End:Civ with Director in Stroud

Local artist Russ' latest image

James Beecher has organised a showing of End:Civ on Sunday - I've seen the film and it is hard going in places and challenges some of my views around peaceful protest...worth a watch indeed - especially as the Director will be there to talk about it. Here's what James writes:

I have been able to convince film-maker Frank Lopez to make an additional stop on his tour of the UK presenting his new film "End:Civ". Even though it's very short notice I'm hoping lots of you will come along as we're very lucky to have him.

The feature length film (75 minutes) will be shown from 7pm at The Exchange, Brick Row, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 1DF. We will be collecting donations to cover costs, including Mr Lopez's travel costs. Suggested donation £5, no one turned away for lack of funds.

Please arrive from 6.30pm for refreshments, and please plan to stay after the film for a discussion with the Director, Frank Lopez. I hear that a recent screening by Transition Heathrow provoked good discussion. The event will formally finish at 9.30, though you are welcome to stay to chat, and enjoy more refreshments, until 10.30pm.

For clips which function as trailers for the film see: http://submedia.tv/endciv/2010/11/01/endciv-trailer/

About the film: "Students of history know that all civilizations eventually come to an end. The ancient Mayans, the dynasties of China, and the mighty Roman Empire, as long-lived and powerful as they were, could not escape this inevitability. The same goes for the culture we call Western Civilization.

But acts of courage, compassion and altruism abound, even in the most damaged places. By documenting the resilience of the people hit hardest by war and repression, and the heroism of those coming forward to confront the crisis head-on, END:CIV illuminates a way out of this all-consuming madness and into a saner future."

We will be speaking to Frank Lopez on this weeks Transition Show on Stroud FM, as well as to Jo from the Eradicating Ecocide movement. Tune in at 2pm on 107.9FM in Stroud or online at www.stroudfm.co.uk. Don't forget that past shows are available to 'listen again' if you can't listen to the radio at this time, here: http://podcasts.stroudfm.co.uk/index.php?cat=The%20Transition%20Show (we've had some crackers recently)

Details on the film follow...click read more
                    
“Franklin Lopez is a fantastically talented filmmaker, who has created a powerful and important film about the most important topic ever: how to stop this culture from killing the planet.”
-Derrick Jensen, Author of Endgame

END:CIV features interviews with Paul Watson (Sea Shepherd), Waziyatawin (Dakota writer, teacher, and activist), Gord Hill ( member of the Kwakwaka'wakw nation, author of 500 Years of Resistance), Michael Becker (Department of Political Science. California State University), Peter Gelderloos (author of Consensus), Lierre Keith (American writer, radical feminist, food activist, and radical environmentalist), James Howard Kunstler (author of The Long Emergency), Stephanie McMillan (winner of Society of Professional Journalists' 2010 Sigma Delta Chi Award for excellence in journalism), Qwatsinas (Nuxalk Nation Chief), Rod Coronado (Pascua Yaqui eco-and animal rights activist), John Zerzan (author of Future Primitive) and more.


Even more about the film:

END:CIV examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: “If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?”

The causes underlying the collapse of civilizations are usually traced to overuse of resources. As we write this, the world is reeling from economic chaos, peak oil, climate change, environmental degradation, and political turmoil. Every day, the headlines re-hash stories of scandal and betrayal of the public trust. We don’t have to make outraged demands for the end of the current global system — it seems to be coming apart already.        

Backed by Jensen’s narrative, the film calls on us to act as if we truly love this land. The film trips along at a brisk pace, using music, archival footage, motion graphics, animation, slapstick and satire to deconstruct the global economic system, even as it implodes around us. END:CIV illustrates first-person stories of sacrifice and heroism with intense, emotionally-charged images that match Jensen’s poetic and intuitive approach. Scenes shot in the back country provide interludes of breathtaking natural beauty alongside clearcut evidence of horrific but commonplace destruction.