Sunday, March 25  ::   Mushrooms of Concrete, Pit No. 8, Life Size Memories, Guanape Sur, Salt of the Earth, Automania 2000, Waste Land, Modern Times, Three Walls, Carroll Ballard Retrospective: Black Stallion, Fly Away Home, Duma

Monday, March 26  ::   Solarize This and Green Jobs Panel, Keynote: Van Jones - Rebuild the Dream

Tuesday, March 27  ::   Divine Pig, Environmental Soundings Shorts: American Water, Bee, Everybody's Nuts, That Which Once Was, La Maison en Petits Cubes

Wednesday, March 28  ::   Semper Fi: Always Faithful

Thursday, March 29  ::   Alex Rivera Programming: La Ciudad, Contact, Cooked, Retrospective -- Silent Spring and Toxics in Film: The Winged Scourge, DDT - Weapon Against Disease, CBS Reports: Silent Spring

Friday, March 30  ::   Climate Change Shorts, The Last Menominee, If a Tree Falls, Brothers on the Line, Graffitiger, Detroit Wild City, The City Dark

Saturday, March 31  ::   Filmmaker Panel -- The New Green Wave

Sunday, March 25

Mushrooms of Concrete (2010)

Martijn Payens (23 min., color, Digibeta, Netherlands, In Dutch with English subtitles)

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 12 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

Take the Cold War, a paranoid dictator, and an isolated nation and you get: Albania. For more than 40 years, Albanian Communist Party Chief Enver Hoxha ran the nation into the ground, literally. Consumed with fear of attack, he forced Albanians to dig more than 750,000 concrete bunkers in a country less than half the size of Wisconsin. Today these bunkers litter the landscape -- a bitter reminder of past sacrifices for one generation, but potential sites of opportunity for a younger, enterprising generation. A fascinating portrait of a country little-known in the U.S., Payens' engaging film was an official selection of the 2011 Silverdocs Film Festival. (Screened with Pit No. 8)
Visit the film's official website

Pit No. 8 (2010)

Marianna Kaat (95 min., color, Blu-Ray, Estonia/Ukraine, In Russian with English subtitles)

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 12 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

In the heart of Ukraine's once-thriving coal-mining region in the town of Snizhne lives 15-year old Yura, head of his family of three that includes his two younger sisters. The town's coal mines have officially been abandoned as "poor pits," but Yura and many other children, retirees, and unemployed members of the community continue to dig for coal illegally in shafts under their homes, their gardens, abandoned buildings, parks -- wherever they can. Yura dreams of raising money to get training to become a chef in his own cafe; but the economic realities of the recent global economic downturn continually press in upon him and his family. An intimate profile lacking a traditional narrative plot, the film presents an in-depth account of one family's struggle to survive in a world increasingly lacking economic opportunity. A multi-award winner at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival as well as several other festivals. (Screened with Mushrooms of Concrete)
Visit the film's official website
View the film's official trailer

Life Size Memories (2011)

Klaus Reisinger & Frédérique Lengaigne (120 min., color, Blu-Ray, US)

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 3 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

Too often we view wild animals as generic representatives of their species. But Life Size Memories attempts to change all that, discovering individual beings that stand out on their own terms. The film follows as two experienced war photojournalists train their lenses on captive elephants in war zones across southeast Asia to create life-sized photographic portraits of these individuals. What do these portraits augur for the fate of the elephant? Reisinger and Lengaigne's beautiful film travels to four different nations to find a complicated answer -- that regional variations in both human and elephant cultures will ultimately determine which individuals live and which become mere faded memories.
Visit the film's official website

Guanape Sur (2010)

János Richter (27 min., color, Digibeta, Italy, In Spanish with English subtitles)

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 5:30 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

Offshore of Peru, sits the island Guanape Sur. Most years its population totals: Humans - 2, Birds - 100,000. But every 11th year, the government allows 200 men to harvest the ground out from under the birds -- the ground created by the birds themselves. Guano is a prized source of natural fertilizer worldwide; but mining it requires backbreaking labor and dedication. Such is the need for work and income in Peru, though, that each time the guano mining opens hundreds turn up to apply for the jobs. A quiet and beautifully-filmed portrait of people and animals involved in an unusual landscape of labor. An official selection of the Hot Docs, Silver Docs, and London Internatlonal Documentary Film Festivals. (Screened with Salt of the Earth )

