Recently in Motion Picture Category

*A powerful and important movie that captures the people behind the issues facing our forests - Tzeporah Berman, cofounder ForestEthics

A smart and well-researched film that successfully sees the trees through the forest — Katherine Monk, Vancouver Sun*

The Green Chain has locked down a premiere in Toronto - Friday June. 19th - at the Cineplex Odeon Carlton Cinemas at 20 Carlton St — that’s Yonge and Carlton, a slapshot away from Maple Leaf Gardens.

Mark Leiren-Young will be in Toronto doing postshow Q&A sessions (after both of the early weekend matinees and the early evening show the night of the premiere) for the award-winning feature film and we expect to have some major eco-stars joining us to talk trees after our weekend matinees, including Antony Marcil, the president and CEO of the Forest Stewardship Council of Canada (speaking with Mark on Sunday).

The Green Chain received the El Prat de Llobregrat Award at the Barcelona Film Festival, a Leo Award for Jillian Fargey’s performance and was a finalist for the best screenplay of 2008 in the Writer’s Guild of Canada’s Canadian Screenwriting Awards. Mark (that’s me for those of you reading the blog as opposed to scoping this via Google or some other site) is arriving in Ontario in a few days to accept the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour at an awards ceremony in Orillia, Ontario, June 13th for his book Never Shoot a Stampede Queen. (Previous winners include… practically every Canadian author I’ve ever bought a book by including Mordecai Richler, Robertson Davies, Eric Nicol, Paul Quarrington, Bill Richardson, Ian Ferguson and Will Ferguson).

Stampede Queen has spent the last four weeks on the BC Bestseller’s list and the second edition arrived in stores across Canada this week. For more on Stampede Queen please visit http://www.stampedequeen.ca/

On Wed the 17th at 8 pm Mark is reading from Stampede Queen at This Ain’t the Rosedale Library alongside Michael Wex (Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods) and Laurie Channer (Godblog). Here’s the link to the Facebook event page.

The night after The Green Chain’s Toronto premiere, The Green Film — a short which Mark wrote, coproduced and performs the music for — receives it’s Toronto premiere at the Royal Ontario Museum as an official selection of the World Wide Short Film Festival. The Green Film recently won a Gold Remi Award at the Houston Short Film Festival and has been accepted into a dozen festivals in France, Japan, the UK and throughout North America. For more on The Green Film visit www.thegreenfilm.com

The Green Chain stars some of Canada’s most acclaimed actors including Gemini Award winner Babz Chula, Tricia Helfer and Tahmoh Penikett from TV’s Battlestar Galactica, Genie and Gemini award winner August Schellenberg (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee; The New World), Genie and Gemini award winner Brendan Fletcher (RV, 88 Minutes), Scott McNeil (Sleeping With Strangers) and Jillian Fargey (Mount Pleasant).

The Green Chain is distributed by Kinosmith Inc.

To join The Green Chain on Facebook click here.

To join The Green Chain on Myspace click here.

A Sense of Wonder, the new critically acclaimed film about Rachel Carson, has been released, and is being screened at hundreds of locations throughout North America.

 

To view the movie trailer, as well as a list of all screening times, visit the film website:

http://www.asenseofwonderfilm.com/

 

Here is some background about the film from the press release: 

 

When pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, the backlash from her critics thrust her into the center of a political maelstrom. Despite her love of privacy, Carson's convictions and her foresight regarding the risks posed by chemical pesticides forced her into a very public and controversial role.

 

Using many of Miss Carson's own words, Kaiulani Lee embodies this extraordinary woman in a documentary style film, which depicts Carson in the final year of her life. Struggling with cancer, Carson recounts with both humor and anger the attacks by the chemical industry, the government, and the press as she focuses her limited energy to get her message to Congress and the American people.

 

The film is an intimate and poignant reflection of Carson's life as she emerges as America's most successful advocate for the natural world. A Sense of Wonder was shot in HD by Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler at Carson's cottage on the coast of Maine.

Vancouver, BC - Kinosmith, Middle Child Films, Perpetual Motion Productions and Donna Wong-Juliani are pleased to announce that the Canadian distribution rights for The Green Chain have been acquired by Kinosmith.

