OPENING NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT AND AWARDS RECEPTION

Photographers throughout Ontario have been invited to submit environmentally inspired photographs based upon the themes of this year’s feature films.

The most outstanding photographs, selected by a jury of leading art directors, art experts and industry professionals, will be exhibited at the Art Gallery of Hamilton Pavilion during our opening night reception.

The top submissions will receive awards from the ECO Artist Program and from community sponsors.

Live musical performances featuring The Rest Band and Ginger St. James.

“Hamilton; home to electronica darlings like the Junior Boys and Caribou, and now the residence of one of the country's most promising bands, The Rest Band. The seven-piece's dreamy sound dials in the daintiest parts of shoegaze, sprinkles in the occasional rush of bombast ala Arcade Fire, and then lets frontman Adam Bentley and his falsetto skip across the perilous range of human emotions."

GREENING THE JAMES STREET NORTH ART CRAWL

• Screening of ‘eco shorts’ at The Factory: Hamilton Media Arts Centre and ArtWord ArtBar.
• ECO film shorts at The Factory: Hamilton Media Arts Centre and ArtWord ArtBar.
• ECO Art created by Ontario artists in the Hamilton Artists Inc. window
• ECO photo exhibit at HIStory and HERitage
• Awards reception at The Factory at 10 PM. All are welcome to attend.

ECO EXPO

Students Bridging Borders is hosting the Eco Expo, featuring eco-themed films, photographs, fashion and art created by Hamilton-area elementary and secondary students and Ontario post-secondary students.

Awards will be given for the top submissions.

Workshops on hot environmental topics will be led by community experts in their fields.

Evening vegetarian Dinner and screening of Avatar. Net proceeds from this event will go to support the David Suzuki Foundation

WATERLIFE

Kevin McMahon's award-winning Canadian film, Waterlife, tells the story of the Great Lakes, the last great supply of fresh drinking water on Earth.

Waterlife follows the cascade of the Great Lakes from Northern Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean, through the lives of some of the 35 million people who rely on the lakes for survival.

The film explores the mixture of toxins and pollutants threatening the health of the Great Lakes, and the impacts this may have on the survival of surrounding ecosystems and populations.

Chemicals banned in North America such as DDTs, PCBs and dioxins are making their way from China to the Great Lakes.

Acclaimed Canadian director Kevin McMahon will be in attendance for an interactive Q & A session with the audience.

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TAPPED

Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold?

TAPPED! is a behind-the-scenes-look into the unregulated and unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our drinking water.

In 2010, 1/6 of the world’s population lacks access to clean drinking water. This figure will skyrocket to 2/3 of the world’s population by 2030.

30 million bottles of water consumed by Americans end up in landfills EVERY DAY. It can take up to 1000 years for a plastic bottle to biodegrade in a landfill.

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FOOD FIGHT

When we walk into a supermarket, we assume that we have the widest possible choice of healthy foods.

But, in fact, over the course of the 20th century, North America’s food system has been co-opted by corporate forces whose interests do not lie in providing the public with fresh, healthy, and sustainably produced food.

Unless consumers wake up and face the truth about our food system, we are going to find ourselves in a situation where a few large agribusinesses are responsible for 100% of our food production.

Food Fight is a fascinating look at how agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century, and how a partnership between chefs and farmers launched a rebellion against big agribusiness and created a political movement that we now call “local, seasonal, and sustainable.”

CRUDE

The inside story of the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case, Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures.

The landmark case takes place in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador, pitting 30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest dwellers against the US oil giant Chevron. Over a 30-year period, the US oil industry contaminated one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, poisoning the water, air and land. Pollution has created a “death zone” of more than 1000 square miles, resulting in increased rates of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and numerous other health ailments.

Crude focuses on the human cost of our addiction to oil and the increasingly difficult task of holding a major corporation accountable for its past actions.

The Factory: Hamilton Media Arts Centre in partnership with the AGH and supported by the ECO Film & Arts Festival presents:

ALANIS OBOMSAWIN: A PEOPLE’S VOICE & VISION

Alanis Obomsawin, a member of the Abenaki Nation, is one of Canada’s most distinguished documentary filmmakers. She has become not only Canada’s most famous indigenous filmmaker but also one of the most well known Canadian documentarians.

For over 30 years, she has directed documentaries at the NFB with a strong social content, inspired by the desire to let the voices of her people by heard.

Alanis Obomsawin will be in attendance for an interactive Question & Answer session

Programme and event details

SHARKWATER

In an effort to protect sharks, Canadian filmmaker Rob Stewart teams up with renegade conservationist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Their unbelievable adventure together starts with a battle between the Sea Shepherd and shark poachers in Guatemala, resulting in pirate boat rammings, gunboat chases, mafia espionage, corrupt court systems and attempted murder charges, forcing them to flee for their lives.

Sharkwater tells the story of these magnificent creatures that have gone from predator to prey, and how despite surviving the earth's history of mass extinctions, sharks could easily be wiped out within a few years due to human greed.

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THE HORSE BOY

Based on an autobiographical book, The Horse Boy follows the quest of a Texas couple to find healing for their autistic son, Rowan.

When 2-year-old Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson, a writer and former horse trainer, and his wife, Kristin Neff, a psychology professor, sought the best possible medical care for their son — but traditional therapies had little effect.

After discovering that Rowan's condition appears to be improved by contact with horses and other animals, the family leaves their home in Texas on an arduous journey to seek help from the traditional shamans in Mongolia.

The film delves into the strange world of autism, horses, shamanism, and Mongolia while telling the story of a family that will go to the end of the earth to find a way into their son's life.

This film is presented by the Art Gallery of Hamilton.

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THE COVE

In a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, Japan, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt. The nature of what they do is so chilling -- and the consequences are so dangerous to human health -- they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it.

With the local Chief of Police hot on their trail and strong-arm fishermen keeping tabs on them, the filmmakers will recruit an “Ocean's Eleven”-style team of underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers who will carry out an undercover operation to photograph the off-limits cove, while playing a cloak-and-dagger game with those who would have them jailed.

Winner of the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Film, The Cove, is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope.

Expedition Director Simon Hutchins will be in attendance for an interactive Q & A session with the audience.

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THE END OF THE LINE

The New York Times calls The End of the Line “vital”, “well-researched,” and “evenhanded ”: a film “that subverts our ancient faith in the ocean as an inexhaustible resource, offering a persuasive case that the major species of edible fish are headed for extinction.”

Filmed over two years, this film follows unrelenting investigative reporter Charles Clover as he confronts the politicians and celebrity restaurateurs who exhibit little regard for the damage their policies—and their menus—are doing to the oceans.

Taking us from the cod-depleted shores of the Atlantic to the Straits of Gibraltar and the coasts of Senegal, and on to the Tokyo fish market, The End of the Line sounds a powerful wake-up call to the world.

If we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by 2048.

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