"Tightly constructed... a courageous piece of investigative reportage." - Variety

What’s the price of a text message? This is the question that takes director Frank Poulsen on a hugely personal journey in this rollercoaster IDFA hit to connect Africa’s “heart of darkness” with the ivory towers of European multinationals. In the past 15 years, five million people have died in Congo’s civil war. The UN has consistently reported a connection between the conflict and control of the international trade in minerals used in products such as mobile phones. Reaching the dangerous and normally inaccessible Bisie mine area, Poulsen’s extraordinary journey reveals child labourers in death-defying conditions before he returns home to ask his phone company, the largest in the world, just what are they doing to halt the cycle of poverty and conflict?

Region: Congo, Dem Rep of the
Key themes: consumerism, corporate responsibility
Strand:

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"tightly constructed... A courageous piece of investigative reportage” Variety

What’s the price of a text message? This is the question that takes director Frank Poulsen on a hugely personal journey in this rollercoaster IDFA hit to connect Africa’s “heart of darkness” with the ivory towers of European multinationals.

In the past 15 years, five million people have died in Congo’s civil war. The UN has consistently reported a connection between the conflict and control of the international trade in minerals used in products such as mobile phones. Reaching the dangerous and normally inaccessible Bisie mine area, Poulsen’s extraordinary journey reveals child labourers in death-defying conditions before he returns home to ask his phone company, the largest in the world, just what are they doing to halt the cycle of poverty and conflict?

All screenings will be followed by Q&A with director Frank Poulsen, with evening screenings followed by free drinks in the bar (retain ticket). On Saturday 24th September, Frank will be joined by Clare Short, former UK Secretary of State for International Development who currently serves as Chair of the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

 

Region: Congo, Dem Rep of the
Key themes: corporate responsibility, human rights, work/labour
Strand: Land and Freedom  

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Fri 23 Sep – Sat 24 Sep

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In the month that the UN reinforces its warning that hundreds of millions of people will be made homeless by climate change this century, this exclusive outdoor screening asks whether tackling climate change is a science... or an art? In 2008, 45 scientists and artists – including Jarvis Cocker, Robyn Hitchcock, Martha Wainwright, KT Tunstall, Marcus Brigstocke and Ryuichi Sakomoto – joined together on a Cape Farewell expedition to Disko Bay, Greenland to set about answering this question.

Our exclusive UK preview of this gentle documentary bears witness to their journey and subsequent performances of new material at Latitude Festival and elsewhere.

At the Botanic Gardens, pedal-power the film under the stars to stay warm and keep this event "off the grid". With additional storytelling activities and art exhibition 'Tarnished Earth' in the gardens.

Also showing at Edinburgh University on Weds 21 September, see below.

Region: Arctic
Key themes: climate change
Strand: Green Shoots  
In association with
Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, The Co-operative, Edinburgh Woodcraft Folk, Transition Edinburgh South

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Sat 1 Oct – Sun 1 Jan

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Type of event: Film screening
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Tue 20 Sep

Event location: Edinburgh
Organised by

Do you want to find out more about the positive role that business can play in international development? NIDOS, the Network of International Development Organisations in Scotland, is bringing together businesses and charities alike who are finding ways of working together for mutual benefit. We'll also hear from Scotland's former chief economic advisor, Dr Andrew Goudie, on the Scottish Government's role in business and development. The seminar will be followed by our AGM, which is for NIDOS members only.

Type of event: Other
Key themes: international development, trade/economic justice
Age group: not certified

Full event address: Radisson Blu Hotel, Royal Mile, Edinburgh
Event website address: www.nidos.org.uk/events/event.asp?id=328

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Actively seeking change on the issues you care about can take many forms, but it can also be fun and hugely rewarding. These informative and empowering beginners guides to changing the world will give you the confidence to make a real difference. Meet experienced campaginers, get to grips with the building blocks of developing a campaign and hear directly from politicians who might be on the receiving end of your future action.

Both workshops will be followed by screenings of Our Generation at the Edinburgh Filmhouse and Glasgow Film Theatre. There will be an opportunity for participants to meet director Sinem Saban beforehand to hear about her own campaign work. Tickets for the film should be purchased through the relevant box office.

Region: global
Key themes: empowerment/activism
Strand: Green Shoots   Land and Freedom   Faces of Change  

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Sat 1 Oct – Sun 2 Oct

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Organised by

Type of event: Workshop
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"Engaging and proactive" Variety  Official Selection Cannes Film Festival 2010

Raed Andoni has a tension headache—one that has lasted generations and isn't going to end soon. That's because he is a Palestinian filmmaker living in Ramallah, where the prospects for a creative life are elusive.

One of the unspoken weapons in the occupation in Palestine is boredom and the obscuring of everyday Palestinian identity and creativity outside the narrative confines of the conflict zone. In Fix ME (official selection, Cannes 2010), we follow Andoni through twenty therapy sessions as he explores the internal terrain of displacement and alienation that mimics the reality for thousands of Palestinians. Ironic in tone, stylishly shot, told with sly humour and a lingering score, this haunting doc explores the meaning of individuality in culture dominated by collective consciousness, as well as the filmmaker’s irrepressible longing for a way back home.

Followed by discussion with speakers including Barry Levine (Scottish Jews for a Just Peace in Palestine) and David Pratt (Foreign Editor, The Sunday Herald, author of Intifada: The Long Day of Rage).

Region: Israel, Palestinian Territory, Occupied
Key themes: conflict/reconciliation, Mid East/Isr-Palestine
Strand: Land and Freedom  

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Fri 30 Sep

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Take One Action, The Ceilidh Collective andRefugee Survival Trust present the award-winning film Climate Refugees, plus dinner and a fabulous night of dancing, at the Rudolph Steiner School.

6pm - an organic two-course seasonal dinner with bespoke organic events, plus a one-hour film presentation during dinner by Take One Action

8pm - a wild and furious ceilidh with the Cosmic Ceilidh Band

The film is ʻClimate Refugeesʼ - an award-winning documentary film about ʻthe human face of climate change. Ceilidhing to all the traditional tunes plus a few more exotic numbers such as the Dancing Queen and Jungle Book theme tune, until 1am! Licensed organic bar throughout the evening. Tickets £20, concsessions available. 100% profits from dinner, film, bar, door and raffle go to directly to destitute asylum seekers through the RST (SC 024328).

Region: global
Key themes: climate change, refugees/asylum
Strand: Green Shoots  

Sat 29 Oct

Event location: Edinburgh
Organised by

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“An engaging chamber piece about autumnal romance, bittersweet memory and self-sacrifice.” The Times

In his follow-up to the Berlin Golden Bear winner Tuya's Marriage, director Wang Quan’an has fashioned a bittersweet late life romance, reuniting former lovers separated some fifty years earlier by the end of China’s civil war.

When a political thaw permits surviving veterans in Taiwan to return to Shanghai to visit their families, ex nationalist soldier Liu returns to his native city Shanghai to find the first love of his life, Qiao, who he left behind pregnant five decades earlier. In the meantime, Qiao has married and built a family, but Liu tracks her down and is determined to get the family’s approval to take her away with him. Made with support from the Chinese government, Apart Together marks a new frontier in representations of China’s history and its relationships with the outside world.