This award winning film by Mark Leiren-Young is set for theatrical release in Vancouver on March 6 with other Canadian cities to follow. The battle between loggers and environmentalists is defining, dividing and destroying communities in Canada and around the world. The Green Chain is a powerful, funny and thought-provoking film about the conflicts between people on both sides of the battle who love trees -- and are willing to risk anything to protect their personal visions of the forest.

The Green Chain examines a community and a way of life through a series of
riveting interlinking monologues inspired by the true tales and personalities that define today's forests.

Donations to the Stanley Park Fund will be made from each ticket sold for
The Green Chain.

The film's cast is comprised of some of Canada's most heralded actors including Gemini Award winner Babz Chula, Leo Award winner for her role in The Green Chain Jillian Fargey (Mount Pleasant), Tricia Helfer and Tahmoh Penikett from TV's Battlestar Galactica, Genie and Gemini award winner August Schellenberg (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee; The New World), Genie and Gemini award winner Brendan Fletcher (RV, 88 Minutes) and Scott McNeil
(Sleeping With Strangers).

The Green Chain writer/director Mark Leiren-Young is one of Canada's most prolific and versatile writers. He has written for virtually every medium, in almost every genre. He is an EarthVision award winner for his eco-comedy Greenpieces, and writes a column for Vancouver's alternative on-line newspaper The Tyee. 

The production of The Green Chain was financed in participation with Telefilm Canada, TMN - The Movie Network and Movie Central and will be distributed by Kinosmith.

 

Synopsis:

Based on one of the most incendiary political uprisings in a generation, Battle in Seattle takes an in-depth look at the five days that rocked the world in 1999 as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in protest of the World Trade Organization. What began as a peaceful protest intended to stop the WTO talks quickly escalated into a full-scale riot and eventual State of Emergency that squared off peaceful and unarmed protesters against the Seattle Police Department and the National Guard.

Told through true events, Battle in Seattle seamlessly intertwines compelling points of view from a cross-section of society – from protesters and police to delegates and doctors – with no perspective left untold from those who intentionally or accidentally find themselves on the streets of Seattle on those last days of the millennium. Dramatic theatrical performances merge with actual footage of the event to bring these contrasting viewpoints to the screen.

[from Movieset.com]

Film festivals, a celebration of the motion picture industry and some promising sequels to Canadian television staples are all on the horizon for this fall. Here are some events to mark on your calendar:

Read the article from Canada.com

Synopsis:
Leonardo DiCaprio's "The 11th Hour" is a feature length documentary concerning the environmental crises caused by human actions and their impact on the planet. The 11th Hour documents the cumulative impact of these actions upon the planet's life systems and calls for restorative action through a reshaping of human activity.
DiCaprio states, "With the onset of global warming and other catastrophic events, environmentalism has become a broader unifying human issue. We as citizens, leaders, consumers and voters, have the opportunity to help integrate ecology into governmental policy and every day living standards."

With the help of over fifty of the world's most prominent thinkers and activists, including reformer Mikhail Gorbachev, physicist Stephen Hawking, and Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, "The 11th Hour documents the grave problems facing the planet's life systems. Global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the oceans' habitats are all addressed, and their causes rooted in human activity. The combination of these crises call into question the very future not of the planet, but of humanity.

However, the most powerful element of "The 11th Hour is not a portrait of a planet in crisis, but the offering of hope and solutions. Scientists and environmental advocates such as David Orr and Gloria Flora paint a portrait for a radically new and exciting future in which humanity seeks not to dominate the earth's life systems, but to mimic them and coexist. "The 11th Hour calls for a future now within our grasp that is both sustainable and healthier.

The film was directed by sisters Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners. They state, "We made this film as call to action, especially to young people. They are the ones who have the power to reshape the future. We must begin now." They have established, www.the11thhouraction.com, as a place for people to gather and effect change.

Trailer:


Early review....

It's the 11th hour
It could be the end of the world as we know it. New environmental film tells a sad story of the state of Earth
Jay Stone, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, August 31, 2007 Read the article

Synopsis:
From National Geographic Films, the people who brought you MARCH OF THE PENGUINS and Paramount Classics, the studio that brought you AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, ARCTIC TALE is an epic adventure that explores the vast world of the Great North. The film follows the walrus, Seela and the polar bear, Nanu, on their journey from birth to adolescence to maturity and parenthood in the frozen Arctic wilderness. Once a perpetual winter wonderland of snow and ice, the walrus and the polar bear are losing their beautiful icebound world as it melts from underneath them. Narrated by Queen Latifah.

