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

Remote Area Medical

“Remote Area Medical will document the annual two-day ‘pop-up’ medical clinic put on by the non-profit Remote Area Medical (RAM) in the NASCAR speedway in Bristol, TN. Even though this small town is only a few hundred miles from our nation’s capitol, access to proper medical care for many in [the] region might as well be worlds away.”

Website:

http://catapultfilmfund.org/project/remote-area-medical/

To lend support:

www.ramusa.org

Narco Cultura

“To a growing number of Mexicans and Latinos in the Americas, narco traffickers have become iconic outlaws and the new models of fame and success. They represent a pathway out of the ghetto – a new form of the American Dream, fueled by the war on drugs. Narco Cultura looks at this explosive phenomenon from within; cycles of addiction to money, drugs, and violence that are rapidly gaining strength on both sides of the US/Mexican border.”

Website:

narcoculture.com/NarcoCultura_by_S._Schwarz.html

Notes: Official selection for 2013 Sundance Film Festival

The Island President

“… [T]he story of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, a man confronting a problem greater than any other world leader has ever faced – the literal survival of his country and everyone in it. After bringing democracy to the Maldives after 30 years of despotic rule, Nasheed is now faced with an even greater challenge: as one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives enough to make them uninhabitable.

“The Island President captures Nasheed’s first year of office, culminating in his trip to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009, where the film provides a rare glimpse of the political horse-trading that goes on at such a top-level global assembly. Nasheed is unusually candid about revealing his strategies – leveraging the Maldives’ underdog position as a tiny country, harnessing the power of media, and overcoming deadlocks through an appeal to unity with other developing nations. When hope fades for a written accord to be signed, Nasheed makes a stirring speech which salvages an agreement. Despite the modest size of his country, Mohamed Nasheed has become one of the leading international voices for urgent action on climate change.”

Website:

http://theislandpresident.com

To lend support:

http://theislandpresident.com/save-the-maldives/

The Genius of Marian

“The heartbreak of Alzheimer’s, the power of art, and the meaning of family…. An intimate family portrait that explores the heartbreak of Alzheimer’s disease, the power of art, and the meaning of family. The Genius of Marian follows Pam White in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease as her son, the filmmaker, documents her struggle to hang on to a sense of self.”

Website:

geniusofmarian.com

NEW! The Genius of Caring: The Genius of Caring is a robust community engagement campaign that grew out of the documentary film, The Genius of Marian.

To lend support:

http://geniusofmarian.com/get-involved

Fuel

“… [A] comprehensive and entertaining look at energy in America: a history of where we have been, our present predicament and a solution to our dependence on foreign oil.Rousing and reactionary, FUEL is an amazing, in-depth, personal journey of oil use and abuse as it examines wide-ranging energy solutions other than oil, the faltering US auto and petroleum industries, and the latest stirrings of the American mindset toward alternative energy.

“… Josh Tickell’s stirring, radical and multi-award winning FUEL may be known by some as the “little energy documentary,” but in truth, it’s a powerful portrait of America’s overwhelming addiction to, and reliance on, oil…. A ‘regular guy’ who felt he could make a difference, [Tickell] spent 11 years making his movie, showing himself – and others – that an individual can indeed make a difference.”

Participant at FiRe 2013: Director Josh Tickell

Website:

www.thefuelfilm.com

To lend support:

www.thefuelfilm.com/learn.php

Notes:

  • New York Times Critic’s Pick
  • Winner, Audience Award for Best Documentary 2008, Sundance Film Festival
  • Cast includes Richard Branson, Woody Harrelson, Julia Roberts, Larry Hagman, Sheryl Crow, Robert Kennedy Jr., Larry David, Willy Nelson, and Neil Young, and many others, including SNS members