Beginning in spring 2017, we celebrate Earth Week with a thematic environmental film series. The themes have been: Environmental Justice (2017), Documenting the Oceans (2018), and Latinx Environmentalisms (2019). We schedule Q&A’s with guest directors, producers, and performers for both the University and the Eugene-Springfield communities. Click on the flyers for details, and many of the films are highlighted below.
Films from the 2019 Emerald Earth Film Festival:
Food Chains
Documentary – 2014 – USA – 83 Minutes – Unrated
In this exposé, an intrepid group of Florida farmworkers battle to defeat the $4 trillion global supermarket industry through their ingenious Fair Food program, which partners with growers and retailers to improve working conditions for farm laborers in the United States.
There is more interest in food these days than ever, yet there is very little interest in the hands that pick it. Farmworkers, the foundation of our fresh food industry, are routinely abused and robbed of wages. In extreme cases they can be beaten, sexually harassed or even enslaved – all within the borders of the United States.
Food Chains reveals the human cost in our food supply and the complicity of large buyers of produce like fast food and supermarkets. Fast food is big, but supermarkets are bigger – earning $4 trillion globally. They have tremendous power over the agricultural system. Over the past 3 decades they have drained revenue from their supply chain leaving farmworkers in poverty and forced to work under subhuman conditions. Yet many take no responsibility for this.
The narrative of the film focuses on an intrepid and highly lauded group of tomato pickers from Southern Florida – the Coalition of Immokalee Workers or CIW – who are revolutionizing farm labor. Their story is one of hope and promise for the triumph of morality over corporate greed – to ensure a dignified life for farm workers and a more humane, transparent food chain.
The film’s Executive Producers include Eva Longoria and Eric Schlosser.
Directed by Sanjay Rawal
We The Animals
Drama – 2018 – USA – 94 Minutes – Rated R
Us three. Us brothers. Us kings, inseparable. Three boys tear through their childhood, in the midst of their young parents’ volatile love that makes and unmakes the family many times over. While Manny and Joel grow into versions of their loving and unpredictable father, Ma seeks to shelter her youngest, Jonah, in the cocoon of home. More sensitive and conscious than his older siblings, Jonah increasingly embraces an imagined world all his own. Based on the acclaimed novel by Justin Torres.
Directed by Jeremiah Zagar
Sleep Dealer
Drama/Romance/Sci-Fi – 2008 – USA/Mexico – 90 Minutes – In English & Spanish – PG-13
‘Sleep Dealer’ is a Sundance award-winning sci-fi thriller packed with stunning visuals and strong social and political themes. Memo Cruz (Luis Fernando Peña) is a young man in near-future Mexico. When his family is victim of a misguided drone attack he finds himself with no option but to head north, towards the U.S./Mexico border. But migrant workers cannot cross this new world border – it’s been sealed off. Instead, Memo ends up in a strange digital factory in Mexico where he connects his body to a robot in America. Memo’s search for a better future leads him to love, loss, and a confrontation with a mysterious figure from his past. The Los Angeles Times writes “Adventurous, ambitious and ingeniously futuristic, ‘Sleep Dealer’ is a welcome surprise. It combines visually arresting science fiction done on a budget with a strong sense of social commentary in a way that few films attempt, let alone achieve.”
Directed by Alex Rivera