Winner – Best Screenplay, Berlin International Film Festival

Region: Asia
Key themes: conflict/reconciliation
Strand: Faces of Change  

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“An exceptional documentary… stunningly photographed.” IndieWire

Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos, as all at once, a tidal wave of humanity attempts to return home by train. It is the Chinese New Year. The wave is made up of millions of migrant factory workers, and the homes they seek are the rural villages and families they left behind to find work in the booming coastal cities. It is an epic spectacle that tells us much about China, as it rapidly modernises and increases its global economic dominance. Last Train Home draws us into the fractured lives of a single migrant family caught up in this annual migration.  Intimate and candid, the film paints a human portrait of the dramatic changes sweeping China.

Winner – Best Feature Documentary, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam

Region: Asia
Key themes: poverty (global), work/labour
Strand: Faces of Change  

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“Powerful!  Engrossing!  Unsettlingly beautiful!” LA Times

In this series of extraordinary visual portraits, renowned artist Edward Burtynsky travels through China photographing the evidence and effects of its massive industrial revolution and the implicit impact on the environment. Director Jennifer Baichwal captures the artist at work amid some of the most surreal landscapes of the 21st century: the mountains of 'ewaste' in China where 50% of the world's computers end up to be recycled; the Yangtze Valley where whole towns are being demolished to make way for the Three Gorges Dam and the crowded skyline of Shanghai which has recently attracted millions of new inhabitants.

Winner – Best Canadian Film, Toronto International Film Festival

Region: Asia
Key themes: consumerism, environment (general)
Strand: Faces of Change  

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“A satire that bridges the personal and political with fantasy and black humour.” The Hollywood Reporter

This double prize winner at Shanghai Film Festival is a complex reflection on the challenges and questions arising from China's rapidly changing rural economy. The film charts a year in the life of Mr Shu (aka Tree), a Chinese man with learning difficulties whose life allegorically mirrors the social and economic development of his home-town. Generally viewed as a benign but lazy idiot, Shu loses his job after a workplace accident but at the same time transcends community hierarchies, giving the viewer a unique insight into the ties between local leaders, families, workers, businessmen, and even the past and future. When in parallel, a locally-run mining company starts to relocate the townspeople, and Shu gets drawn into doomed marriage with a deaf mute girl, the town's carefully maintained boundaries between order and disorder begin to unravel. Although it is never clear whether the dangers associated with a changing China are merely a mental disturbance or situated more widely, the film nonetheless begs the question: where is China going?

Region: Asia
Key themes: health, poverty (global), work/labour
Strand: Faces of Change  

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Although millions of Chinese recently voted in China’s version of Pop Idol, political elections in China currently only take place only inside the Communist Party.  Against this background, Please Vote For Me follows the experiment of one grade 3 class in an elementary school in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where three eight year old candidates stand for election to the coveted position of class monitor. As their campaigns progress, they are abetted and egged on by teachers and their doting parents, whose actions start to influence the results.

Director Weijun Chen’s film explores how, if democracy came to China, it would be received. Is democracy a universal value that fits human nature or do elections inevitably lead to manipulation? Please Vote for Me paints a portrait of a society and a town through a school, its children and its families.

Region: Asia
Key themes: democracy/political systems
Strand: Faces of Change  

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"Behind the exterior of political harridan...beats a heart that isn't so much bleeding as haemorrhaging for her fellow men and women, combined with an intellect guided by deeply held opinions" Independent on Sunday "I'm going to try to be good but I can't help it, I have to be me" Clare Short, on being elected to the UK cabinet

A unique opportunity to dialogue with one of the world’s most outspoken anti-poverty campaigners and one-time key figure in Tony Blair’s government until her angry resignation in 2003 over Britain’s role in the Iraq War.

For six years Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short finally resigned the Labour whip in 2006, having a year before accused the UK of spying on senior United Nations officials, an instituti...on she is a passionate defender of. Short finally stood down as an MP in 2010 and was elected Chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. She also serves as a trustee for a number of charities working on issues such as gay rights, African governance and the defence and rebuilding of Palestinian homes.

Exploring the commitments and controversies that have defined Short’s career in politics, this special conversation event guarantees a lot of food for thought.

Region:
Key themes: consumerism, corporate responsibility, work/labour
Strand: Faces of Change  

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Sat 24 Sep

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Type of event: Talk
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Sat 19 May

Event location: Edinburgh
Organised by World Development Movement

Come and learn about the history of resistance movements across the globe from author Tim Gee, and find out the latest on World Development Movement campaigns on financial speculation and climate debt from our head of campaigns Hannah Griffiths. Also featuring West African drumming workshop from internationally renowned 'Pete the Beat' and workshop on the history of protest songs from John Powles of ‘Giving Voice’ and curator of the Janey Buchan Political Song Collection at Glasgow University. There will also be workshops on local food networks and on WDM's current campaigns on food and climate debt. A lunch of soup and sandwiches, plus tea and coffee, will be provided for a £3 donation. After the event, WDM is working in partnership with Take One Action films to show 'Four Horsemen' at the Edinburgh filmhouse with a panel discussion chaired by Lesley Riddoch. More information about the film from: http://www.fourhorsemenfilm.com/about/ or look on the Take One Action website.

Type of event: Workshop
Key themes: hunger/food issues
Age group: all ages

Full event address: St. George's West Church, Shandwick Place, Edinburgh EH2 4RT
Event website address: www.wdm.org.uk/events/dancing-different-beat-campaigns-stories-and-songs-resistance-99

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"Intensely moving... at once subtle and shattering" Hollywood Reporter

Nominated for 13 Goyas (Spain's Oscars), Iciar Bollain’s dramatic rollercoaster penned by Take One Action patron Paul Laverty (Looking for Eric) stars Gael García Bernal as Sebastian, a filmmaker caught up in Bolivia's mass protests of spring 2000 against the government’s decision to privatise the national water compa...ny.

As Sebastian vainly tries to tell the story of Columbus' colonisation of the new world, his cast and crew get drawn into a contemporary version of events, blurring the boundaries between past and present, fiction and reality. In fact, the cost of water in Bolivia had gone up by three hundred per cent. But although Bollain’s story is finally one of the triumph of the people, the privatisation of basic public services remains at the centre of a powerful debate about poverty and development across the globe..

Preceded by music from Chilean-Scottish band Voces Del Sur, and followed by Q&A with screenwriter Paul Laverty.

Region: Bolivia
Key themes: democracy/political systems, historical profile, trade/economic justice
Strand: Land and Freedom  

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Wed 21 Sep – Thu 22 Sep

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“A remarkable story” The Evening Standard  “Warm-hearted and heart warming” The Observer

Charting one teacher’s inspirational quest to take 77 young musicians onto the world stage, Fezeka’s Voice, by first time director HollyLubbock, offers a heartwarming glimpse of what empowerment can really mean.

The Fezeka High School Choir may be national champions, but their school sits in one of the most deprived areas in South Africa. Guguletu township, like most ghettos within South Africa, is affected by many of the hardships brought on by material poverty. But the children of today's South Africa face an even greater hurdle: the challenge of learning beyond the confines of their segregated history and the positions it has put them in.

No one understands this more than high school music teacher Phumi Tsewu, raised during the apartheid era, who knows that the only way for black South Africans to claim their right to a free and just society is to teach its children that they are worthy of it.

All screenings will be preceded by a special message from Take One Action Hero Archibishop Desmond Tutu, and followed by Q&A with director Holly Lubbock.

