt! From producer Morgan Spurlock (SUPER SIZE ME) and director Rob VanAlkemade comes a serious docu-comedy about the commercialization of Christmas.