This film shows how corporations have been allowed to balloon in both size and power and have been responsible for countless cases of illness, death, poverty, pollution, exploitation and lies.

With a clever mix of animation and 1950’s archive, the film assesses the personality of the corporation – likening it to a social psychopath.

The Corporation team writes…

To assess the “personality” of the corporate “person,” a checklist is employed, using diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organization and the standard diagnostic tool of psychiatrists and psychologists. The operational principles of the corporation give it a highly anti-social “personality”: it is self-interested, inherently amoral, callous and deceitful; it breaches social and legal standards to get its way; it does not suffer from guilt, yet it can mimic the human qualities of empathy, caring and altruism.

Once a corporation is established as a remorseless individual, the film takes a long hard look at the infrastructure – ie  the government policy and legal loopholes that allow corporations to function in this way, ensuring they remain virtually unaccountable for their actions.

The Corporation includes interviews with corporate insiders and critics, including Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Milton Friedman, Howard Zinn, Vandana Shiva and Michael Moore – plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change,

The film has won 26 International awards and 10 audience choice awards, including the Sundance Film Festival and is Canada’s most successful documentary.

Photo credit: Thanks to The Corporation.

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For background info and resources including transcripts, Q&A’s, and some school/education resources, check out The Corporation website

Read the book the film was based on and check it out on Amazon

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Support The Corporation campaign.

I first watched this film at a screening by my local Transition Town group. This isn’t a film to watch for  beautiful cinematography – it is crudely shot -  but is does give you a fantastic insight into how the Cuban people responded to the lack of oil, and subsequent lack of food.

The Power of Community write…

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba’s economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time.

Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanised, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call “The Special Period.”

The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time in our history when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis – the massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options and hope.

Photo: Thanks to The Power of Community.

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About the Transition Town movements solutions to peak oil on Debate Your Plate Food Files.

With an additional cast of pioneering chefs and some of the best cooking you have ever seen, the scientists and doctors in the film present a convincing case for the West to re-examine its love affair with meat and dairy.

The film features the ground-breaking work of Dr. T Colin Campbell in China exploring the link between diet and disease, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s use of diet to treat heart disease patients, and Professor Gidon Eshel’s investigations into how our food choices contribute to global warming, land use and oceanic deadzones.

With the help of some innovative farmers and chefs, PLANEAT shows how the problems we face today can be solved, without simply resorting to a diet of lentils and lettuce leaves.

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Find out if there is a screening near you.

Check out the PLANEAT website

The Black and Gold team writes…

Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.

But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields.

Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela is one man on a mission to save his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price.

Against the backdrop of Tadesse’s journey to London and Seattle, the enormous power of the multinational players that dominate the world’s coffee trade becomes apparent. New York commodity traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organisation reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his quest for a long-term solution for his farmers.

The film won a raft of awards and generated much media coverage. Here is an interesting interview with the directors, Nick and Mark Francis with the BBC.

Photo: Thanks to Ballistick Coffee Boy on Flickr.

Since the release, Tadesse Meskela’s coffee has increased in price from $1.45/lb to a minimum of $2.30/lb, and his Union has tripled the amount of money being paid back to 130,000 farmers.

In the first few weeks after the premiere, the film helped to generate donations, approx up to $25,000 to the coffee farming community featured in BLACK GOLD. The dilapidated school featured in the film was re-built.

For the first time, large multinational coffee companies like Nestle, Kraft and Starbucks were brought under the international spotlight. Some have had to respond to questions live on television and radio about their pricing policies.

Screenings and debates about trade policy and development have taken place in important political institutions including; the World Bank in Washington, EU in Brussels, and the UN in New York, and the House of Commons in London where Tadesse Meskela was invited to 10 Downing Street to deliver his message directly to former Prime Minsiter Tony Blair.

Hundreds of NGOs, organisations, educational establishments, and coffee companies/corporations have used BLACK GOLD as a tool to build a campaign or educate their employees/students about the issues of fair and ethical trade. In one particular case, BLACK GOLD was used by the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office to campaign to Starbucks to recognise the intellectual property rights of Ethiopian coffees.

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Buy the DVD

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For more info on the film check out the Black Gold website

Campaign:

Think before you drink, ask companies to pay a fair price.

The Sharkwater team writes…

Driven by passion fed from a lifelong fascination with sharks, Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas.

Filmed in visually stunning, high-definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world’s shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

In an effort to protect sharks, Stewart teams up with renegade conservationist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Their unbelievable adventure together starts with a battle between the Sea Shepherd and shark poachers in Guatemala, resulting in pirate boat rammings, gunboat chases, mafia espionage, corrupt court systems and attempted murder charges, forcing them to flee for their lives.

Through it all, Stewart discovers these magnificent creatures have gone from predator to prey, and how despite surviving the earth’s history of mass extinctions, they could easily be wiped out within a few years due to human greed.

Stewart’s remarkable journey of courage and determination changes from a mission to save the world’s sharks, into a fight for his life, and that of humankind.

The director Rob Stewart discusses the film on Larry King Live. It includes some good questions about the practice of shark finning.

What is Shark Finning?

Shark finning refers to the removal and retention of shark fins and the discard at sea of the carcass. The shark is most often still alive when it is tossed back into the water. Unable to swim, the shark slowly sinks toward the bottom where it is eaten alive by other fish.

Shark finning takes place at sea so the fishers have only the fins to transport. Shark meat is considered low value and therefore not worth the cost of transporting the bulky shark bodies to market.

Any shark is taken-regardless of age, size, or species.

Longlines, used in shark finning operations, are the most significant cause of losses in shark populations worldwide.