Region: South Africa
Key themes: education, empowerment/activism
Strand: Faces of Change  

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Wed 28 Sep – Thu 29 Sep

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Wed 21 Mar – Fri 23 Mar

Event location: Glasgow
Organised by www.fairpley.com

Wednesday 21 March, 1.00pm Films: UCS 1 and UCS: 40th Anniversary Panel: Ann Guedes, Susan Morrison, Dr Chik Collins. Tickets £5 Thursday 22 March 7.30pm Films: UCS 1 and UCS: 40th Anniversary Panel: Ann Guedes, Mike Kirby (STUC President), Pat Rafferty (UNITE). Tickets £6 Friday 23 March 7.30pm Film: Class Struggle: Film from the Clyde Panel: Ann Guedes, David Hayman. Tickets £7.50 After each showing the films will be followed by a Q&A with special guest, film-maker, Ann Guedes, plus an invited panel. Ann Guedes - Independent cinema in Britain is unthinkable with- out the achievements of the innovative film collective Cinema Action, which was set up in the late 1960s and crystallised around a core of three cultural dynamos: Ann Guedes, Gustav Lamche and Eduardo Guedes. Ann has made 15 documentary films, many with International Film Festival Awards, Berlin, London, Madrid, Portugal, Leipzig and the jury prize at the Moscow Film Festival. Her 90-minute feature documentary So That You Can Live was selected for the opening day of Channel 4. Ann’s feature films include:Rocinante (1986), starring John Hurt and Ian Dury, which won 6 international film awards; Bearskin (1989), starring Tom Waits and Ian Dury; and Talk of Angels (1998).

Type of event: Film screening
Key themes: work/labour
Age group: PG cert

Full event address: Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow
Event website address: www.fairpley.com

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“There are thoughts here of such profundity you feel the need to reach for the rewind button” Time Out

Synopsis
“Malnutrition on the one hand, obesity on the other. What kind of system have we created?” Clear, cleverly illustrated and profoundly thought-provoking, these Scottish premieres (plus director Q&As) bring a brand new lens to the global financial crisis through the eyes of some of the world’s most influential thinkers. Voices range from UK government advisers and Financial Times editors to senior Bush administration staff and international ecologists. Moving through a concise dissection of the here and now, its protagonists challenge viewers to set aside preconceptions about global conflict, inequality, consumerism, welfare and progress. But while the “Four Horsemen" warn of the passing from one civilisation to another, they invite us who live on the cusp of change to transform the systems we live by ("What is created by humans, can be changed by humans”) with hope, urgency and wisdom.

Speaker information
- St Andrews New Picturehouse, Friday 18th May, followed by a Q&A with director Ross Ashcroft, plus Louise Giblin from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (on behalf of UNISON). Chaired by Simon Bateson (Take One Action).
- Edinburgh Filmhouse, Saturday 19th May, followed by a Q&A with director Ross Ashcroft, plus special guests including Tim Gee, author of Counterpower: making change happen. Chaired by Lesley Riddoch.
- Glasgow Film Theatre, Sunday 20th May, followed by a Q&A with director Ross Ashcroft, plus special guests. Chaired by Mark Langdon (GMAC).

Region: global
Key themes: consumerism, corporate responsibility, trade/economic justice
Strand:

Official selection Vancouver International Film Festival 2010

Homegrown is the inspiring true story of one family living “off the grid” on an organic urban homestead in the heart of Pasadena city, California. On less than a quarter of... an acre, they harvest over 6000 pounds of produce every year, feeding themselves and their friends, making their own biodiesel, and harnessing solar power for pretty much everything else. What sets them apart is how they take what is familiar to so many– time, space and relationships in the city – to make something grow that most of us wouldn’t think possible...until now.

Dress for outdoor weather and pedal power to stay warm!

Region: USA
Key themes: climate change, empowerment/activism, youth/family friendly
Strand: Green Shoots  

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Tue 20 Sep

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Type of event: Film screening
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A billion people go to bed hungry every night around the world. Women are often hit hardest with climate change, agricultural pressures and land grabs combining to make the current food system untenable. Marking International Women’s Day, Bitter Seeds offers an "affecting, character-driven portrait" (Variety) of Manjusha Amberwar, a young Indian who hopes to get her debut article published in the local paper. Taking her first step as a journalist is not easy for the village girl, whose entire family opposes her ambition, and her chosen topic provides even less reason for joy. Her father was one of many Indian cotton farmers who have committed suicide because of the pressures heaped on rural farmers by changing food systems. Manjusha hopes that by drawing attention to their plight, she can bring an end to this epidemic. But where do the real solutions lie?

The film will be followed by discussions:

In Glasgow, with director Micha Peled (via Skype), and Sarah Watson, Oxfam Scotland Campaigner.

In Edinburgh, with Joanna Blythman, an award-winning investigative journalist and author of six landmark books on food issues, and Sarah Watson, Oxfam Scotland Campaigner. Chaired by Lesley Riddoch, an award winning journalist, commentator and broadcaster who writes regularly for the Scotsman and Guardian.

Region: global
Key themes: climate change, consumerism, gender and power, globalisation, poverty (global), work/labour
Strand:

Across the world - from Donald Trump's Aberdeen golf course and the soya fields rapidly replacing Amazonian rainforest, to the internationally fuelled conflicts over land and minerals in Africa - ordinary communities are struggling to retain control of how their land and resources are being used.

For some able to capitalise on the opportunities of globalisation, the standard of life is arguably improving. To most, power and wealt...h seem to be concentrating in the hands of a global minority. And yet the voices of civil society groups and concerned filmmakers have grown stronger the world over. There is a growing debate about what sustainable development really means, and about the tools, ethics and regulation needed to keep it in check.

Land Rights, Land Wrongs brings this debate to Edinburgh as part of the Take One Action Film Festival, inspired by a special stand of new world class feature films entitled Land and Freedom. Join Mozambican land rights campaigner Isilda Nhantumbo, author Andy Wightman (The Poor Had No Lawyers), West Papuan musician and campaigner Benny Wanda, director Anthony Baxter (You've Been Trumped), Jill Wood (Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund), Hannah Kitchen (Friends of the Earth Scotland) and others. Explore the issues raised by these films and to draw inspiration from the stories of social movements around the world addressing the question: how should the earth we all live on be owned and used?

The Drill Hall Arts Cafe will be open during the afternoon, selling hot and cold drinks and food. Delivered in partnership with Friends of the Earth Scotland, Christian Aid, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, and UNISON Scotland.

This event will be followed by an exclusive screening of You've Been Trumped at the Filmhouse, preceded by original live music by Karine Polwart.

 

Region: global
Key themes: democracy/political systems, empowerment/activism, environment (general)
Strand: Green Shoots   Land and Freedom  
In association with
Friends of the Earth Scotland, Christian Aid, SCIAF, Unison Scotland

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Sun 2 Oct

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Type of event: Workshop
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“A documentary that should be mandatory viewing for anyone interested in one of the most contentious issues of our times” The Guardian

A decade on from the mass rallies that took place at the G8 summit in Birmingham which made third world debt a global issue, and five years since Bob Geldof announced that it had been dealt with, this rare tenth anniversary screening of Stepanie Black’s award-winning film a unique opportunity to ask whether debt justice has really been achieved.

In 1977,15 years after its break from British colonial rule, Jamaica is forced to borrow $4.5 billion from the IMF to service its development. In a story echoed in dozens of countries across the world, the self-interested trading controls then attached to these loans by IMF credtors forced Jamaica into ever greater poverty.