Salt of the Earth (1954)

Herbert J. Biberman (94 min., b&w, DVD, US, In English with Spanish subtitles)

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 5:30 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

Based on the true story of the 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company in Grant County, New Mexico, Salt of the Earth is an important landmark in American cinema. It remains one of the only films in American history banned (for almost a decade after its release) due to McCarthy-era fears of supposed pro-communist sympathies and its production by members of the blacklisted "Hollywood Ten." Moreover, the film is one of the first major studio films to offer a strong feminist message. Beyond its historical significance, though, this film rightly is praised for simply being a great movie, with The New York Times declaring that the "tautly muscled script develops considerable personal drama, raw emotion and power." With a cast of only five professional actors supplemented by real people from the actual strike, the film portrays the efforts of Mexican-American miners, led by Ramon Quintero and his wife, Esperanza, to strike for better working conditions and wage equality with Anglo miners. A powerful testament to the challenges that continually plague America's landscapes of labor, this film is simply a must-see! Selected in 1992 by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry. (Screened with Guanape Sur)

Automania 2000 (1963)

John Halas (9 min., color, DVD, UK)

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 8 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

This Academy Award-nominated short imagines a future (or perhaps more accurately our present) in which our reliance upon science seemingly allows us to have the good life . . . as long as you don't mind perpetually living in your car! But hey, as long as we keep getting new and bigger cars for every occasion, what's the problem, right? Witty, prescient, and disturbing in its satire, John Halas's film will give you a whole new appreciation for what "keeping up with the Joneses" really entails. (Screened with Waste Land)

Waste Land (2010)

Lucy Walker (98 min., color, Blu-Ray, US, In English and Portuguese with English Subtitles)

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 8 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

Brazilian-born artist Vik Muniz has won international acclaim for his artwork made from recycled materials. But his work took on deeper resonance when he returned to Rio de Janerio and visited the pickers working Jardim Gramacho, the largest landfill in the world. Making portraits of the pickers using materials from the landfill itself, Muniz helps to raise funds for new equipment, training, a library, and community improvement. A heart-warming and critically-acclaimed portrait of the power of art to make social change, this film is a reminder that we have more means available to us than we may think to create change for causes close to our hearts. Academy Award nominee and winner of awards at the Sundance, Berlin, Seattle, and Sao Paulo Film Festivals. (Screened with Automania 2000)
Visit the film's official website
View the film's official trailer

Modern Times (1936)

Charlie Chaplin (87 min., b&w, 35mm, US)

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 8 p.m.

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

Arguably, Chaplin's greatest film (along with City Lights), Modern Times is a stunning satire of the working life and landscapes of labor (and lack of labor) so many Americans endured during the Great Depression. Both laugh-out-loud-funny and tear-jerking, this was Chaplin's final "Little Tramp" film and the first since the total ascendence of talking pictures. Yet despite being a "sound" picture it is not a talking picture. Indeed, the only sounds aside from music on the soundtrack are those that emit from machines -- a commentary on the dehumanizing landscape of the working man. If you haven't yet seen this classic, you simply must, if only to consider how our landscapes of labor have changed so much in the last 75 years. (Screened with Three Walls)

Three Walls (2011)

Zaheed Mawani (26 min., color, Blu-Ray, Canada)

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 8 p.m.

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

The cubicle. Familiar as this most ubiquitous and monotonous of workplaces is, it can be easy to forget that the cubicle is, in fact, an environment all its own. And for many Americans, it is the modern "landscape of labor" -- the location where we spend the majority of our waking hours. Zaheed Mawani's film introduces us to the history of the cubicle, the workers who manufacture cubicle furniture, and some denizens of cubicle-dom -- trying not to let their external environment overwhelm their internal dreams and ambitions! Trust us, if you've ever worked in a cubicle this one is not to be missed. (Screened with Modern Times)
View the film's official trailer

Carroll Ballard Retrospective

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

Tales from Planet Earth is pleased to have screened a retrospective of director Carroll Ballard's extraordinary films that document the intense emotional connections that exist between humans and animals. Ballard captures the often spiritual quality of the human-animal bond that famed naturalist E.O. Wilson has suggested is an innate "biophilia," or instinctive love for other creatures on the planet. After the great audience response to his Never Cry Wolf we received at Tales from Planet Earth 2009, we were delighted to present this three-film retrospective especially aimed at family audiences.

