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Welcome to the Spring 2012 Peace & Justice Film Series!
Our first film of 2012, The Economics of Happiness, delves into the myriad of problems humanity now faces as a result of economic globalization. It then explores some of the ways in which people all over the world are coming together to build a very different future--one based on an economics of localization. Ten years in the making, our second film, Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion, brings its audience to the long-forbidden "rooftop of the world." Shot during nine journeys throughout Tibet, India, and Nepal, the film offers insights into the particulars and challenges of the Tibetan way of life and chronicles the dark secrets of the nation's past.
Co-sponsored by UM International Programs, Bajo Juárez: The City Devouring Its Daughters is part of a series of events called For the Love of Lilia Alejandra: Combatting Femicide in Mexico. The film and the other events address unsolved and highly publicized crimes against girls and women along the Mexico-US border in the town of Juárez. On February 23rd, in lieu of a fourth film, we invite you to attend the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival which runs from February 17 to February 26, 2012, at the historic Wilma Theatre. Throughout the week, you will have the opportunity (personal schedule permitting, of course) to see 144 films, selected from nearly a thousand entries. Visit the Big Sky Film Festival's website at www.bigskyfilmfest.org for details on the films and their screening times.
After the Big Sky Film Festival, we return for Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story. This film recounts the judicial racism that occurred during the three-year period of political violence on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation following the Wounded Knee occupation of 1973. Co-sponsored by Other Nations, Your Mommy Kills Animals looks into the animal rights and liberation movement and exposes some of the injustices that animals suffer on a daily basis at human hands.
For Deaf History Month, Music Within, co-sponsored by the Alliance for Disability and Students at the University of Montana (ADSUM), presents the remarkable true story of Richard Pimentel, a hearing-impaired war veteran who fought for the integration of people with disabilities into the workplace. Up next, Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands is hosted by environmentalist Dr. David Suzuki and is being co-sponsored by the Environmental Studies department here at UM. This film follows the struggle of a tiny Native community downriver from Canada's massive oil sands and explores a groundbreaking health-based research project that appears to be a tipping point for the oil sands developments.
On a lighter note, Pelada follows two former college soccer stars who didn't quite make it to the professional leagues. Unwilling to give up the game, this duo chases the game across more than twenty countries and finds that each nation has its own unique take on this global sport. We return from spring vacation with our shorts night, featuring Abe Osheroff: One Foot in the Grave, the Other Still Dancing, in which Osheroff reflects on the meaning of his international activism, and Reading the Signs, which covers the early days of the Occupy Missoula movement. Following these films we will host a panel on what it means to be an activist today.
Vanishing of the Bees investigates Colony Collapse Disorder, which is wreaking havoc in an industry responsible for producing most staple fruits and vegetables. The film follows two commercial beekeepers as they struggle to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts around the US. Up next, Climate Refugees portrays the human face of climate change in the first feature-length film to conduct in-depth exploration of the social and political consequences of this dramatic shift in Earth's climate. And lastly, wrapping up the Spring 2012 season, Promises offers hope and humanity in the face of ongoing conflict as seven Israeli and Palestinian children in the West Bank cross the divide to meet their neighbors.
A Note About Funding:
In past seasons, most of the funding for the Peace & Justice Film Series has come from ASUM, the Associated Students of the University of Montana. This year, without explanation, ASUM cut our funding by 94%, from $2,000 per year to $120 per year. We desperately need your help to continue! For more information, see our Support Page and please donate generously. Thank You!
Schedule: We will be showing documentary and historical films most Thursdays between February 2nd and May 3rd. All events start at 7:00 pm. Almost all films will be shown in the Gallagher Business Building Room 122 at the University of Montana. The only exception will be February 16th when Bajo Juárez will be shown in the UC Theater, also on the UM campus. We hope you will join us in watching and discussing these films.
Admission: Free. Suggested donation of $2.
There will be a lively and respectful discussion after the screening of each film. All of these movies are thought provoking, so please stay afterward and share your thoughts with other members of the community. We encourage participants with all points of view to attend; diversity of opinion leads to richer discussions and deeper understanding.

Far from the old institutions of power, people are starting to forge a very different future
The Economics of Happiness
(USA: 2011, 67 min.)
Film by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steven Forelick and John Page
Thursday, February 2, 2012, 7:00 pm
Gallagher Business Building Room 122
The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, an unholy alliance of governments and big business continues to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, people all over the world are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance--and, far from the old institutions of power, they're starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to rebuild more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm--an economics of localization.