Caputured with poetic insight, we see the ports developed exclusively for foreign company trading, and meet the local workers forced out of jobs by the influx of cheap, untaxed imports flooding the market. At once a tribute to the ingenuity and strength of the people who defy the odds of survival, Life and Debt is also a classic example of successful agitprop cinema, and an ongoing call to scrutinise the march of Western history.

Showing as a double bill with The End of Poverty (see ticket deal below). Followed by discussion with John Christenson (Director, The Tax Justice Network), Alys Mumford (Jubilee Scotland) and Andrew Millson (Scottish Business in the Community).

Region: Jamaica
Key themes: poverty (global), trade/economic justice
Strand: Faces of Change  

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Tue 27 Sep

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Official Selection IDFA 2011

A rare opportunity to bear witness to one of the great hidden populations and stories of the twentieth century, Nargis: when time stopped breathing captures the devastation wrought by the cyclone of the same name which killed more than 140,000 people in May 2008 and left two and half million Burmese homeless.

While Burma’s ruling miltary, propped up by oil, was slow in responding and refused international aid, a group of undercover filmmakers set out for the rural Delta and main cities to tell the full story. Their images speak for themselves: a wilderness of water and greenery that would be paradisiacal if not for the ravage of fallen trees, blown-away huts, and collapsed houses... bewildered widows and orphans... and the slow, steady, painful work of beginning to piece back shelters, find parents, and come to terms with their leaders’ apparent silence, and the world’s.

Both screenings will be followed by panel discussions with speakers including author and renowned Burmese activist in exile Zoya Phan, and in Edinburgh Sarah Boyack MSP.

Ticket deal: The Edinburgh screening is preceded by Zoya Phan in Conversation at 16:00. Buy a combined ticket to hear Zoya talk about her work AND see Nargis for just £10/£8 when booking through Filmhouse on 0131 228 2688 or in person.

Region: Asia, Myanmar
Key themes: climate change, democracy/political systems, historical profile
Strand: Land and Freedom   Faces of Change  

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Sat 1 Oct – Sun 2 Oct

Event location: n/a
Organised by

Type of event: Film screening
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“My Brothers and sisters, we want no violence, we want no cheating.  We don’t want any bloodshed.”

Fresh from success at Sundance and Berlin International Film Festival, this acclaimed documentary follows the key players in the 2008 presidential elections in Ghana, West Africa. In a continent where elections are often tarnished by allegations of corruption, fraud and violence, the two political parties in this race will do almost anything to win. But will democracy prevail? 

Director Jarreth Merz spent three months gaining unprecedented access to the political, economic and social forces at work in Ghana, capturing each unexpected twist and turn in the contest. The result is an intriguing and suspenseful look behind-the-scenes at the complex, political machinery of African democracy in the twenty-first century.

“One of the most gripping documentaries showcased at this years Sundance Film Festival” Hollywood Reporter

Presented by Take One Action, this screening on 2nd December will be followed by a discussion with special guest speakers about the issues raised in the film.

Region: Southern Africa
Key themes: democracy/political systems, international development
Strand: Faces of Change  

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"Extraordinary images rendered with a clarity sure to become a touchstone for nature documentaries" Variety

"Manages to show us things we've never seen and make what we have already seen look different and new." LA Times

Disney Nature's “Oceans” takes us beneath the waves with narrator Pierce Brosnan to tell the epic tale of our blue planet. With short films beforehand and activities and refreshments before the music starts.

Region: global
Key themes: climate change, environment (general)
Strand: Green Shoots  

“A very fine piece of work... Truthful and eloquent” John Pilger   "Knowledge... passion... much to admire” The Guardian

Made in unique collaboration with its subject community, Our Generation is a groundbreaking new documentary which is igniting a people-power movement across Australia.

Northeast Arnhem Land is one of the last heartlands of traditional Aboriginal culture and law in Australia, and the ancestral home of the yidaki, or didgeridoo. Here, despite high profile government apologies for “historical” abuses, its people are themselves accused of abuse by the state – systemic abuse of children – in a final, extraordinary bid to remove them from their land.

The reason? Despite centuries of slavery and disempowerment, the Yolngu are still clinging to territory which contains some of the most prized export minerals in Australia. But can their resistance hold out? Or will the oldest living culture on earth soon have the ground pulled from under their feet?

All screenings followed by Q&A with director Sinam Saban, plus special guests. Evening screenings in Edinburgh and Glasgow followed by drinks in the cafe-bar (please retain your ticket).

Edinburgh and Glasgow screenings are preceded by A Beginner's Guide To Campaigning. Find out more here...

Region: Australia
Key themes: empowerment/activism, environment (general), world-changing film
Strand: Green Shoots   Land and Freedom  

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Fri 30 Sep – Sun 2 Oct

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“A multilayered, psychologically complex portrait of both a woman and a moment” Variety

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. But too many of its women still face entrenched abuse.

Enter “stage left” the Gulabi Gang, a group of remarkable vigilante women from the lowest social caste who resist being treated as such. And enter “stage right” their formidable champion Sampat Pal, who charges head first into endless cases of discrimination and domestic abuse - often perpetrated by the women’s husbands' extended families, with whom they're forced to live.

Declaring 'what do women have but their tears?', Sampat Pal has learnt from experience. In circumstances that are far from unusual, she married young. Beaten by her in-laws for disobedience, she fought back, escaped and developed a hardened resolve never to be under any man’s control again. Now beleaguered women from throughout Uttar Pradesh seek her out, in awe of her strength.

We hope to be joined by award-winning director Kim Longinotto for a Q&A following this screening.

Region: India
Key themes: empowerment/activism, gender and power
Strand: Faces of Change  

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Wed 28 Sep

Event location: n/a
Organised by

Type of event: Film screening
Key themes:
Age group:

Full event address: n/a
Event website address: n/a

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“Wildly expressionistic…a canvas so vast that people, fighting fish and cockroaches complete a bizarre ecosystem of co-dependence” LA Weekly

One of the most extraordinary visual insights into any country, we’re delighted to include this exclusive UK preview of Sundance hit and overall IDFA winner to throw colour onto the debate about the impact of globalisation in a changing world.

Filmed in Helmrich’s trademark Single Shot style – symphonic, uninterrupted cinema with no interviews or voice-over – this is the final installment of a vibrant, funny and often moving trilogy.

We rejoin the Christian-Islamic Sjamsuddin family as grandmother and grandaughter leave the countryside to join the girl’s uncle in Jakarta. A microcosm of the life under globalisation the world over, contrasts and conflict abound – between the modern and traditional, religion and capitalism, wealth and poverty – before some devastating wisdom from the unlikeliest of sources brings the family back to where they started.

Region: Indonesia
Key themes: globalisation
Strand: Faces of Change  

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Tue 27 Sep

Event location: -
Organised by

Type of event:
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Full event address: -
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Fri 30 Sep

Event location: Edinburgh
Organised by

Come along between 10 am and 12 for a chance to get help with your mending, learn some basic sewing techniques, have a go on a sewing machine, help our community patchwork grow a bit, or just have a coffee and a chat. All welcome. Our drop-in sessions are continuing every Friday, at the South Bridge Resource Centre on Infirmary Street (behind Blackwells).

