Everything’s Cool USA 2007 90min
Dirs: Judith Helfand & Daniel B. Gold

Global warming is a fact. And as scientist’s initial predictions are now being outstripped by reality, global warming is affecting our climate and is here to stay. But why did it take so long for America to wake up to it?
This balanced and entertaining film explores the gap between what the scientists knew, and what the general public was allowed to know … and why.
Energy is big business and fossil fuel-derived energy is a mega business so pervasive and influential that the energy corporations created a highly effective misinformation campaign to molest the scientific truth. Explaining some very sobering facts in a light-hearted and accessible way, the film strolls through this battlefield and introduces the scientists, eco-crusaders, whistleblowers, environmental journalists and ordinary people doing their bit for the planet.

Courtesy of the Directors

Jhb Sun 15 / 5.45pm Fri 20 / 10.30pm
CT Fri 27 / 10.30pm Tue 31 / 6.45pm Sat 4 / 4.15pm

Manufactured Landscapes Canada 2007 90min
Dir: Jennifer Baichwal

In this elegiac and thought provoking film, photographer Edward Burtynsky travels the globe taking large format photos of natural habitats that have been physically, chemically and biologically altered on a massive scale due to the relentless human pursuit of minerals, industry and economic growth. From the awesome initial tracking shot to massive recycling dumps, factory workers lined up to infinity to residents dismantling their houses brick by brick, his photographs concentrate on, and capture in minute detail, the massive and sobering impact of China’s industrial revolution. Burtynsky’s art is that he neither celebrates nor criticises, but cautions the viewer and incredibly, finds profound beauty in the horror that we do.
Awards: Best Documentary - Genie Award, Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television; Toronto Film Critics Association 2006; Jury Prize, 2007 River Run International Film Festival.

Jhb Sat 14 / 4pm Wed 18 / 6.30pm

The Planet Sweden / Norway / Denmark 2006 90min
Dirs: Michael Stenberg, Johan Söderberg & Linus Torell

The Planet is a well-executed meditation on the inexorable and irreparable damage that has and continues to be done to the planet and its non-human inhabitants.
Forceful, poignant images, and mesmerising music link interviews with 29 environmental scientists and experts. Using a fresh style and expert editing, the film contemplates the damage (50% of all land has been altered by man; the gorilla population has dropped from 100,000 in 1985 to 20,000), presents the facts, explores the negative side of economic growth, weighs up the West’s consumption vs. the future impact of China and India’s economic boom, investigates Nigeria’s newly acquired status as a global e-waste dump, compares pictures of four glaciers 100 years apart, and probes the psychology of the world’s non-reaction to the crisis.

Courtesy of the Swedish Film Institute

Jhb Fri 13 / 8.45pm Thu 19 / 6.45pm
CT Sat 21 / 5.45pm Tue 24 / 6.30pm Sat 28 / 6pm

Sharkwater Canada 2007 90min
Dir: Rob Stewart

Cry ‘Shark!’ and people panic. The West label them prehistoric killers, the Orient craves only their fins. Though neither killer nor cure, sharks are key in the ocean’s food chain, the keepers of the balance and health of the sea. Reviled and desired, sharks of the world are being decimated – and seemingly no-one cares. Rob Stewart does, he’s been swimming with, and photographing, them most of his life. He studies their complex nature. Then he witnesses Guatemalan pirates butcher a school of hammerheads in the Galapagos Reserve, and he’s off with swashbuckling Paul Watson and the crew of the Sea Shepherd on a very dangerous mission that uncovers Taiwanese/Costa Rican corruption and illegal shark fin industry whose unchecked slaughter has wiped out around 90% of sharks on the planet. And now? Panic and cry for the sharks.
Awards: Best of the Fest, Palm Springs Int’nl FF; Canada’s Top Ten, Toronto Int’nl FF

Courtesy of the Director

Jhb Tue 17 / 8.45pm Sun 22 / 6.15pm
CT Fri 20 / 9pm Tue 24 / 8.45pm Sun 29 / 3.45pm Sun 5 / 5.45pm