Behind the secrets... Beyond your imagination...
An unforgettable epic of courage and compassion
Tibet
Cry of the Snow Lion
(USA: 2003, 104 min.)
Produced and Directed by Tom Peosay, Narrated by Martin Sheen
Thursday, February 9, 2012, 7:00 pm
Gallagher Business Building Room 122
Ten years in the making, this award-winning feature-length documentary was filmed during nine journeys throughout Tibet, India and Nepal. Cry of the Snow Lion brings audiences to the long-forbidden "rooftop of the world" with an unprecedented richness of imagery, from rarely-seen rituals in remote monasteries to horse races with Khamba warriors, from brothels and slums in the holy city of Lhasa to magnificent Himalayan peaks still traveled by nomadic yak caravans.
The dark secrets of Tibet's recent past are powerfully chronicled through personal stories, interviews and a collection of undercover and archival images never before assembled in one film. A definitive exploration of a legendary subject, Cry of the Snow Lion is an epic story of courage and compassion.

How many women must die before justice is served?
Bajo Juárez
The City Devouring Its Daughters
(Mexico: 2007, 96 min.)
Written and Directed by José Antonio Cordero and Alejandra Sánchez
Thursday, February 16, 2012, 7:00 pm
UC Theater
In the context of the deaths and disappearances of their daughters, mothers are transforming grief into action and activism. Bajo Juárez: The City Devouring Its Daughters, part of the series For the Love of Lilia Alejandra: Combatting Femicide in Mexico, is a haunting documentary that follows unsolved and highly publicized crimes against girls and women along the Mexico-US border in the town of Juárez. Directors Alejandra Sánchez and José Antonio Cordero offer a new understanding of the enormous dangers facing girls and women who work in the malquiadoras (factories) making products for the US and Canadian marketplaces.

Thursday, February 23, 2012
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival! No Film This Week...

A story of judicial racism hidden from the public eye
Incident at Oglala
The Leonard Peltier Story
(USA: 1992, 90 min.)
Directed by Michael Apted, Narrated by Robert Redford
Thursday, March 1, 2012, 7:00 pm
Gallagher Business Building Room 122
On June 26, 1975, during a period of high tension on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, two FBI agents were killed in a shootout with a group of Native Americans. Although several men were charged with killing the agents, only one, Leonard Peltier, was found guilty. Incident at Oglala describes the events surrounding the shootout and suggests that Peltier was unjustly convicted.

The nation's top domestic terrorists have a soft spot for animals
Your Mommy Kills Animals
(USA: 2007, 105 min.)
Produced by Curt Johnson
Thursday, March 8, 2012, 7:00 pm
Gallagher Business Building Room 122
Your Mommy Kills Animals is an unbiased view behind the scenes of many of the better known animal rights organizations. It tackles a variety of topics, including the difference between animal welfare activists and animal rights activists. It tells of people who were sent to jail for writing the wrong thing, and people who use Molotov cocktails to free animals. It tells where the donation money goes, and what actually happens at some animal shelters. The film offers a fairly well rounded viewpoint of animal activists, from reasonable to wacko.

The amazing true story of Richard Pimentel, a hearing-impaired Vietnam veteran
Music Within
(USA: 2007, 94 min.)
With Ron Livingston, Melissa George and Michael Sheen
Thursday, March 15, 2012, 7:00 pm
Gallagher Business Building Room 122
The true story of Richard Pimentel, a brilliant public speaker with a troubled past, who returns from Vietnam severely hard-of-hearing after a bomb blast during the war and finds a new purpose in his landmark efforts on the behalf of Americans with disabilities. With his friend Art Honneyman, a student with cerebral palsy who uses humor and wit to deflect prejudice that greets his disturbing appearance, Richard and a group of friends set out to change people's perceptions about people with disabilities, and along the way play an important role in the creation of the ADA and the improvement in hiring practices involving those with disabilities. Richard starts to fight for his friends, vets like himself and others with disabilities, to get work in an environment that treats them with pity at best and at worst, disdain. He overcomes the prejudice around him and quickly realizes his friends with disabilities can work and he can make a difference.