Type of event: Workshop
Key themes: environment (general)
Age group: all ages

Full event address: South Bridge Resource Centre
Event website address: http://remadeinedinburgh.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://remadeinedinburgh.blogspot.com/

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World hunger is increasing. Citizen movements are growing. Climate change is threatening tens of millions in the poorest nations. How can journalists, charities and filmmakers work better together?

In the midst of this, multinationals and charities are as present as ever, some achieving success, others causing problems. And meanwhile UK and Scottish overseas aid budgets have been ringfenced or increased, but with limited public u...nderstanding.

But what role does the changing face of UK journalism have to play in these issues? And how best can others collaborate with the sector to hold international development to account and increase its impact?

This special conference invites reporters, filmmakers, students, academics, charity workers and campaigners to consider, debate and be inspired by these questions and to connect with like-minded people trying to answer them.

Programme information

Session One 14.00 - 17.00 : Dialogue with award-winning filmmakers and journalists. Plus a workshop with a host of experts on the industry and the role of media and social media in fundraising, campaigning and reporting conflict.

Session Two 17:00 - 19:00: Networking plus keynote speakers, and our main debate on the state of reporting on international development. With Paul Holleran (National Union of Journalists) and others.

Region: global
Key themes: international development
Strand: Faces of Change  

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Wed 28 Sep

Event location: n/a
Organised by

Type of event: Workshop
Key themes:
Age group:

Full event address: n/a
Event website address: n/a

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Robert Mugabe... What Happened? charts the Shakespearean rise and fall of the man who built a successful African country and then destroyed it. Damned as a terrorist, knighted by Queen Elizabeth and then suspended from the Commonwealth, Mugabe remains in power after 30 years. The film explores what happened through interviews with some of Mugabe’s closest comrades, and draws on a unique collection of southern African archive that powerfully evokes his reign. This is a complex and compelling view of Zimbabwe the country and Mugabe the man.

Presented by the Take One Action and Africa in Motion Film Festivals, the 6pm screenings on Wednesday 30 May and Thursday 31 May will be followed by Q&As with the film's producer Michael Auret, plus special guests.

Region: Zimbabwe
Key themes: democracy/political systems
Strand:

“A powerful, richly layered indictment of the plight of Latin America’s dispossessed.” Variety

Spain conquered the new world for gold, 500 years later, water is gold.

Nominated for 13 Goyas (Spain’s Oscars), Iciar Bollain’s dramatic rollercoaster penned by Take One Action patron Paul Laverty (Looking For Eric) stars Gael Garcia Bernal as Sebastian, a filmmaker caught up in Bolivia’s mass protests of spring 2000 against the government’s decision to privatise the national water company.

As Sebastian vainly tries to tell the story of Columbus’ colonisation of the new world, his cast and crew get drawn into a contemporary version of events, blurring the boundary between past and present, fiction and reality. In fact, the cost of water in Bolivia has gone up by three hundred percent, and although Bollain’s story is finally one of triumph of the people, the privatisation of basic public services remains at the centre of a powerful debate about poverty and development across the globe.

Winner - Silver Ariel for Best Latin American Film, Ariel Awards, Mexico
Winner - Panorama Audience Award, Berlin International Film Festival
Winner - Bridging the Borders Award, Palm Springs International Film Festival

Region: Southern America
Key themes: democracy/political systems, historical profile
Strand:

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“A powerful, richly layered indictment of the plight of Latin America’s dispossessed.” Variety

Spain conquered the new world for gold, 500 years later, water is gold.

Nominated for 13 Goyas (Spain’s Oscars), Iciar Bollain’s dramatic rollercoaster penned by Take One Action patron Paul Laverty (Looking For Eric) stars Gael Garcia Bernal as Sebastian, a filmmaker caught up in Bolivia’s mass protests of spring 2000 against the government’s decision to privatise the national water company.

As Sebastian vainly tries to tell the story of Columbus’ colonisation of the new world, his cast and crew get drawn into a contemporary version of events, blurring the boundary between past and present, fiction and reality. In fact, the cost of water in Bolivia has gone up by three hundred percent, and although Bollain’s story is finally one of triumph of the people, the privatisation of basic public services remains at the centre of a powerful debate about poverty and development across the globe.

Winner - Silver Ariel for Best Latin American Film, Ariel Awards, Mexico
Winner - Panorama Audience Award, Berlin International Film Festival
Winner - Bridging the Borders Award, Palm Springs International Film Festival

Region: Southern America
Key themes: democracy/political systems, historical profile
Strand:

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“…a rare gem among climate change movies” Greenpeace

A unique Pacific Island community face the first devastating effects of climate change, including a terrifying flood. Will they decide to stay with their island home or move to a new and unfamiliar land, leaving their culture and language behind forever?

Takku, a unique, centuries old island community in the Pacific Ocean, is going under water. Its gardens have become polluted by salt water, its homes are being washed away, and the scientists who have come to visit say it is irreversible.

Briar March’s multi award winning, beautiful account of the effects of climate change gently explores the impact of this devastating news on the island population. One by one, families must choose between resettling to an alien mainland hundreds of kilometres away or staying to defend their culture, and watch their paradise disintegrate.

Winner of Best Documentary Award, Raindance Film Festival

Region: Pacific
Key themes: climate change
Strand:

“A runaway success and festival hit” The Times

In this funny, inspiring and shocking David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on billionaire celebrity tycoon Donald Trump as he buys up one of Scotland’s last wilderness areas to build a golf resort.

After the Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light, the stage is set for an extraordinary summer of discontent, as the bulldozers spring into action, water gets shut off and the police descend on the home owners who, in direct homage to the film Local Hero, refuse to sell their land.

With a stunning score by Sigor Ross frontman Jonsi, this is a rare and revealing glimpse into absolute power on Scottish soil that raises the enormous question: whose rules rule in Scotland today?

Region: United Kingdom
Key themes: democracy/political systems, empowerment/activism, environment (general)
Strand:

“A runaway success and festival hit” The Times

In this funny, inspiring and shocking David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on billionaire celebrity tycoon Donald Trump as he buys up one of Scotland’s last wilderness areas to build a golf resort.

After the Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light, the stage is set for an extraordinary summer of discontent, as the bulldozers spring into action, water gets shut off and the police descend on the home owners who, in direct homage to the film Local Hero, refuse to sell their land.

With a stunning score by Sigor Ross frontman Jonsi, this is a rare and revealing glimpse into absolute power on Scottish soil that raises the enormous question: whose rules rule in Scotland today?

Winner - Best Feature, Edindocs
Winner - Green Award, Sheffield Doc Fest
Winner - Special Jury Prize, Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival
Winner - Audience Award, Sidewalk Film Festiva

Region: United Kingdom
Key themes: corporate responsibility, environment (general), Scotland
Strand: Land and Freedom  

“A runaway success and festival hit” The Times

In this funny, inspiring and shocking David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on billionaire celebrity tycoon Donald Trump as he buys up one of Scotland’s last wilderness areas to build a golf resort.

After the Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light, the stage is set for an extraordinary summer of discontent, as the bulldozers spring into action, water gets shut off and the police descend on the home owners who, in direct homage to the film Local Hero, refuse to sell their land.

With a stunning score by Sigor Ross frontman Jonsi, this is a rare and revealing glimpse into absolute power on Scottish soil that raises the enormous question: whose rules rule in Scotland today?

Winner - Best Feature, Edindocs
Winner - Green Award, Sheffield Doc Fest
Winner - Special Jury Prize, Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival
Winner - Audience Award, Sidewalk Film Festiva

Region: Scotland
Key themes: democracy/political systems, empowerment/activism, environment (general)
Strand:

“…a rare gem among climate change movies” Greenpeace

A unique Pacific Island community face the first devastating effects of climate change, including a terrifying flood. Will they decide to stay with their island home or move to a new and unfamiliar land, leaving their culture and language behind forever?

Takku, a unique, centuries old island community in the Pacific Ocean, is going under water. Its gardens have become polluted by salt water, its homes are being washed away, and the scientists who have come to visit say it is irreversible.

Briar March’s multi award winning, beautiful account of the effects of climate change gently explores the impact of this devastating news on the island population. One by one, families must choose between resettling to an alien mainland hundreds of kilometres away or staying to defend their culture, and watch their paradise disintegrate.

Winner of Best Documentary Award, Raindance Film Festival
 

Region: Pacific
Key themes: climate change
Strand:

“A runaway success and festival hit” The Times

In this funny, inspiring and shocking David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on billionaire celebrity tycoon Donald Trump as he buys up one of Scotland’s last wilderness areas to build a golf resort.

After the Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light, the stage is set for an extraordinary summer of discontent, as the bulldozers spring into action, water gets shut off and the police descend on the home owners who, in direct homage to the film Local Hero, refuse to sell their land.

With a stunning score by Sigor Ross frontman Jonsi, this is a rare and revealing glimpse into absolute power on Scottish soil that raises the enormous question: whose rules rule in Scotland today?

Winner - Best Feature, Edindocs
Winner - Green Award, Sheffield Doc Fest
Winner - Special Jury Prize, Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival
Winner - Audience Award, Sidewalk Film Festival

Region: Europe
Key themes: democracy/political systems, empowerment/activism, environment (general), Scotland
Strand:

“…a valuable film which needs to be seen, and which holds an uneasy truth that makes us all complicit” The Skinny

What is the price of a text message? This is the question that takes director Frank Poulsen on a hugely personal journey in this rollercoaster hit documentary to connect Africa’s ‘heart of darkness’ with the ivory towers of European multinationals.

In the past 15 years, five million people have died in Congo’s civil war. The UN has consistently reported a connection between the conflict and the control of the international trade in minerals used in products such as mobile phones and computers. Reaching the dangerous and normally inaccessible Bisie mine area, Poulsen’s extraordinary journey reveals child labourers in death-defying conditions, before he returns home to ask his phone company, Nokia, the largest in the world, just what they are doing to halt the cycle of poverty and conflict.

Winner of the Cinema for Peace Justice Award 2011, Berlin

 

Region: Southern Africa, Europe
Key themes: consumerism, corporate responsibility, environment (general)
Strand:

“A powerful, richly layered indictment of the plight of Latin America’s dispossessed.” Variety

Spain conquered the new world for gold, 500 years later, water is gold.

Nominated for 13 Goyas (Spain’s Oscars), Iciar Bollain’s dramatic rollercoaster penned by Take One Action patron Paul Laverty (Looking For Eric) stars Gael Garcia Bernal as Sebastian, a filmmaker caught up in Bolivia’s mass protests of spring 2000 against the government’s decision to privatise the national water company.

As Sebastian vainly tries to tell the story of Columbus’ colonisation of the new world, his cast and crew get drawn into a contemporary version of events, blurring the boundary between past and present, fiction and reality. In fact, the cost of water in Bolivia has gone up by three hundred percent, and although Bollain’s story is finally one of triumph of the people, the privatisation of basic public services remains at the centre of a powerful debate about poverty and development across the globe.

Winner - Silver Ariel for Best Latin American Film, Ariel Awards, Mexico
Winner - Panorama Audience Award, Berlin International Film Festival
Winner - Bridging the Borders Award, Palm Springs International Film Festival

Region: Southern America
Key themes: democracy/political systems, historical profile
Strand:

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“A runaway success and festival hit” The Times

In this funny, inspiring and shocking David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on billionaire celebrity tycoon Donald Trump as he buys up one of Scotland’s last wilderness areas to build a golf resort.

After the Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light, the stage is set for an extraordinary summer of discontent, as the bulldozers spring into action, water gets shut off and the police descend on the home owners who, in direct homage to the film Local Hero, refuse to sell their land.

With a stunning score by Sigor Ross frontman Jonsi, this is a rare and revealing glimpse into absolute power on Scottish soil that raises the enormous question: whose rules rule in Scotland today?

Winner - Best Feature, Edindocs
Winner - Green Award, Sheffield Doc Fest
Winner - Special Jury Prize, Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival
Winner - Audience Award, Sidewalk Film Festiva

Region: Scotland
Key themes: democracy/political systems, empowerment/activism, environment (general), Scotland
Strand:

“…a valuable film which needs to be seen, and which holds an uneasy truth that makes us all complicit” The Skinny

What is the price of a text message? This is the question that takes director Frank Poulsen on a hugely personal journey in this rollercoaster hit documentary to connect Africa’s ‘heart of darkness’ with the ivory towers of European multinationals.

In the past 15 years, five million people have died in Congo’s civil war. The UN has consistently reported a connection between the conflict and the control of the international trade in minerals used in products such as mobile phones and computers. Reaching the dangerous and normally inaccessible Bisie mine area, Poulsen’s extraordinary journey reveals child labourers in death-defying conditions, before he returns home to ask his phone company, Nokia, the largest in the world, just what they are doing to halt the cycle of poverty and conflict.

Winner of the Cinema for Peace Justice Award 2011, Berlin

Region: Southern Africa, Europe
Key themes: consumerism, corporate responsibility, environment (general)
Strand:

“A runaway success and festival hit” The Times

n this funny, inspiring and shocking David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on billionaire celebrity tycoon Donald Trump as he buys up one of Scotland’s last wilderness areas to build a golf resort.

After the Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light, the stage is set for an extraordinary summer of discontent, as the bulldozers spring into action, water gets shut off and the police descend on the home owners who, in direct homage to the film Local Hero, refuse to sell their land.

With a stunning score by Sigor Ross frontman Jonsi, this is a rare and revealing glimpse into absolute power on Scottish soil that raises the enormous question: whose rules rule in Scotland today?

Winner - Best Feature, Edindocs
Winner - Green Award, Sheffield Doc Fest
Winner - Special Jury Prize, Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival
Winner - Audience Award, Sidewalk Film Festiva

Region: Scotland
Key themes: democracy/political systems, empowerment/activism, environment (general), Scotland
Strand:

“Never loses sight of the human cost of global capitalism” Village Voice

Can we really end poverty within our current economic system? Narrated by activist and actor Martin Sheen, this award-winning film presents a bold and thorough challenge to the status quo from the perspective of the bottom billion.

What we think of today as global poverty didn’t come from nowhere. Colonialism, past and present, the expropriation of land and labour, have unsettled many great societies which we now lump together as “the developing world”. It serves a system in which 20% of the planet's population uses 80% of its resources and consumes 30% more than it can regenerate. But the system is breaking.

Filmed in the slums of Africa and the barrios of Latin America, this critically acclaimed manifesto for change features compelling interviews with the world’s leading political and social theorists including Joseph Stiglitz, John Christensen, Susan George and the leaders of social movements in Brazil, Venezuela, Kenya and Tanzania. The question is, where do you come in?

Discussion with John Christenson, director the Tax Justice Network, featured in the film, and other guests will follow the later screening of Life and Debt as part of the evening's double bill.

Region: global
Key themes: corporate responsibility, international development, trade/economic justice
Strand: Faces of Change  

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Tue 27 Sep

Event location: n/a
Organised by

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Sat 10 Mar

Event location: Glasgow
Organised by Voluntarily initiated by Mark Langdon and Susan Pettie, 'we just have to do something!'. We are eager to get others involved, are you interested?

We want folk to vote in May at the local council elections. If there is no one you want to vote for, we want to encourage you to ask someone you trust to stand. We are showing the film 'Gnarr' as an inspiration of what is possible in politics when people have had enough of the status quo and stand up for justice. The purpose of the event is to provide a focus for discussion and action on reinvigorating local democracy, encouraging people to stand for May's Local Government elections on a social justice platform. Information on how to stand will be available. Discussion will begin on how we can work together to offer an alternative to the current party political system of UK democracy. The details of the day are still being finalised, don't expect dogma and vitriol but do bring positivity and ideas. We’d love this to be the launch of a new Communitarian Movement.

Type of event: Film screening, Talk
Key themes: Scotland
Age group: adult training

Full event address: Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD
Event website address: www.facebook.com/CommunitarianMovement

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“With uncommon composure, debut documentary filmmaker Margaret Betts delicately crafts an astute depiction of difficult lives in the middle of an epidemic.”  New York Magazine

"A stunning directorial debut."  The Examiner

The Carrier / Maggie Betts / 2010 / 88 mins

When 28-year-old Mutinta Mweemba first shares all the hopes and dreams she once nurtured as a child, her aspirations seem no different from many other young women around the world. She dreamed of falling in love, being married and raising children, and hopefully one day providing those children with a better life than her own. But Mutinta's soft-spoken husband came with two other wives, and the remote Zambian village that she calls home is being ravaged by a deadly new epidemic - a mysterious disease called AIDS.  When Mutinta learns that she's become pregnant again, her quest to the save her baby from her disease, becomes the family's last hope for redemption.

A beautiful and powerful documentary, The Carrier is a a story of hope and renewal, of love and dignity, told through the eyes of an increasingly determined young woman who refuses to be overwhelmed by the forces that surround her.

The film will be presented by Take One Action Film Festival and will be accompanied by a post screening discussion.

Region: Zambia
Key themes: health, HIV and AIDS, world-changing film
Strand:
In association with
African Caribbean Network Glasgow

“Essential... As informative as it is stimulating” Time Out New York
"What a wonderful doc... plays out like a thriller" Awards Daily

Story

Nearly 2,000 Maldive islands are being engulfed by rising sea levels and changing weather patterns caused by climate change. This visually stunning and politically potent film (“Astonishing access… Superb” Variety) pits the US, China and India against one man – former President Nasheed of the Maldives – as he single-handedly challenges the international community’s muddled response to reducing global carbon emissions. Against a wonderful soundtrack by Radiohead and Stars of the Lid, we follow Nasheed (who increasingly starts to resemble a kind of James Bond hero in an all-too-real thriller) as he moves from playful underwater publicity stunts to an extraordinary behind-the-scenes climax at the contentious 2009 UN climate conference in Copenhagen.

Discussions (see below for times and to book)

• Glasgow, with Ahmed Moosa, featured in the film, former Maldives special envoy on climate change to the UK, plus campaigners Alexis Barnett (SCIAF) and Diane Green (Christian Aid).
• Edinburgh, with Paul Roberts, featured in the film, former adviser on International Media and Communications to President Nasheed, plus Diane Green (Christian Aid) and Patrick Grady (advocacy manager, SCIAF).
• Stirling, with campaigners Alexis Barnett (SCIAF) and Diane Green (Christian Aid).
   

Supported by Christian Aid, SCIAF and Stop Climate Chaos Scotland.

Region: Asia
Key themes: climate change, democracy/political systems, environment (general)
Strand: Green Shoots  

Once upon a time products were made to last... Planned Obsolescence was the name given by businessmen in the early twentieth century to the deliberate shortening of product life spans in order to guarantee consumer demand. Cosima Dannoritzer’s compelling film combines investigative research and rare archive footage to trace one of the defining stories of our age: from its beginnings in the 1920s with a secret cartel set up expressly to limit the life span of light bulbs, to contemporary high street brands such as Apple. The story moves between France, Germany, Spain and the US to find witnesses of a business practice which has become the basis of the modern economy, and brings back disquieting pictures from Africa where our discarded electronic waste is piling up..

Region: global
Key themes: consumerism, corporate responsibility, environment (general)
Strand: Green Shoots  

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Thu 29 Sep – Mon 3 Oct

Event location: -
Organised by

Type of event:
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Full event address: -
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Best Documentary Raindance 2011  "Intimately and quietly passionate... and object lesson in documentary filmmaking" New Zealand Herald
 

Takuu, a unique, centuries old island community in the Pacific ocean, is going under water. Its gardens have become polluted by salt water. Homes are being washed away. And the scientists who have come to visit say it is irreversible.

Briar March’s multi-award winning, beautiful account of the effects of climate change gently explores the impact of this devastating news on the island population. One by one, families must choose between resettling to an alien mainland hundreds of kilometres away or staying to defend their culture, and watch their paradise disintegrate. This is a uniquely human and poignant view of a situation which – if we do not turn the tide – will soon be felt by hundreds of millions across the planet.

These screenings will be accompanied by discussion with leading climate change campaigners.

Region: Pacific
Key themes: climate change, consumerism, environment (general)
Strand: Green Shoots  

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Fri 23 Sep – Sat 24 Sep

Event location: n/a
Organised by

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Journey from your local restaurant to Kenya via the Amazon rainforest and the Phillipines, to discover the twenty-first century social and environmental cost of your favourite meal.

Thousands of us work with or simply enjoy diverse food. But while some parts of society push for more sustainable, local eating habits, the momentum in the world as a whole is very much in the opposite direction. This creative and engaging doc reveals the Indian tribes made homeless as huge tracts of rainforest are burned to grow Soya beans, the main food for the piglet and the growing agro-fuels industry. Meanwhile, local fishermen in Asia and subsistence farmers in Kenya struggle to come to terms with the industrial use of the same water their livelihoods depend on. The food on our plate says more than we know about who we are.

Both screenings will be followed by panel discussions with leading food journalists and campaigners.
In Edinburgh: Joanna Blythman (Radio 4, The Sunday Herald), Ryan McQuigg (Oxfam) and Christine Haigh (WDM). In Glasgow: Alex Renton (The Guardian, The Times) and Mike Small (The Fife Diet).

Region: global
Key themes: environment (general), hunger/food issues
Strand: Green Shoots  

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Fri 30 Sep – Sat 1 Oct

Event location: n/a
Organised by

Type of event: Film screening
Key themes:
Age group:

Full event address: n/a
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"A rare grass-roots view into one of the most important economic developments of the age" The Times

A historic gathering of over 50 African heads of state in Beijing reverberates in Zambia where the lives of three characters unfold in this new film from the makers of one of the world’s most widely seen documentaries, Black Gold.
Mr Liu is one of thousands of Chinese entrepreneurs who have settled across the continent in search of new opportunities. he has just bought his fourth farm and business is booming. in northern Zambia, Mr Li, a project manager for a multinational Chinese company is upgrading Zambia's longest road. Pressure to complete the road on time intensifies when funds from the Zambian government start running out. Meanwhile Zambia's Trade Minister is on route to China to secure millions of dollars of investment... But on what terms? Through the intimate portrayal of these characters, the expanding footprint of a rising global power is laid bare – pointing to a radically different future, not just for africa, but also for the world.