Trailer


Reviews... A cautionary tale of Arctic warming
Wildlife documentary 'cheats a bit' by substituting look-alike animals for main characters
Jay Stone, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, August 18, 2007
Narrated by: Queen Latifah
Directed by: Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson
Read the article...

Synopsis: An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Humanity is sitting on a time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced. A catastrophe we have helped create. If that sounds like a recipe for serious gloom and doom -- think again. From director Davis Guggenheim comes the Sundance Film Festival hit, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's commitment to expose the myths and misconceptions that surround global warming. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, re-set the course of his life to focus on an all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change. In this eye-opening and poignant portrait of Gore and his traveling global warming show, Gore is funny, engaging, open and downright on fire about getting the surprisingly stirring truth about what he calls our "planetary emergency" out to ordinary citizens before it's too late. With 2005, the worst storm season ever experienced in America just behind us, it seems we have reached a tipping point - and Gore pulls no punches in explaining the dire situation. Interspersed with the bracing facts and future predictions is the story of Gore's personal journey: from an idealistic college student who first saw a massive environmental crisis looming; to a young Senator facing a harrowing family tragedy that altered his perspective; to the man who almost became President but instead returned to the most impassioned cause of his entire life - believing there is still time to make a difference. With wit, smarts and hope, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH ultimately brings home Gore's persuasive argument that we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue - rather, it is simply one of the biggest moral challenges facing every person in our times. -- © Paramount Classics"

Trailer:

Web sites:

www.climatecrisis.net/

Synopsis:

Environmentalist Leanne Allison and wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer follow a herd of 120,000 caribou on foot, across 1,500 kilometres of rugged Arctic tundra. The husband-and-wife team wants to raise awareness of threats to the caribou's survival.

They let the caribou guide them through a wild and remote landscape, from the central Yukon to coastal Alaska and back. During the five-month journey, they ski and hike across mountains, swim icy rivers, brave Arctic weather and endure hordes of mosquitoes. They survive an encounter with a hungry grizzly bear that forces them to reconcile what it means to be a part of true wilderness. Hunger, fatigue and pain become routine, but the sacrifice is worth it when they witness the miracle of birth just metres from their tent.
Dramatic footage and video diaries provide an intimate perspective of an epic expedition. At stake is the herd's delicate habitat, which could be devastated if proposed oil and gas development goes ahead in the herd's calving grounds in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Video clip


Visit the film Web site

Purchasing information

Synopsis:
In a small New Zealand coastal village, Maori claim descent from Paikea, the Whale Rider. In every generation for more than 1000 years, a male heir born to the Chief succeeds to the title.

The time is now. The Chief's eldest son, Porourangi, fathers twins - a boy and a girl. But the boy and his mother die in childbirth. The surviving girl is named Pai.

Grief-stricken, her father leaves her to be raised by her grandparents. Koro, her grandfather who is the Chief, refuses to acknowledge Pai as the inheritor of the tradition and claims she is of no use to him. But her grandmother, Flowers, sees more than a broken line, she sees a child in desperate need of love.

And Koro learns to love the child. When Pai's father, Porourangi, now a feted international artist, returns home after twelve years, Koro hopes everything is resolved and Porourangi will to accept destiny and become his successor.

But Porourangi has no intention of becoming Chief. He has moved away from his people both physically and emotionally. After a bitter argument with Koro he leaves, suggesting to Pai that she come with him. She starts the journey but quickly returns, claiming her grandfather needs her.

Koro is blinded by prejudice and even Flowers cannot convince him that Pai is the natural heir. The old Chief is convinced that the tribe's misfortunes began at Pai's birth and calls for his people to bring their 12-year-old boys to him for training.

He is certain that through a gruelling process of teaching the ancient chants, tribal lore and warrior techniques, the future leader of their tribe will be revealed to him.

Meanwhile, deep within the ocean, a massive herd of whales is responding, drawn towards Pai and their twin destinies.

When the whales become stranded on the beach, Koro is sure this signals an apocalyptic end to his tribe. Until one person prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the people. The Whale Rider. -- © Newmarket Capital Group

Trailer: