The Starfish Throwers

Worlds apart, a 5-star chef, a 12-year-old girl, and a retired school teacher discover how their individual efforts to feed the poor ignite a movement in the fight against hunger. Award-winning chef Narayanan Krishnan, fighting against the caste system in India, quits his job to begin a life of cooking and hand-delivering fresh meals to hundreds of people in his hometown. Katie Stagliano’s planting of a single cabbage seedling when she was 9 years old blossoms into Katie’s Krops, a nonprofit with 73 gardens dedicated to ending hunger. Retired middle-school teacher Mr. Law battles personal health issues as he hand delivers more than a thousand sandwiches nightly to the hungry in Minneapolis. This documentary tells the tale of these remarkable individuals and the unexpected challenges they face. Despite being constantly reminded that hunger is far too big a problem for one person to solve, they persevere and see their impact ripple further than their individual actions.

Website:

http://www.thestarfishthrowers.com/throw-starfish/

To lend support:

Katie’s Krops

www.katieskrops.org

Akshaya Trust (Narayanan Krishnan)

www.akshayatrust.org

Allan Law (MRD)

www.363days.org

2014 FiRe Featured Film: Alive Inside

aliveinside-movieposterAs dementia continues to affect millions of elderly Americans, Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory reveals a remarkable, music-based breakthrough that has already transformed lives. Spearheaded by social worker Dan Cohen and captured on camera over the course of three years by filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett, we learn that songs from a patient’s past can awaken memories and emotions that have been asleep for years, sometimes decades.

Within a moment of hearing “I Get Around” by the Beach Boys, Alzheimer’s patient Marylou jolts back to life, dancing around the living room and expressing a euphoria her husband hasn’t witnessed since her illness took effect. Countless instances in Alive Inside provide proof that music stimulates activity in dementia-affected parts of the brain and transforms the quality of life of those often left to languish in silence.

Through revealing conversations with renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks and musician Bobby McFerrin, as well as powerful firsthand experiments conducted by Cohen in nursing homes, this groundbreaking documentary demonstrates how connecting the elderly to the music they love not only combats memory loss but also supplements a broken health-care system often indifferent to interpersonal connections.

Website:

https://www.facebook.com/BeAliveInside

Wings of Life

“… [A] feature-length documentary for Disneynature, narrated by Meryl Streep. Utilizing time-lapse, high-speed and macro cinematography, the film offers an intimate and unprecedented high-definition glimpse into the hidden world of butterflies, hummingbirds, bats and bees – the precarious relationship between flowers and their pollinators – with a third of the world’s food supply depending on these increasingly threatened species…. [T]his extraordinary film has already won numerous kudos, including Best Theatrical Program at the Jackson Hole Science Media Awards, the Best Cinematography Award at the Ocean Film Festival, and Wild Talk Africa’s Roscar Award.

Participant at FiRe 2013: Director Louie Schwartzberg

Website:

http://nature.disney.com/wings-of-life

Notes: Educators’ guide available from website: http://nature.disney.com/wings-of-life/educators-guide

Who Killed the Electric Car?

“Writer/director Chris Paine’s documentary feature film Who Killed the Electric Car? premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 before its release by Sony Pictures to critical acclaim in 100 US markets. The film was the third highest-grossing theatrical documentary of 2006 and screened with An Inconvenient Truth in many markets.

“… Paine’s film investigates the events leading to the quiet destruction of thousands of new, radically efficient electric vehicles. Through interviews and narrative, the film paints a picture of an industrial culture whose aversion to change and reliance on oil may be deeper then its ability to embrace ready solutions.

“Who Killed the Electric Car? and Chris Paine were nominated by the Writer’s Guild for Best Documentary of 2006. The film also received nominations from The Broadcast Critics Awards and The Environmental Media Awards for Best Documentary of 2006. The film won the audience award at the Canberra International Film Festival and won a special jury prize at the Mountain Film Festival.”

