Events

Developed, financed and executive produced by Participant Media, the company responsible for An Inconvenient Truth, Food, Inc. and Waiting For “Superman”, Last Call at the Oasis presents a powerful argument for why the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century. Illuminating the vital role water plays in our lives, exposing the defects in the current system and depicting communities already struggling with its ill-effects, the film features activist Erin Brockovich and such distinguished experts as Peter Gleick, Alex Prud’homme, Jay Famiglietti and Robert Glennon.

Four organic wine producers talk about their lives, their work as mothers, winegrowers and businesswomen, each telling her story in a different season and a different phase of work in the vineyard or winery. Though completely different, the four women share the same passion for and roots with their homeland. Devoid of bucolic idealisation of farm work, the film gives an accurate portrait of the women by following them in their daily routine, capturing their movement, faces and words.

Official synopsis: Audre Lorde, the highly influential, award winning African-American lesbian poet went to live in West Berlin in the 1980s. During her stay as a visiting professor, she was the mentor and catalyst who ignited the Afro-German movement. Lorde also had a decisive impact on white women, challenging them to acknowledge the significance of their white privilege and learning to deal with difference in constructive ways. (Community partner: Sistah Sinema)

A brilliant series of short films by women including:
2nd Best –
A Family Memory –
The Lost Van Gogh –
Valencia – Chapter 3

“All Women Are Bitches” was not a chart topper, but it represented a significant thread in queerpunk history thanks to the all-female art punk band Fifth Column. Former band members recall the scene in the 1980s and their progressive efforts to unite music, film and zine culture to challenge conventional art practice, gender roles and femininity. The band’s memories of the fun and feuds that fueled their creativity and built their reputations connect to the later Riot Grrrl movement. Most enlightening may be what was Toronto’s first zine war, where rivals battled it out through handcrafted photocopies. Three decades may heal old wounds but clearly a few scars remain.

In the history of Mexican cinema, the Calderón family is known for building grand movie palaces and producing outrageous genre films disdained by critics yet loved by the masses. Filmmaker Viviana García Besné investigates their legacy from the inside as the grandniece of mogul José Luis Calderón. Her journey uncovers a hidden history full of curvy actresses, masked wrestlers, human robots and Aztec mummies – all driven by the most shameless commercial impulses.