Yes Men Fix the World

Andy Bichlaum and Mike Bonanno are two guys who just can’t take “no” for an answer. They have an unusual hobby: posing as top executives of corporations they hate. Armed with nothing but thrift-store suits, they lie their way into business conferences and parody their corporate nemeses in ever more extreme ways – basically doing everything that they can to wake up their audiences to the danger of letting greed run our world. Along the way the duo discover the culprits behind the cult of greed, and in a wildly uplifting ending, they find a way for everyone to defeat the cult and save civilsation from its own worst excesses.

Eyes Wide Open

In 2001, global social movements gathered at the first World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The WSF represented a new way of thinking, placing people and not the market at the centre of decision-making. Hopes ran high. No longer would the third world continue to finance the first. The years that followed have seen significant change as successive left of centre presidents have taken power across Latin America. First Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, then Lula in Brazil, Kirchner in Argentina, Vazquez in Uruguay, Bachelet in Chile, Morales in Bolivia, Correa in Equador and Lugo in Paraguay – all proposing a break with neo-liberalism. This film looks in detail at what this new generation of leaders means for ordinary working class people in Latin America. With the continent’s tortured past, there is much to celebrate and much to reform. Yet the market manages to maintain its stranglehold on decision-making, reforms fall short of expectations and the war on poverty has barely started.

Remarking January 25

1. We Want Freedom: The Story of Mohamed Zaghloul (2:59)
On his way home from work Mohamed Zaghloul experiences a citizen's arrest. Members of a popular committee stop him, beat him and hand him over to the military police. There he is tortured and faced with up to a five year prison sentence.

2. Cairo Intifada (6:00)
On January 28th, 2011 hundreds of thousands of Egyptians went to the streets all across the country with one aim: to oust a political regime void of legitimacy. Cairo Intifada follows protestors in the Cairene neighborhood of Imbaba.

3. The Downfall of Mubarak (6:38)
On February 10th Hosni Mubarak makes one last TV appearance before the Egyptians successfully oust him from power the following day. Experience the transition.

4. These people are not leaving: The workers of Mahalla in the January 25 Revolution (6:42)
Since 2006 the 21,000 workers of the Mahalla Textile Company have been striking and protesting against the suppressive economic policies of the Egyptian regime. Without these actions the January 25 revolution may never have come about. On February 17th 2011 the workers are back on strike.

5. We were imprisoned in our clothes: The workers of Turah in the January 25 Revolution (5:25)
"My son, my niece, my cousin, my father - they're all in Midan Tahrir too. I am no different. The whole country is demanding their rights. I demand my rights too." said Abdalla one of the workers carrying out a week long sit-in in the neighborhood of Turah. The revolution in the factory space.

6. Returning to the era of slavery: Fighting the Anti-Strike Law (4:57)
On April 12, two months after the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces secretly pass a new decree outlawing all strikes, protests and sit-ins. The street and the workers react.

I was Worth 50 Sheep

At the age of ten, Afghani girl, Sabere, was sold to a 55 year old man - a criminal known to have caused the deaths of his previous wives. After 7 years, Sabere escapes to a women’s shelter and faces the bittersweet re-union with her family. This simple, candid film tells Sabere’s story as she and her family flee from place to place to escape her murderous husband. Sabere’s 11-year old half- sister, Farzaneh, is to be sold for the price of 50 sheep to pay off the family’s debt. As Sabere fights with the courts to end her illegal marriage Farzaneh must face the possibility that hers will soon begin. I Was Worth 50 Sheep was filmed over a period of two years in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan by award-winning director Nima Sarvestani. This heart-rending and thought-provoking film brings the tragedy of Afghanistan’s child brides vividly to life.

1. IDFA 2010 (Reflecting Images – Panorama)
2. Amnesty International Human Rights Film Festival 2011 (Best Film Award)
3. Göteborg IFF 2011 (Dragon Award for Best Swedish Documentary)
4. One World HRFF Prague 2011 (Audience Award)
5. London International documentary filmfestival 2011 (Best Film, Special Mention)

Barefoot In Ethiopia

Barefoot turns the development narrative around and zooms in on a pair of Australian twins as they attempt to do good in rural Ethiopia. Shot over four years, Barefoot follows the siblings on their annual Christmas pilgrimage where they pioneer their own brand of DIY development work after fundraising through the year. Marshalling their modest resources and know-how to get a clinic off the ground and solve some of the villagers’ pressing problems, they learn first hand that good intentions will only get you so far. Barefoot captures the fundamental dilemmas of aid work in an intimate microcosm.

Cowboys in India

Simon Chambers, director of this gently self-mocking travelogue, journeys to Orissa, India in the hope of finding the answer to an honourable journalistic question: is it possible for a large industrial company to help a local community through charity? In order to investigate, Chambers needs the help of the locals, but this proves inexplicably difficult. Even the two bumbling guides he has employed come up with all kinds of excuses- from leg pains to toothaches- to avoid working. Chambers’ amusing lament (accompanied by a Western-style soundtrack) changes the tone when he discovers the real reason for their reluctance.

Sweet Crude

Sweet Crude started with the filmmaker, Sandy Cioffi’s initial trip to document the building of a library in a remote village in the Niger Delta. It soon became a journey of multilayered revelation and ever-deepening questions as she encountered a small group of peaceful, intelligent protestors taking a stand against the devastating effects of the operations foreign oil corporations in the region. Their protest slowly morph into something more violent and militant as they continue to fall on deaf ears and as lives and the environment are increasingly put at risk for profit. The film is a fascinating and urgent story about power gone corrupt, industry destroying without care for the consequences, the people left to deal with it all and a region on the verge of war.

Hunger

Five communities around the world are given a chance to speak for themselves on the daily struggles they face just to survive on a day-to-day basis. Their interpretations of the causes of their poverty are accompanied by local experts and activists who share their analysis on this widespread injustice. In Haiti, we follow the plight of destitute farmers in the aftermath of the earthquake. In Mauritania, we follow the harsh realities many fishermen face as their livelihood has increasingly dwindled due to foreign fishing fleets and how thousands of Africans attempt the perilous and often fatal journey across the sea to Europe in search of a better life. We also see the other side of the coin as the sheer scale of food production is brought to the fore in Brazil, where the Amazon rainforest in being destroyed to supply tropical timber, beef, soybeans and bio-fuel to developed countries.

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Green

In an immensely moving documentary by a filmmaker known only as Patrick, Green follows the final days of a female orangutan of that name. The film is a visual ride that takes us into the beauty and bio-diversity of Green’s natural environment while also showing us the devastating destruction taking place as her forest is raided to provide products we use routinely in our homes. As these and other tropical forests are plundered for palm oil, tropical hardwoods and paper, this movie calls on viewers to think about and change their consumption habits and not to support environmentally unsustainable goods and industries. The film uses virtually no dialogue and is accessible to all on the internet as part of a global campaign to influence awareness and behavior.

• Golden Panda Award and Natural History Museum Award, Wildscreen Film Festival, Bristol, 2010
• Grand Teton Award and Best Conservation Program, Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, USA, 2009