2012-2013
Community
Book
Connection
Movies
*Contact Pat Rennie to reserve DVDs at prennie@ccbcmd.edu
*No Impact Man (2009) Documentary that follows Colin Beavan and family on their
yearlong experiment to have zero impact on the environment. (93 minutes)
The Story of Stuff (2010) From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff
in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view.
The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our
production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between
a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more
sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may
change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. (20 minutes)
http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-stuff/
The Story of Electronics (2010) Employs the Story of Stuff style to explore the hightech revolution's collateral damage—25 million tons of e-waste and counting, poisoned
workers and a public left holding the bill. Host Annie Leonard takes viewers from the mines
and factories where our gadgets begin to the horrific backyard recycling shops in China
where many end up. The film concludes with a call for a green 'race to the top' where
designers compete to make long-lasting, toxic-free products that are fully and easily
recyclable. (8 minutes)
http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-electronics/
The Story of Cosmetics (2010) Examines the pervasive use of toxic chemicals in our
everyday personal care products, from lipstick to baby shampoo. The film reveals the
implications for consumer and worker health and the environment, and outlines ways we
can move the industry away from hazardous chemicals and towards safer alternatives. The
film concludes with a call for viewers to support legislation aimed at ensuring the safety of
cosmetics and personal care products. (7 minutes)
http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-cosmetics/
The Story of Bottled Water (Released on March 22, 2010, World Water Day) employs
the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to
buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap.
Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industry’s attacks on tap water and its
use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic
waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a
personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean,
available tap water for all.
Production partners on the bottled water film include five leading sustainability groups:
Corporate Accountability International, Environmental Working Group, Food & Water Watch,
Pacific Institute, and Polaris Institute. (8 minutes)
http://www.storyofstuff.org/2011/01/14/story-of-bottled-water/
*Blue Vinyl: The World’s First Toxic Comedy (2002) Part family comedy and part
horrifying investigative reportage, Blue Vinyl can make one simultaneously laugh and shiver
with fear in the same, deceptively low-key moments. Documentary filmmaker Judith
Helfand, upset that her parents are re-siding their house with blue vinyl, sets out (with codirector Daniel B. Gold) to discover how vinyl is made and why, according to some
scientists, it is the most hazardous of synthetic materials. Along the way, she meets industry
representatives who tell her the key chemical ingredient in vinyl, chloride, is no more toxic
than table salt. She also travels to Venice, Italy, to meet with families of vinyl factory
workers dead or dying from chemical exposure, and she visits an intrepid, Louisiana
attorney who has sued American vinyl manufacturers on behalf of severely injured former
employees. The tale is grim, yet the often on-screen Helfand's approach is folksy and calm-less so when her skeptical parents reject, in several funny scenes, even empirical data
about a product they find so convenient. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com (98 minutes)
*Plastic Planet (2011) We live in the Age of Plastic. It's cheap, it's practical, and it's
everywhere - from the highest mountains to the hottest deserts, from the North Pole to the
South Pole. It's even part of us - inside our blood.
In the tradition of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock, this feisty yet informative
documentary takes us on a journey around the globe - from the Moroccan Sahara to the
middle of the Pacific Ocean, from a factory in China to the highest peaks of the Alps - to
reveal the far-flung reach of plastic. Interviews with the world's foremost experts in biology,
pharmacology, and genetics shed light on the perils of plastic to our environment and
expose the truth of how plastic affects our bodies...and the health of future generations.
(95 minutes)
*Becoming Green: Growing Environmental Awareness (2008) What will the car
of the future be like? Can solar power help save the Earth from the ravages of global
warming? Deadly flooding in Africa, catastrophic hurricanes in the U.S. record high
temperatures worldwide, are these natural, temporary glitches in our global climate, or is the
devastation the result of global warming? Join NOVA as they explore these topics. (277
minutes on 4 disks)
*Earth The Operators Manual: Pilot (2012) This accurate, understandable and
upbeat report on the interconnected stories of humans, fossil fuels, Earth's climate history
and our future energy options will leave you amazed at the beauty and bounty of the planet,
inspired by human ingenuity, and optimistic about the future. (57 minutes)
*Earth The Operators Manual: Powering Planet (2012) This second program in
the EARTH: THE OPERATORS' MANUAL series is an eye-opening look at some of the
world's most important energy decisions, and a provocative assessment of what it takes to
build a sustainable energy infrastructure. The planet offers lots of choices: what we do with
them is up to us. (57 minutes)
*Earth The Operators Manual: Energy Quest (2012) This third program in the
EARTH: THE OPERATORS' MANUAL series is not about a red or blue America, but about
the power of people who want to move beyond political labels, debates and paralysis to
build a more productive, prosperous and sustainable future. It will leave you inspired and
optimistic. (57 minutes)
*The Seeds of a Revolution: Earth Days (2010) Traces the origins of the modern
environmental movement through the eyes of nine Americans who propelled the movement
from its beginnings in the 1950s to its moment of triumph in 1970 with the original Earth Day
and to its status as a major political force in America. (120 minutes)
*Wasteland (2012) Muniz's initial objective was to "paint" the catadores with garbage.
