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Arts & Entertainment

Four Diverse Films at UNAFF Festival

Gay clergy, war in the middle east, climate change in Central America, and the power of big oil -- all topics to be explored in documentaries.

Four films will be screened in Palo Alto Friday as part of the UNAFF 2012 International Documentary Film Festival. All of the films will be screened at the Aquarius Theatre, 430 Emerson St. Seniors and students are eligible for free admission.

TICKET INFORMATION

The mission of UNAFF is to promote social change through education.

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 4 pm: Love Free or Die
(83 min) USA

Director: Macky Alston
Producer: Sandra Itkoff

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Description:

Love Free or Die is about a man named Gene Robinson whose two defining passions are in direct conflict: his love for God and for his partner Mark. Gene is the first openly gay man to become a bishop in the historic traditions of Christendom. His consecration in 2003, to which he wore a bullet-proof vest, caused an international stir, and he has lived with death threats every day since. The film follows Robinson's personal story as American churches debate whether or not lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are equal to heterosexuals in the eyes of God, while our nation debates whether LGBT people are equal to heterosexuals in the eyes of the law. In Love Free or Die, Bishop Gene steps onto the world stage as he travels from small-town churches to Washington's Lincoln Memorial to London's Lambeth Palace calling for all to stand for equality; inspiring bishops, priests and ordinary folk to come out from the shadows and change history. The film has been screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

6 pm: Thirty Years of War in the Name of God
(104 min) Afghanistan/France/Israel/Iran/USA

Director: Thomas Johnson
Producer: Hind Saih

Description:

After the Cold War, the fall of the two blocs didn't give birth to a united world, but opened a new drift based upon religious concepts. This is the story of God in modern history: Jews, Muslims, and Christians fighting in the name of God and focusing on Jerusalem. Part 1: 1979-1989 and Part 2: 1989-2009.

8:15 pm: A Wild Idea
(27 min) Equador/USA

Director/Producer: Veronica Moscoso

Description:

A Wild Idea is a documentary about the Yasuní-ITT Initiative, Ecuador’s unprecedented proposal for fighting global climate change: In exchange for payments from the world community, the country will leave untouched its largest oil reserves. The film takes the viewer to the Ecuadorian Amazon, capturing the rain forest’s stunning biodiversity. The film also focuses in the millions of barrels of oil lying beneath a place known as the ITT Block. Exploiting the ITT seemed to be the logical step Ecuador had to take, but political changes have affected the way the country views oil development. Through testimony representing different perspectives and rich archival video, A Wild Idea shows how the seemingly utopian ideal of keeping valuable oil underground turned into an official proposal. A Wild Idea is a thought-provoking film that explores the complexity of oil development within a fragile ecosystem, its local and global implications, and its effects on the planet as a whole.

8:45 pm: Greedy Lying Bastards
(100 min) Nigeria/Peru/Tuvalu/USA

Producer: Craig Rosebraugh, Patrick Gambuti Jr., Marianna Yarovskaya, Sanora Bartels, Catalina Rodriquez, Brittany Graham, Prudence Arndt, Jeremy Chilvers

Description:

What happens when one industry has too much power? Politicians become pawns. Laws are created and prevented. Regulations are bypassed. Information is controlled. Dissent is stifled. Our climate changes. And people die. Greedy Lying Bastards presents a searing indictment of the influence, deceit and corruption that defines the fossil fuel industry. From the Gulf Coast to the tiny nation of Tuvalu, from Nigeria and Uganda to Peru and Alaska, filmmaker and political activist Craig Rosebraugh documents the impact of an industry that has continually put profits before people, waged a campaign of lies designed to thwart measures on climate change, used its clout to minimize infringing regulations, and undermined the political process in the US and abroad.

 

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