The Black Stallion (1979)

Carroll Ballard (118 min., color, DVD, US)

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 12 p.m.

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

Alec (Kelly Reno), a young boy, is saved from a shipwreck by a beautiful stallion. Together they survive on an isolated island and forge a lasting bond. After their rescue they return to America where an ex-horse trainer (Mickey Rooney) teaches Alec to be a jockey and guides the boy and the stallion to their ultimate triumph in this sweeping and majestic Academy Award-winning drama.

Fly Away Home (1996)

Carroll Ballard (107 min., color, 35mm, US)

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 2:30 p.m.

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

Thomas Alden (Jeff Daniels) and his daughter, Amy (Anna Paquin) can’t seem to get along. But when thirteen-year-old Amy takes on the responsibility of raising abandoned goslings, relations improve between Amy and her father. After the geese imprint on Amy, Thomas and Amy must teach the geese to migrate. The airborne adventurers rediscover their love for one another while overcoming a host of pitfalls and arriving safely at the geese’s winter home in this touching family adventure. Loosely based on a true story, the beautifully filmed movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

Duma (2005)

Carroll Ballard (100 min., color, DVD, US)

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 5 p.m.

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

Based on the book How It Was With Dooms: A True Story From Africa, this is the true story of a boy and his cheetah. Set in stunning locales in South Africa, this film takes us on a great adventure across the country as a young boy, Xan, seeks to return his cheetah friend, Duma, to his rightful home in the wild. Their bond of friendship is tested and proven unbreakable in this incredible journey.

Monday, March 26

Solarize This Screening (2013 - Work-in-Progress) and Green Jobs Panel

Shalini Kantayya (~10 min., color, DVD, US)/60 min.

Monday, March 26, 2012, 12:00 pm

Union South Varsity Hall

Green jobs. From Thomas Friedman to President Obama, prominent Americans increasingly hail jobs manufacturing "clean" energy as the future of the American economy. But is the future at hand or still just a distant promise? In this eye-opening portrait, Shalini Kantayya (director of the 2009 Tales from Planet Earth film A Drop of Life) profiles three unemployed workers in Richmond, CA, who enroll in a solar power-installation job training program. But after completing their training, they discover that having skills for the future economy does not automatically translate into getting a job in the current one. This provocative work-in-progress asks policymakers to move beyond promising a green jobs revolution to the difficult tasks of turning it into reality. This film will be shown along with a panel of scholars and green jobs advocates -- including Shalini Kantayya and Van Jones, among others -- who will discuss the future of green jobs in the United States. Filmmaker was in attendance.

Keynote: Rebuild the Dream -- The Next American Economy (60 min.)

Monday, March 26, 2012, 7:30 p.m.

Barrymore Theatre

Named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2009, Van Jones has more than two decades of experience as a pioneering advocate for both human rights and the "green economy." Focused on the promise of a clean energy industry to provide meaningful jobs to the American labor force while also addressing many of our world's most intractable environmental challenges, Jones is a co-founder of three successful nonprofit organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, and Green For All. He also holds an appointment as a distinguished visiting fellow at Princeton University and served as a green jobs advisor to President Obama. Jones is a dynamic and engaging speaker and his talk offered a galvanizing keynote to our festival, reminding audiences of the need to keep hope alive in engaging with important social issues like the future of green energy.
Visit Van Jones' official website

Tuesday, March 27

Divine Pig (2010)

Hans Dortmans (60 min., color, Digibeta, The Netherlands/US, In Dutch with English subtitles)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 7 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

Gerard Zwetsloot is a free-range butcher with a not-so-small problem -- Dorus. Zwetsloot's pet pig is living the good life, with walks in the park and local celebrity status. But as Zwetsloot bonds with his growing pig, he confronts the problem of whether or not he'll eventually be able to butcher his animal companion. He's had this problem before and some of his earlier swine ended up at "pig sanctuaries" to live out their days. How can someone be a butcher for a living and yet selectively choose not to kill certain animals? How does anyone decide which animals we classify as food and which as friends? Will Dorus end up on the plate or in the barnyard? Dortmans' tender and thought-provoking film offers us reasons to believe that either ending is not without its issues. Film was followed by a panel discussion on human-animal relations.
Visit the film's official website
View the film's official trailer

Environmental Soundings Shorts

(75 min.)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 9 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

Our festival theme, "Environmental Soundings," can refer to multiple ideas. In the case of these shorts, it referred to the idea of "taking soundings," looking for environmental stories in unexpected places. From documentaries to dramas, suspicious beekeepers to struggling migrant farmers, orphaned environmental refugees to hunters spit-training their dogs, this program of shorts showed that environmental stories are to be found all around us. (Shorts program included: That Which Once Was, Bee, American Water, Everybody's Nuts, and La Maison en Petits Cubes)

That Which Once Was (2011)

Kimi Takesue (21 min., color, Blu-Ray, US)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 9 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

In the future, being an environmental refugee -- someone displaced by a natural disaster -- will be an increasingly common occurrence. Kimi Takesue's touching film imagines such a future as seen through the eyes of Vicente, an 8-year-old Caribbean orphan, who has lost his family to flooding and now has to fend for himself in a somewhat inhospitable orphanage. After he bonds with Siku (Natar Ungalaq, star of Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner), an ice carver who has also lost a great deal, he finds the courage to begin to deal with his memories. Future States Audience Award Winner and a selection of the 2011 SXSW Film Festival. (Screened with American Water, Bee, Everybody's Nuts, and La Maison en Petits Cubes)

Bee (2012)

Raphael Hitzke (20 min., color, Digibeta, US)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 9 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

Christine, a young entomologist, reluctantly heads back to her hometown to meet her dad, Ed, at the farmers market. After learning that half of her dad's honeybees have died, Christine finds that the bees have been killed by a pesticide. Can Christine get to the bottom of what happened to the bees? Or will she be thwarted by racial prejudices and mistrust that underlie so many American agricultural communities? Raphael Hitzke's short has become a hit on the festival circuit, appearing at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival among several others. (Screened with Everybody's Nuts, American Water, That Which Once Was, and La Maison en Petits Cubes)
Visit the film's official website

American Water (2011)

Jacob Cartwright and Nick Jordan (9 min., color, Blu-Ray, UK)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 9 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

By rights, Cairo, Illinois should be a major American metropolis. Located at the juncture of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, this once critical location for water transport in the U.S. today watches much of the world pass it by. Yet the town is far from empty. Jacob Cartwright and Nick Jordan discover that its forgotten exterior hides a colorful cast of characters keeping the town alive -- including two river rats with some definite views about how best to approach the waterways, for sustenance or sport. (Screened with Everybody's Nuts, Bee, That Which Once Was, and La Maison en Petits Cubes)
Visit the film's official website

Everybody's Nuts (2010)

Fabian Euresti (13 min., color, DVD, US, In Spanish with English subtitles)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 9 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

Fabian Euresti's intensely personal film documents his family's home in the San Joaquin Valley of California. The valley is home to two things, agriculture and oil -- and its contaminated groundwater is a powerful reminder of how the two frequently come into conflict with each other. In this intimate photoessay, Euresti considers the choices his parents have made, working the fields of California's agricultural landscapes, and the sacrifices that these choices entail. An official selection of the Full Frame and Los Angeles Film Festivals. (Screened with American Water, Bee, That Which Once Was, and La Maison en Petits Cubes)

La Maison en Petits Cubes (The House of Small Cubes) (2008)

Kunio Kato (12 min., color, Digibeta, France/Japan)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 9 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