However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic
images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores
as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Walker (Devil's Playground, Blindsight, Countdown to
Zero) has great access to the entire process and, in the end, offers stirring evidence of the
transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit. (93 minutes)
*P.O.V.: Food, Inc. (2009) Food, Inc. lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing
how 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. Food, Inc. reveals surprising and often shocking truths about
what we eat, how it's produced and who we have become as a nation. (91 minutes)
*Chef’s A Field (2009) -13 episodes-Chefs A 'Field was one of the first in the cooking
genre to focus on environmental issues pertaining to food, travel, and lifestyle. The tradition
continues in this fourth season with a strong focus on sustainable agriculture and seafood,
shopping with an environmental mindset, ideas to get the whole family closer to where their
food comes from, and ways to prepare a delicious meal with healthy ingredients. (390
minutes on 2 discs)
*Fresh (2012) FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across
America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation
of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food
contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources and morbid obesity.
Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for the future of our
food and planet. (72 minutes)
Philosophy Guide to Happiness -We tend to accept that people in authority must be
right. It’s this assumption that Socrates wanted us to challenge by urging us to think logically
about the nonsense they often come out with, rather than being struck dumb by their aura of
importance and air of suave certainty.
This six part series on philosophy is presented by popular British philosopher Alain de
Botton, featuring six thinkers who have influenced history, and their ideas about the pursuit
of the happy life.
Socrates on Self-Confidence (Part 1) – Why do so many people go along with the crowd
and fail to stand up for what they truly believe? Partly because they are too easily swayed
by other people’s opinions and partly because they don’t know when to have confidence in
their own. (24 minutes)
Epicurus on Happiness (Part 2) – British philosopher Alain De Botton discusses the
personal implications of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270BCE) who was no
epicurean glutton or wanton consumerist, but an advocate of “friends, freedom and thought”
as the path to happiness. (24 minutes)
Seneca on Anger (Part 3) – Roman philosopher Lucious Annaeus Seneca (4BCE-65CE),
the most famous and popular philosopher of his day, took the subject of anger seriously
enough to dedicate a whole book to the subject. Seneca refused to see anger as an
irrational outburst over which we have no control. Instead he saw it as a philosophical
problem and amenable to treatment by philosophical argument. (24 minutes)
Montaigne on Self-Esteem (Part 4) – Looks at the problem of self-esteem from the
perspective of Michel de Montaigne (16th Century), the French philosopher who singled out
three main reasons for feeling bad about oneself – sexual inadequecy, failure to live up to
social norms, and intellectual inferiority – and then offered practical solutions for overcoming
them. (24 minutes)
Schopenhauer on Love (Part 5) – Alain De Botton surveys the 19th Century German
thinker Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) who believed that love was the most important
thing in life because of its powerful impulse towards ‘the will-to-life’. (24 minutes)
Nietzsche on Hardship (Part 6) – British philosopher Alain De Botton explores Friedrich
Nietzsche’s (1844-1900) dictum that any worthwhile achievements in life come from the
experience of overcoming hardship. For him, any existence that is too comfortable is
worthless, as are the twin refugees of drink or religion. (24 minutes)
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/philosophy-guide-to-happiness/
Affluenza (2005) Shopping malls have really become the centers of many communities.
Children, as well as adults, see a shopping center as just the natural destination to fill a
bored life. Through revealing personal stories, expert commentary, hilarious old film clips,
dramatized vignettes, and “anti-commercial” breaks, Affluenza examines the high cost of
achieving the most extravagant lifestyle the world has ever seen. Last year, Americans, who
make up only five percent of the world’s population, used nearly a third of its resources and
produced almost half of its hazardous waste.
Add overwork, personal stress, the erosion of family and community, skyrocketing debt, and
the growing gap between rich and poor, and it’s easy to understand why some people say
that the American Dream is no bargain. Many are opting out of the consumer chase,
redefining the Dream, and making “voluntary simplicity” one of the top 10 trends of the ’90s.
Affluenza travels across the country to show you men and women who are working and
shopping less, spending more time with friends and family, volunteering in their
communities, and enjoying their lives more.(56 minutes)
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/affluenza/
Toxic: Garbage Island- Part 1 (2008) Come aboard as the VICE crew takes a cruise to
the Northern Gyre in the Pacific Ocean, a spot where currents spin and cycle, churning up
tons of plastic into a giant pool of chemical soup, flecked with plastic. (21 minutes)
http://www.vice.com/toxic/toxic-garbage-island-1-of-3/
*Contact Pat Rennie to reserve DVDs at prennie@ccbcmd.edu