These screenings will be followed by Q&As with director Marc francis, named a “Rising Star” by The Observer and Harper’s Bazaar Magazine, and from Zambia, good governance campaigner Sheila Kambobe. Also in Edinburgh Natascha Gentz, director of the Confucius institute for Scottish-Chinese relations.

Region: Southern Africa
Key themes: corporate responsibility, democracy/political systems, international development
Strand: Land and Freedom   Faces of Change  

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Sun 25 Sep

Event location: n/a
Organised by

Type of event:
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Sat 10 Mar

Event location: Aberdeen
Organised by This event is in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen Women's Alliance, Grampian Women's Aid, Grays' School of Art, Belmont Picturehouse and the local performance artist Merlyn Riggs.

To celebrate International Women’s Day in Aberdeen this year we will be screening ‘Women Art Revolution’ (2010). For over forty years, director Lynn Hershman Leeson has collected hundreds of hours of interviews with visionary artists, historians, curators and critics who shaped the beliefs and values of the Feminist Art Movement and reveal previously undocumented strategies used to politicize female artists and integrate women into art structures. This will be followed by a series of academic talks, live debate, dance, music and comedy performances from 4pm at the Bar Below in the Belmont.

Type of event: Other
Key themes: gender and power
Age group: not certified

Full event address: Belmont Picturehouse, 49 Belmont Street, Aberdeen
Event website address: www.facebook.com/events/329846143726744/

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Join Take one Action, Leith World Kitchen, Out of the Blue, Oxfam Scotland and The World Development Movement, plus a host of local food projects and eat your way to a better world in honour of October 16th, World Food Day.

Coupled with talks, workshops and live music, this special meal will also provide an opportunity to consider how sustainable our global food system really is.

Explore the impacts of international politics and economics on the food supplies and health of people in Scotland and around the world. And discover what you can do to make a difference: through how you shop, grow-your-own and take action in solidarity with a billion people around the world.

Region: global
Key themes: climate change, empowerment/activism, hunger/food issues
Strand: Green Shoots  
In association with
World Development Movement, Oxfam, Transition Edinburgh South, Out of the Blue

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Sun 16 Oct

Event location: n/a
Organised by

Type of event: Social event
Key themes:
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Full event address: n/a
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"YERT is a hilarious, powerful and often poignant chronicle of the year-long journey of three filmmakers, engineers and acclaimed Off Broadway performers ... to explore breakthrough approaches, from the bizarre to the mind-blowing, for environmental sustainability in all 50 states." Jeff Biggers, Huffington Post.

Praise for previous Hard Rain exhibition: “Most important … is the sheer brilliance of the dialogue Edwards has created between the words and images” Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times.

Private-view of Hard Rain: What Scotland is Doing exhibition followed by a cycle-powered UK Premiere screening of YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip.

A very special Take One Action evening in celebration of our year of Green Shoots Action and WWF Earth Hour.

YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip.  50 States.  1 Year.  Zero Garbage?  Called to action by a planet in peril, three friends hit the road - traveling with hope, humour, and all of their garbage - to explore every state in America (the good, the bad...and the weird) in search of the extraordinary innovators and citizens who are tackling humanity's greatest environmental crises.

Please arrive promptly at 6.30pm at the John Hope Gateway (West Gate), Arboretum Place.  Be prepared for the weather and dress warmly.

The event is step-free.  A limited number of wheelchairs are available on site, if possible please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 01315 536 335 to inform us of your needs in advance.

Presented by Take One Action, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and the Woodcraft Folk's Geurilla Cinema.

Region:
Key themes: climate change
Strand: Green Shoots  

“A runaway success" The Times  "A shattering expose" The Toronto Star

Funny, inspiring and shocking in equal measure, this gripping feature doc charts the arrival and conquest of donald trump's golf course and hotel development project in an area of Special Scientific interest on Scotland's Aberdeenshire coast.

When first proposed, the billionaire's planning application is decisively rejected by the local authority. But in an unprecedented move the Scottish Government overturns the decision and gives the project the go-ahead – arguing the case for economic development and inward investment. From this point on, the stage is set for an extraordinary summer of discontent, as the bulldozers spring into action, water gets shut off and the police descend on the home owners who, in direct homage to Local Hero, refuse to sell their land. With an stunning score by Sigor ros frontman Jonsi, this is a rare and revealing glimpse into absolute power on Scottish soil that raises the enormous question: whose rules rule in Scotland today?

Both screenings will be followed by a Q&A with director Anthony Baxter. Introduced in Edinburgh with an exclusive orginal performance by Karine Polwart ("exceptionally subtle and melodic" Q Magazine)

Region: Scotland
Key themes: corporate responsibility, environment (general), world-changing film
Strand: Green Shoots   Land and Freedom  

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Fri 30 Sep – Sun 2 Oct

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“A runaway success" The Times  "A shattering expose" The Toronto Star

Funny, inspiring and shocking in equal measure, this gripping feature doc charts the arrival and conquest of Donald Trump's golf course and hotel development project in an area of Special Scientific interest on Scotland's Aberdeenshire coast.

When first proposed, the billionaire's planning application is decisively rejected by the local authority. But in an unprecedented move the Scottish Government overturns the decision and gives the project the go-ahead – arguing the case for economic development and inward investment. From this point on, the stage is set for an extraordinary summer of discontent, as the bulldozers spring into action, water gets shut off and the police descend on the home owners who, in direct homage to Local Hero, refuse to sell their land. With an stunning score by Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi, this is a rare and revealing glimpse into absolute power on Scottish soil that raises the enormous question: whose rules rule in Scotland today?

This screenings will be followed by a Q&A with director Anthony Baxter, and a panel discussion about the issues raised in the film.

Region: Scotland
Key themes: corporate responsibility, environment (general), Scotland, world-changing film
Strand: Green Shoots   Land and Freedom  

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Fri 18 Nov

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Type of event: Film screening
Key themes: corporate responsibility
Age group: not certified

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“The most powerful political activist for Burma living in Britain" The Daily Telegraph

A unique opportunity to dialogue with one of the world’s leading campaigners for human rights and democracy in Burma, 30 year-old author, TED fellow and exiled activist Zoya Phan.

Aged just 14, Zoya Phan was forced to escape Burma during the military regime’s brutal offensive against the Karen people. She spent her teenage years in refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border before coming to England in 2005 to study.

The daughter of ...the General Secretary of the Karen National Union, Zoya was politically active at an early age, and soon joined the staff of the UK Burma Campaign where she became the movement’s outspoken advocate for greater international pressure and sanctions on the Burmese regime: a message she has taken to Downing Street and the airwaves with gusto.

In 2009, Zoya published her memoir of Burma, Little Daughter, and was in the same year awarded an honorary TED fellowship and Young Global Leader Award by the World Economic Forum.

Buy a joint ticket for Zoya Phan in Conversation and Nargis: When Time Stopped Breathing for just £10 (£8 concessions) when booked together by phone or in person.

 

Region: n/a
Key themes: democracy/political systems, empowerment/activism, human rights
Strand: Land and Freedom   Faces of Change  

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Sat 1 Oct

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Type of event: Talk
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