A lost pipe. A house flooded by global warming. Loneliness and longing in old age. This Academy Award-winning wordless short is a beautiful portrait of love and memory set against a backdrop of climate change. Like the beginning of the Pixar hit Up, this film observes more truths about life and memory in a few minutes than most films achieve in hours of screentime. (Screened with American Water, Bee, Everybody's Nuts, and That Which Once Was)

Wednesday, March 28

Semper Fi: Always Faithful (2011)

Rachel Libert and Tony Hardmon (76 min., color, Blu-Ray, US)

Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 8:00 p.m.*

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

When Marine Corps Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger lost his daughter in 1985 to cancer he bitterly recriminated himself, wondering if he had failed somehow as a parent. But he found out the military he gave 25 years of faithful service to had been unfaithful to him -- that the waters at the Camp Lejeune base in eastern North Carolina were contaminated and the military did little to address or publicize this risk for more than two decades. Now he's pushing himself and fellow veterans to the brink to get the government to own up to what may be the single largest case of water contamination in American history, with as many as a million Americans exposed to cancer-causing chemicals. Having faithfully sacrificed throughout their careers to ensure all Americans have freedom, Ensminger and these veterans now are sacrificing their time and family's happiness to ensure Americans have justice, too. An official selection of the 2011 Tribeca, Silverdocs, and International Documentary Film Festivals. Filmmaker was in attendance. Film followed by Q+A and panel discussion.
Visit the film's official website
View the film's official trailer

Thursday, March 29

Alex Rivera Programming

Alex Rivera (120 min.)

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 7 p.m.

Centro Hispano

Alex Rivera is one of the most innovative filmmakers of his generation. Director of prior Tales films Sleep Dealer, The Sixth Section, and Papapapa, Rivera personally selected for Tales from Planet Earth 2012 films by other filmmakers that deal with contemporary issues of Latino identity. Past audiences have overwhelmingly warmed to Rivera, with his wit and good humor and this year once again Tales audiences enjoyed the opportunity to interact with this talented filmmaker. Film screening was followed by discussion with Alex Rivera. (Scheduled: La Ciudad and Calle 13: Latinoamerica)
Visit the filmmaker's official website

La Ciudad (The City) (1998)

David Riker (88 min., b&w, DVD, US)

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 7 p.m.

Centro Hispano

David Riker's dramatic film, born out of six years of acting workshops with Latino immigrants, is understated and yet pulls no punches, as it explores the disorienting reality of four Latino immigrants trying to imagine a new life for themselves in New York City. Told as four overlapping vignettes, the film, as Roger Ebert notes, "gives faces to the faceless and is not easily forgotten." Strangers in a strange land, at the mercy of unscrupulous employers and grasping at connections to their past lives, the heroes of each of these tales display quiet dignity and resilience, trying to find glimmers of hope amid much hardship. An extraordinary film, The New York Times declared that La Ciudad has "power in bringing home the brute Darwinian realities of poor people's lives" and is "indelible, deeply disquieting." Official selection of Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals. Winner Best Narrative Feature Film at the SXSW Film Festival and Winner at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival.
Visit film's official website

Contact (2009)

Martin Butler and Bentley Dean (78 min., color, Digibeta, Australia)

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 7 p.m.

UW Cinematheque

Human history is replete with moments of "contact," times when two civilizations first discovered each other and tried to make sense of the other. While it is tempting to assume these moments all occurred in the distant past -- recorded, if at all, now only in dusty pages of history books -- moments of contact in fact have occurred quite recently. In Contact, we witness an extraordinary moment of discovery via rare documentary footage of the moment the last 20 Martu Aboriginal nomads walked out of the Australian outback in 1964. Led by Yuwali, then a beautiful 17-year old girl and now our vibrant 62-year old narrator, these women and children were tracked down by the Australian government fearful that they could be in the debris field of an upcoming rocket test. The film leads us through the cat-and-mouse of tracking the Martu people down, as retold by both Yuwali and her family and the government officials who sought them, and ultimately allows Yuwali and her family to retell for their children and grandchildren what "contact" has meant for the history of their culture. Winner Best Feature Documentary from the Australian Film Institute and best documentary prizes at three film festivals.
Visit the film's official website

Cooked (2013 - Work-in-Progress)

Judith Helfand (~70 min., color, DVD, US)

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 9 p.m.