The age of innocence for the oil sands is over
Tipping Point
The Age of the Oil Sands
(Canada: 2011, 130 min.)
Directed by Tom Radford and Niobe Thompson, Hosted by environmentalist David Suzuki
Thursday, March 22, 2012, 7:00 pm
Gallagher Business Building Room 122
Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands is a two-hour visual tour de force, taking viewers inside the David and Goliath struggle playing out within one of the most compelling environmental issues of our time. In an oil-scarce world, we know there are sacrifices to be made in the pursuit of energy. What no one expected was that a tiny Native community downriver from Canada's oil sands would reach out to the world, and be heard.
Directed by Edmonton filmmakers Tom Radford and Niobe Thompson of Clearwater Media, and hosted by Dr. David Suzuki, this special presentation of The Nature of Things goes behind the headlines to reveal how a groundbreaking new research project triggered a tipping point for the Alberta oil sands.

Two players... 25 countries... One game
Pelada
(South Africa: 2010, 91 min.)
Produced by Francis Gasparini, With Gwendolyn Oxenham and Luke Boughen
Thursday, March 29, 2012, 7:00 pm
Gallagher Business Building Room 122
Pelada is a documentary following Luke and Gwendolyn, two former college soccer stars who didn't quite make it to the pros. Not ready for it to be over, they take off, chasing the game. From prisoners in Bolivia to moonshine brewers in Kenya, from freestylers in China to women who play in hijab in Iran, Pelada is the story of the people who play.

Thursday, April 5, 2012
Spring Break! No Film This Week...

Shorts Night
Thursday, April 12, 2012, 7:00 pm
Gallagher Business Building Room 122
A lifetime of commitment to radical humanism
Abe Osheroff
One Foot in the Grave, the Other Still Dancing
(USA: 2009, 46 min.)
Produced and Directed by Robert Jensen and Nadeem Uddin
One Foot in the Grave, the Other Still Dancing is concerned with Osheroff the teacher and critical thinker, who, though frail and confined to a wheelchair, inspired young people, turning some to activism. The core of the film is Osheroff's speech to college students in 2007, at "a period of American history when an empire is falling apart." His prognosis for their future is one of increasing austerity, demanding more citizen engagement. While "a better world is necessary," he leaves them with the message that not only are authentic, aware lives the most rewarding, but they empower the action that makes a better world possible.
From the Arab Spring to Occupy Missoula, 2011 was a big year for protests
Reading the Signs
(USA: 2011, 16 min.)
Film by Crystal Kingston
Filmed by a University of Montana student, Reading the Signs covers the early days of Occupy Missoula, with footage of Occupy Wall Street from October 28 to November 2, 2011.

"If bees disappear from the earth, then man will only have four years of life left." Albert Einstein
Vanishing of the Bees
(USA: 2009, 87 min.)
Directed by George Langworthy and Maryam Henein, Narrated by Ellen Page
Thursday, April 19, 2012, 7:00 pm
Gallagher Business Building Room 122
Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables.
Vanishing of the Bees follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the US. Filming across the US, and in Europe, Australia and Asia, this documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and mother earth. As scientists puzzle over the cause, organic beekeepers indicate alternative reasons for this tragic loss.

Witness the human face of climate change
Climate Refugees
(USA: 2010, 86 min.)
Film by Michael P. Nash
Thursday, April 26, 2012, 7:00 pm
Gallagher Business Building Room 122
There is a new phenomenon in the global arena called "climate refugees." A climate refugee is a person displaced by climatically induced environmental disasters. Such disasters result from incremental and rapid ecological change, resulting in increased droughts, desertification, sea level rise, and the more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, cyclones, fires, mass flooding and tornadoes. All this is causing mass global migration and border conflicts. For the first time, the Pentagon now considers climate change a national security risk. The term climate wars is being talked about in war-room like environments in Washington D.C

In the West Bank, seven children dared to cross a divide to meet their neighbors
Promises
(USA: 2003, 106 min.)
Film by Justine Shapiro, B.Z. Goldberg and Carlos Bolado
Thursday, May 3, 2012, 7:00 pm
Gallagher Business Building Room 122
This Oscar® nominated, Emmy® Award winning film is a beautiful and deeply moving portrait of seven Palestinian and Israeli children. It follows the journey of a filmmaker who meets these children in and around Jerusalem, from a Palestinian refugee camp to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Although they live only 20 minutes apart, these children exist in completely separate worlds, divided by physical, historical and emotional boundaries. Promises explores these boundaries and tells the story of a few children who dared to cross the lines to meet their neighbors. With remarkable balance and a compelling blend of emotion and humor, Promises moves the conflict out of politics and into the realm of the human.

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