Participant at FiRe 2012: Director Chris Paine

Website:

www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com

To lend support:

www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/takeaction

Who is Dayani Cristal?

“… [T]he story of a migrant who found himself in the deadly stretch of desert known as ‘the corridor of death’ and shows how one life becomes testimony to the tragic results of the US war on immigration. As the real-life drama unfolds we see this John Doe, denied an identity at his point of death, become a living and breathing human being with an important life story.

Winner of the Sundance 2013 Cinematography award and nominated in the World Documentary Competition, Who is Dayani Cristal has been described by the Hollywood Reporter as ‘a deeply moving doc [which] finds a new way of making the immigration debate personal.’ ”

Website:

www.whoisdayanicristal.com

Visions of Tomorrow

“With the aid of scientific and spiritual visionaries from around the world, Visions of Tomorrow seeks to prove and then display in a visually glorious way, that global solutions to the world’s biggest problems already exist. The starting point is hope. With hope, we see solutions to Earth’s biggest problems … and can bring them to life.”

Participant at FiRe 2013: Director Roger Ressmeyer Link to bio

Website:

http://visionsoftomorrow.org

To lend support:

See action and education info from the VOT homepage:

http://visionsoftomorrow.org/

Unacceptable Levels

“A film about chemicals in our bodies… and how they got there.”

“To create this debut documentary, one man and his camera traveled extensively to find and interview top minds in the fields of science, advocacy, and law. Weaving their testimonies into a compelling narrative, [filmmaker Ed] Brown presents us with the story of how the chemical revolution brought us to where we are, and of where, if we’re not vigilant, it may take us…. Unacceptable Levels opens the door to conversations about the chemical burden our bodies carry so that we can make informed decisions now and in the future. The film poses challenges to our companies, our government, and our society to do something about a nearly unseen threat with the inspired knowledge that small changes can generate a massive impact.”

Website:

www.unacceptablelevels.com/

To lend support:

www.unacceptablelevels.com/act

Tanzania: A Friendship Journey

Produced and directed by Emmy Award-winner Sylvia Caminer, Tanzania chronicles the intimate journey through Tanzania of two best friends from vastly different worlds. Kristen, an all-American blue-eyed, blonde-haired girl, travels with her best friend and Tanzania native, Vennance, to his homeland. While exploring the culture and breathtaking landscapes, a disaster strikes that ultimately changes the lives of everyone involved.

 

Website:

tanzaniathemovie.com/home

 

To lend support:

http://tanzaniathemovie.com/home/slide/malaika-for-life/

http://tanzaniathemovie.com/home/slide/kwanini

http://tanzaniathemovie.com/home/friendship-journeys-2/

The Square

“[The Square] is made in a cinéma vérité style, giving us an up-close view of revolution from the ground. New technologies show us that the voice of young people cannot be silenced in this digital age.”

Armed with “nothing more than cameras, social media, videos posted to YouTube, and a resolute determination to liberate their nation,” the citizens who risked their lives to protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in July 2013 are documented in this intimate film about the unprecedented power of social media to effect change.

Website:

http://thesquarefilm.com

To lend support:

http://mosireen.org/

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1362510/stencil%20instructions.pdf

Notes: “Meet the Director:” Exclusive: Members of the SNS FiReFilms Team are invited to join this first in our quarterly call-in series, December 11, 2013, featuring The Square director Jehane Noujaim. To learn more about the FiReFilms Team and the benefits of joining, and to sign up today, go to: www.stratnews.com/firefilms

A Sea Change

With the tagline “Imagine a World Without Fish(tm),” A Sea Change “follows retired educator and concerned grandfather Sven Huseby back to stunning ancestral sites (Norway, Alaska the Pacific Northwest) where he finds cutting-edge ocean research underway. His journey of self-discovery brings adventure, surprise and revelation to the hard science of acidification.”

Website:

www.aseachange.net

To lend support:

www.aseahchange.net/take_action.html