UW Cinematheque

In her signature style, Judith Helfand takes audiences through one of the most tragic heat waves in U.S. history and deep into the politics of disaster. In 1995, 739 Chicago residents — most of them poor, elderly and African American — died over the course of one hot July week. Was the tragedy a result of extreme weather or extreme denial? Determined to find out, she embarks on a journey as a "Disaster Detective" that leads her to our nation's burgeoning disaster-preparedness industry, where she discovers perhaps the biggest crisis of all -- our very definition of "disaster." She also meets an unlikely group of allies, new "first responders" striving to address the disaster behind the disasters, including: Chicago's Chief Epidemiologist from 1995, who went from mapping heat victims to studying the city's health-care disparities; a National Guard General with innovative notions about disaster response; and a cadre of South and West Side community activists striving to restore health, dignity, and economic growth to their neighborhoods and reduce C02 emissions at the same time. Can we redefine or expand our definition of "disaster" to include extreme poverty? To include those who need a survival kit just to get through an average week? As always, Helfand's films urge viewers to act rather than merely react; because if we don't, we're all "cooked." Filmmaker was in attendance. Film was followed by Q+A and panel discussion.

Retrospective: Silent Spring and Toxics in Films

(90 min.)

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 9 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

In 1962, respected science writer Rachel Carson set off a firestorm with Silent Spring, with its exhaustive research showing the harm pesticides and herbicides were wreaking on the American landscape. Immediately, Carson faced sustained opposition from chemical companies that tried to paint her as a hysterical woman who was anti-progress, or even a communist! Throughout the onslaught, Carson remained steadfast, confident in her scientific facts. In the 50 years since, Carson's facts have stood the test of time -- Silent Spring was named one of the most 100 influential books of the 20th century. But our relationship with toxics still remains complicated. This 50th anniversary retrospective offered historical portrayals of toxic chemicals in film and popular culture. (Retrospective included: The Winged Scourge, DDT - Weapon Against Disease, and CBS Reports: Silent Spring.)

The Winged Scourge (1943)

Bill Justice and Bill Roberts (10 min., color, DVD, US)

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 9 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

There's a menace on the loose and it could be coming to a window screen near you -- the anopheles mosquito, carrier of the dreaded malaria! In 1943, as part of the war effort, the U.S. government enlisted Disney to spread the word about how to deal with this deadly and tiny threat. In turn, Disney turned to seven of its most bankable stars (you may know them as Happy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Bashful, Dopey, and Doc)! Some of the dwarves' techniques for malaria control -- filling wetlands and spraying oil on the surface of ponds -- no longer enjoy favor among environmentalists, whereas others, namely spraying chemicals, continue to provoke unresolved debates among environmental and public health advocates. One of the earliest films to promote chemical control of mosquitoes and a classic example of wartime propaganda.

DDT - Weapon Against Disease (1945)

U.S. War Department (14 min., b&w, DVD, US)

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 9 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

In 1945, DDT really was a godsend. At that point, American troops fighting around the world faced greater risks from disease -- malaria and typhus, among others -- than from enemy fire. And DDT suddenly appeared as a savoir. In our modern era of skepticism and fears of nuclear and chemical toxicity, it can be easy to forget that chemicals and science once held lauded positions of unquestioned respect, beacons of progress for American society. This short film, produced by the U.S. Army for educational distribution, offers a glimpse into that popular mindset about modern "miracle" chemicals.

CBS Reports: Silent Spring (1963)

Bill Justice and Bill Roberts (60 min., b&w, DVD, US)

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 9 p.m.

The Marquee Theater at Union South

In 1962, just a couple years before Rachel Carson passed away from breast cancer, she sat down with CBS's Eric Sevareid to discuss the national sensation caused by the publication of Silent Spring. Despite every attempt to paint Carson as an alarmist or anti-progress, her appearance in this television special only cemented the portrait of a committed, yet dispassionate and analytical, thinker, who wrote only based on solid evidence and who measured her choice of words and analysis quite carefully. Watching Carson today, one can understand why much of the 1960s American public (including President Kennedy) came to be swayed by Carson's reasoning. Worth considering, then, is why so little has actually changed in the 50 years since her warnings first appeared.