Shark finning is widespread, and largely unmanaged and unmonitored.

Shark finning has increased over the past decade due to the increasing demand for shark fins (for shark fin soup and traditional cures), improved fishing technology, and improved market economics.

Shark specialists estimate that 100 million sharks are killed for their fins, annually.

One pound of dried shark fin can retail for $300 or more. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry.

Photo: Thanks to Sharkwater.

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Check out the resources and background on the Sharkwater website.

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Purchase the DVD.

Campaign:

Sign the petition to save sharks.

The latest environmental films to hit our screens, Oscar nominated Gasland is about the Halliburton developed drilling technology known as ‘fracking’.

From farming to distribution our food system is more reliant than ever on energy. Driven by the promise of big bucks corporations are now chasing alternatives.

The process of ‘fracking’ is a means of extracting natural gas through deep well drilling. Once a well is drilled millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well.

Gasland write:

What is the Halliburton loophole?

In 2005, the Bush/ Cheney Energy Bill exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act. It exempts companies from disclosing the chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing.

Essentially, the provision took the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) off the job. It is now commonly referred to as the Halliburton Loophole.

When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination.

A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire.

This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown

This photo from Gasland shows the tap water catching fire.

Check out their website for screenings across the UK.

photo credit: Gasland

Find out more:

Visit the Gasland website

Read our food file on Transition Towns – a local response to our dwindling oil resources

Perfect!

Find out more:

How to share a cow?  – get the lowdown on community assisted agriculture

This informative documentary was a real labour of love for Tracey as four years of research and filming were followed by numerous legal problems.

Following a screening at The Royal Society of Arts on November 13th 2008 Channel 4 were all set to screen the film in January 2009. But Tracey received two letters from lawyers acting for Smithfields, the world’s largest pig producer and processor, and the main focus of the film.

With the weight of a $12 billion company threatening to sue them Channel 4 pulled the plug. The film was re-edited and Channel 4 finally broadcast the film on More 4 on June 30th.

The film is a testament to the tenacity of filmmaker Tracey Worcester – and her refusal to bow to corporate pressure.

You can watch the whole film on Channel 4’s catch-up service -  4OD, or YouTube.

The Pig Business team are still actively campaigning for animal welfare, clear labelling and banning imports of low-grade inhumanely produced pigs meat.

Photo: Thanks to Pig Business.

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The Pig Business website which is packed full of resources.

Background on the world’s largest pig producer and processor Smithfield Foods

Smithfield Foods corporate website

Porks dirty secret – brilliant Rolling Stone article

Watch:

The Meatrix – three short spoof films about the meat industry.

Pirate operators over-fish and often use destructive fishing methods, leading to the destruction of habitat and breeding areas for marine species.

It’s not just the environment and the fish stocks that are affected. The impact on small-scale fishers is devastating as large scale trawlers are fishing too close to the shore line  depleting stocks, destroying fishing gear and in some cases inciting violent confrontations that have lead to the loss of life.

The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has been in Sierra Leone working with local fishing communities to document and expose the extensive impacts of IUU fishing on local livelihoods, incomes and food security.

Pirate fishing vessels regularly enter the inshore waters upon which communities depend, and local people report a decrease in the size and number of fish in the area, along with the frequent loss of precious fishing gear, and occasional deliberate attacks on their canoes. Meanwhile local women report a decrease in household incomes and available food – leading to decreased health, school attendance and ability to meet basic nutritional and housing requirements.

Pirate fishermen would not be able to operate without a market for their catch. One of the main driving forces behind IUU fishing in West Africa is the enormous demand for seafood in Europe and East Asia. EJF’s investigations have exposed all parts of the supply chain – from East Asian fishing vessels plundering West Africa’s coastlines right through to the sale of seafood in Europe and the UK – linking it back to West Africa, via the Spanish port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands).

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) or “pirate” fishing is considered as one of the most serious threats to the achievement of sustainable fish stocks, with recent studies putting the worldwide value of illicit catches as high as US$23.5b a year.

Find out more:

Sign the petition to ask politicains to tackle pirate fishing.

A Crude Awakening – The Oil Crash looks at our obsession with oil and explores the idea of peak oil.

The team behind Oil Crash write:

Oil Crash, produced and directed by award-winning European journalists and filmmakers Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack, tells the story of how our civilization’s addiction to oil puts it on a collision course with geology.

Compelling, intelligent, and highly entertaining, the film interviews the world’s top experts and comes to a startling, but logical conclusion – our industrial society, built on cheap and readily available oil, must be completely re-imagined and overhauled.

The idea that the world’s oil supplies have peaked, or will soon, is gaining mainstream currency. Robert B. Semple, Jr., associate editor of the New York Times editorial board, writes in the paper’s March 1, 2006, online edition:

“The Age of Oil — 100-plus years of astonishing economic growth made possible by cheap, abundant oil — could be ending without our really being aware of it.

Oil is a finite commodity. At some point even the vast reservoirs of Saudi Arabia will run dry. But before that happens there will come a day when oil production ‘peaks,’ when demand overtakes supply (and never looks back), resulting in large and possibly catastrophic price increases that could make today’s $60-a-barrel oil look like chump change.

Unless, of course, we begin to develop substitutes for oil. Or begin to live more abstemiously. Or both.

The concept of peak oil has not been widely written about. But people are talking about it now. It deserves a careful look — largely because it is almost certainly correct.”

Photo credit: Thanks to Johnny Choura on Flickr.

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Read:

About Transition Towns and their solutions to peak oil.

Watch a film about Food and Farming after peak oil.

Read about community supported agriculture.

Watch a film that explains how Cuba coped with peak oil.