The Parking Lot Movie

Watched this a few nights ago and its very good.  Makes you appreciate the simple things in life, and it reminds you how much entitlement people have for themselves. Tisk.

Over the course of three years, filmmaker Meghan Eckman tracked the comings and goings of a solitary parking lot in Charlottesville, Va., chronicling the lives of the attendants who were working there. This inspiring documentary is the result. Hanging tough as they navigate the range of human emotion -- from hope to frustration, from a sense of limitless possibilities to stagnation -- the film's subjects embody the pursuit of the American Dream.

Screenshot_-_02032011_-_032339

Posted
 

Food Matters

Watch this film.  It's on Netflix.

The film sets about uncovering the trillion dollar worldwide ‘Sickness Industry’ and exposes a growing body of scientific evidence proving that nutritional therapy can be more effective, more economical, less harmful and less invasive than most conventional medical treatments

Food_matters
Posted
 

Home - a must watch documentary

Home is a 2009 documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The film is narrated by Glenn Close, and is almost entirely composed of aerial shots of various places on Earth. It shows the diversity of life on Earth and how humanity is threatening the ecological balance of the planet.  

 

A must see for everyone.  You can watch the entire movie here

 

"We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate."

"The objective of HOME is not to make a profit. Its only benefit will be to contribute towards increasing awareness of our responsibility towards the planet."
 
Home

  • 20% of the world's population consumes 80% of it's resources.
source: UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) GEO4 (Global Environment Outlook) 2007

  • The world spends 12 times more on military expenditures than on aid to developing countries.
source: SIPRI Yearbook 2008 (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) / OECD 2008 (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)

  • 5,000 people a day die because of dirty drinking water.
  • 1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water.
source: UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) 2006

  • Nearly 1 billion people are going hungry.
source: FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) 2008

  • Over 50% of grain traded around the world is used for animal feed or biofuels.
source: World Watch Institution 2007 / FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) 2008

  • 40% of the arable land has sufferd long-term damage
source: UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) / ISRIC (International Soil Reference and Information Centre)

  • Every year 13 million hectares of forest disappear.
source: FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) 2005

  • 1 mammal in 4, 1 bird in 8, and 1 amphibian in 3 are threatened with extinction.
  • Species are dying out at a rhythm 1,000 times faster than the natural rate .
source: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) 2008 / International Botanical Congress 1999

  • Three quarters of fishing grounds are exhausters, depleted or in dangerous decline.
source: United Nations 2007

  • The average temperature of the last 15 years have been the highest ever recorded.
source: Home (2009)


  • The icecap is 40% thinner than 40 years ago.
source: NSIDC (National Snow and Ice Data Center) 2004

  • There may be at least 200 million climate refugees by 2050.
source: The Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change (Part II, Chapter 3, page 77) - UK Government Report
Posted
 

Some Truth in Six Hours or So

Sometimes you have to assume that the worst can happen, or has happened.  I'm not one to preach about documentary's, but a few stand out that have similar messages, and you have to be a fool not to watch them.  A light bulb should go off in your head after watching these films, if not, then you did not understand them.

If you've ever wondered about why our monetary system is so broken (or does not work), or why our global climate is changing, or why the top 1% keep getting richer, or why our Food industry is gone to crap, then below are a few movies I highly recommended.  They will give you some truthful insight to root problems in our world, and some direction on how to help, change.  Don't be scared to really change your ways.  I canceled my Chase and Bank of America accounts, and moved all my money to a smaller bank.  I refuse to buy anything I dont support.  I eat real food.  I look for the truth, not inventions of the truth.  

 

Inside Job

Inside Job' is the first film to provide a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. It was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.

Enraged

 

Zeitgeist: The Movement

This Movement, founded by Peter Joseph in conjunction with Jacque Fresco's "Venus Project", now works globally to spread information about a new social system called a Resource Based Economy. With over 420,000 registrations from nearly all countries as of mid 2010, the development has been dynamic.

However, this is an aside- The Zeitgeist Film Series, while an inspiration for The Movement which shares the term "Zeitgeist", is not to be confused with the content/views of the films in detail. The Zeitgeist Movement is an economic/sustainability movement at its core and its relationship to the Film Series content is not consistent. The Films, while now moving to promote The Movement more so in part, are still intellectual/artistic treatments and are not to be considered a basis for The Movement itself. Please see www.thezeitgeistmovement.com for more information on this important social revolution.

Now, a new production is in the works, the third film of the series, which will be entitled "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward". This work will focus on the state of modern scientific understandings with regard to human behavior, along with advanced technological and organizational methods which could improve our society greatly, reducing the possibility of severe ecological problems for the future and hence working towards true global sustainability for the species itself. More on this work can be found on its website: www.zeitgeistmovingforward.com

 

11 Hour

With contributions from over 50 politicians, scientists, and environmental activists, including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, physicist Stephen Hawking, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, and journalist Paul Hawken, the film documents the grave problems facing the planet's life systems. Global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the oceans' habitats are all addressed. The film's premise is that the future of humanity is in jeopardy.

 

Venus Project

The Venus Project presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. There are many people today who are concerned with the serious problems that face our modern society: unemployment, violent crime, replacement of humans by technology, over-population and a decline in the Earth's ecosystems. As you will see, The Venus Project is dedicated to confronting all of these problems by actively engaging in the research, development, and application of workable solutions. Through the use of innovative approaches to social awareness, educational incentives, and the consistent application of the best that science and technology can offer directly to the social system, The Venus Project offers a comprehensive plan for social reclamation in which human beings, technology, and nature will be able to coexist in a long-term, sustainable state of dynamic equilibrium.

 

 

Food Incorporated

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here

Posted