Friday, March 30

Climate Change/Through Tribal Eyes

Patty Loew (90 min., color, DVD, US)

Friday, March 30, 2012, 8:30 a.m.

Monona Terrace, Hall of Ideas E

UW Professor Patty Loew is a veteran of film and television and committed to helping Wisconsin's Native Peoples tell their own stories. As part of a panel including students from The College of Menominee Nation, Loew screened and discussed the film Through Tribal Eyes about how climate change is affecting Wisconsin's landscapes and the Menominee people. Panelists included: Melissa Cook (Menominee), Director, Sustainable Development Institute at the College of Menominee Nation; Beau Mitchell (Chippewa Cree), Sustainability Coordinator, Sustainable Development Institute at the College of Menominee Nation; Leon Fowler (Menominee), Student, College of Menominee Nation; and Justin Gauthier (Menominee), Student, UW Madison and College of Menominee Nation graduate. See the ASEH conference schedule for more details about this program.

The Last Menominee (1959)/Indigenous Media Workshop

Stuart Hanisch (30 min., b&w, DVD, US)/90 min.

Friday, March 30, 2012, 10:30 a.m.

Monona Terrace, Hall of Ideas E

Prior to termination, the Menominee Nation was considered the second wealthiest of all American Indian tribes. Since termination, Menominee County has consistently been Wisconsin's poorest county. How did this switch occur? In 1954, the members of the Menominee Nation voted to terminate their reservation status -- and all the benefits (and limitations) it offered -- in return for a per person payment of $1500. The payment had originally been offered no-strings-attached as the federal government's restitution for its mismanagement of Menominee timber rights during the 1930s. But Utah Senator Arthur Watkins added an amendment to the payment bill requiring that a Menominee vote to accept the payments equal a vote for termination. This film is an important historical document about this significant chapter in Wisconsin history, offering many firsthand interviews with Menominee Nation members and their neighbors, as they reflect five years after termination on its meaning and impact for the Nation, its culture, economy, and future. (Shown as part of an Indigenous Media Workshop at the ASEH Conference -- free and open to the public). See the ASEH conference schedule for more details about this program.

If a Tree Falls (2011)

Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman (100 min., color, Blu-Ray, US)

Friday, March 30, 2012, 7 p.m.

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

If your ideals were continually dashed by the system, would you try to overthrow the system itself? Would you engage in criminal action? In December 2005, federal agents arrested Daniel McGowan in a nationwide sweep of members of the Earth Liberation Front -- a group the FBI labeled America's "number one domestic terrorism threat." Daniel is hardly your stereotype of a radical environmentalist - from Rockaway, Queens, he is a former business major and the son of a cop. Marshall Curry's Sundance-award winning film (filmed over several years while Daniel was on house arrest, awaiting trial under post-9/11 terrorism laws) weaves interviews with Daniel, his family, and co-defendants along with victims of their actions and the law enforcement agents who spent years tracking the group down. Curry attempts to determine how a mild-mannered environmentalist became convinced that furthering his ideals demanded acts of arson and sabotage. Is he a "terrorist" or merely a disillusioned criminal? This powerful film offers more questions than easy answers and humanizes - but does not exonerate - people whose passions have pushed them to challenge where the "wrong side of the law" falls. Winner of awards at the Sundance, Dallas, Nashville, and Flagstaff Mountain Film Festivals and nominated for a 2011 Writer's Guild Award and 2012 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Visit the film's official website
View the film's official trailer

Brothers on the Line (2012)

Sasha Reuther (80 min., color, Blu-Ray, US)

Friday, March 30, 2012, 7 p.m.

Monona Terrace

In the first half of the 20th century, Detroit, Michigan was arguably the center of America's manufacturing landscape. With a promise of surefire employment, this booming metropolis was inundated with hopeful job-seekers trying to build a future for themselves. Most soon discovered that the constant stream of immigrants meant they had to accept whatever working conditions demanded of them or risk being replaced. Three immigrants, however -- brothers Walter, Roy, and Victor Reuther - sought to give an equal voice to the workers pitted against the might of the automobile manufacturers. Overcoming intimidation and unified opposition from government and business, they organized the United Auto Workers (UAW) into a powerful advocate for workers' rights. With rare access to behind-the-scenes footage, this brand-new documentary -- directed by Victor Reuther's grandson and narrated by Martin Sheen -- offers a vivid portrait of the early ideals of the modern American labor movement. Winner, Best Documentary 2012 Michigan Film Awards. Filmmaker was in attendance. Film was followed by Q+A.
Visit the film's official website
View the film's official trailer

Graffitiger (2011)

Libor Pixa (9 min., color, DVD, Czech Republic)

Friday, March 30, 2012, 9 p.m.

Monona Terrace

The next time you're walking around your neighborhood keep your eyes open -- tigers may be on the prowl! Libor Pixa's innovative mix of live action scenes and animated characters brings to life the graffitied walls of the city and reminds us that encounters with wildlife take many forms in our modern urban landscapes. Nominated for the Best Foreign Student Film Academy Award. (Screened with Detroit Wild City)
Visit the film's official website
View the film's official trailer

Detroit Wild City (2010)

Florent Tillon (80 min., color, DVD, France/US)

Friday, March 30, 2012, 9 p.m.

Monona Terrace

Brothers on the Line shows Detroit as it was. Detroit Wild City tries to discover what the city is today and is becoming. The traditional narrative is that Detroit is a landscape full of abandoned buildings and increasingly devoid of people. But Tillon's stunningly photographed "tone piece" offers a more nuanced portrait. True, parts of the landscape are "re-wilding," being taken over by urban nature. But small groups of Detroit residents and new "urban pioneers" here and there are also transforming the city's landscape bit by bit into new spaces. Detroit's future is far from pre-determined; the only thing certain is that it won't ultimately be the product of a singular grand vision, as the many ghosts of past grand schemes haunting the landscape can attest to. An official selection at more than 25 film festivals on five different continents! (Screened with Graffitiger)
Visit the film's official website
View the film's official trailer

The City Dark (2011)

Ian Cheney (84 min., color, Blu-Ray, US)

Friday, March 30, 2012, 9 p.m.

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

Progress has its price - each technology yields later realizations of new forms of pollution. In his latest rollicking film, Ian Cheney (director of prior Tales audience fave The Greening of Southie) explores a newly-realized form of pollution from one of the oldest and most ubiquitous technologies on the planet - artificial light. Cheney starts with the question: "Do we need the stars?" His search for answers takes him to wildlife rehabilitation centers, cancer wards, observatories, and ultimately to questions about the nature of human imagination! Cheney's films are always entertaining and thought-provoking and this film is no exception, having already won critical and audience plaudits at the SXSW and Yale Environmental Film Festivals. Filmmaker was in attendance. Film was followed by Q+A.
Visit the film's official website
View the film's official trailer

Saturday, March 31

Filmmaker Panel -- The New Green Wave: A Conversation on Film and Environmental Change

(90 min.)

Saturday, March 31, 2012, 10:30 a.m.

Monona Terrace, Ballroom A

Over the last decade, a proliferation of environmental documentaries, film festivals, green cable channels, and the possibilities opened up by the internet has brought a diversity of storytelling approaches and engagement strategies in harnessing the power of film as a force of environmental and social change. This panel invited three of today’s leading environmental filmmakers -- Judith Helfand, Alex Rivera, and Ian Cheney -- whose work connects deeply to issues in environmental history to discuss their work and the current state and future direction of environmental film. As more and more environmental historians integrate film into their courses and class assignments, what are the possibilities and constraints of digital storytelling for challenging us to see the environment in new and surprising ways, inspiring action and hope on a planet, beautiful in its diversity of life, but also troubled by unprecedented environmental change and injustice? Moderating the panel was Gregg Mitman, interim director of the Nelson Institute and the creator of Tales from Planet Earth.