Schedule

Event Information

When: Friday, September 25, 2015 – 7:00pm
Where: Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic

In Requiem for the American Dream, Noam Chomsky, widely recognized as the most influential intellectual alive, makes plain the principles perpetuating the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a select few.

In his final long-form documentary interview, Noam Chomsky exposes with searing clarity the forces and policies behind the coordinated campaign to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a select few. Articulating ten fundamental principles that perpetuate this vicious cycle, Chomsky provides penetrating insight into the demise of democracy and erosion of opportunity that are likely to be the lasting hallmarks of our time.

Event Information

When: Friday, September 25, 2015 – 9:00pm
Where: Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic

A Gala Reception following the Opening Night Screening.

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When: Saturday, September 26, 2015 – 10:00am
Where: The Pearl Theatre

Lost & Found explores the unlikely friendships that were forged on opposite sides of the world, in the wake of a massive natural disaster.

Imagine losing everything – your home, your car entire villages washed away. Any semblance of a life that once was is gone.

On March 11, 2011 Japan was hit by the largest earthquake in its recorded history. The ensuing tsunami engulfed over 90 cities killing more then 18,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands of families homeless. Millions of tons of debris was pulled into the Pacific Ocean that day and was left floating towards the Pacific North West. Entire homes, boats, the remnants of people’s lives lost to sea.

Then the unimaginable happened – just under one year later the first of the tsunami debris started washing ashore in North America and beachcombers did not let it go unnoticed.

People all across the Pacific North West started finding items washed ashore from the Japanese tsunami and became determined to trace them back to their original owners. LOST & FOUND follows the epic adventures of regular citizens who leave their small towns (some for the first time) to travel to Japan in hopes to reunite people with some small piece of their past.

People across 3 countries, 2 continents, who are separated by the largest body of water on earth are coming together to share in the memories, mourn the losses and find great joy in the reuniting of something once thought to be lost forever but has now been found.

Event Information

When: Saturday, September 26, 2015 – 12:00pm
Where: The Pearl Theatre

LUTAH explores the life of a little known architect who left a big legacy. She designed iconic buildings in Santa Barbara such as the Lobero Theater, Vedanta Temple, and the Botanic Garden and was integral to rebuilding a damaged Santa Barbara after the 1925 earthquake. Lutah designed exquisite homes in many styles for some of Santa Barbara’s greatest philanthropists and spent hundreds of volunteer hours laying the foundation for the Santa Barbara Landmarks Commission. She did all of this as an independent woman at the turn of the 20th century.

Lutah navigated her way through the male-centric world of architecture and brought a fresh take to the established architectural styles of Southern California. From Spanish Colonial Revival to Art Deco, to Modernist and back to Traditionalism, Riggs mastered the art of experimentation. Her attention to detail, use of new materials, environmental concerns, and love of the natural landscape brought a unique and specific quality to her work. As one of her contemporaries said, “With Lutah, there was no such thing as impossible; it just took a little bit longer.”
For 60 years Lutah blazed a trail for architects and women, relying on the courage of her convictions and a hint of eccentricity. In a time when most women’s highest expectation was marriage Riggs pursued her passion and created a life of independence, an exceptional choice for a woman at that time. In addition to her buildings, Lutah also left a legacy: She was a self-made woman who boldly overcame barrier after barrier.

Event Information

When: Saturday, September 26, 2015 – 2:15pm
Where: The Pearl Theatre

How to Change the World chronicles the adventures of an eclectic group of young pioneers – Canadian hippie journalists, photographers, musicians, scientists, and American draft dodgers – who set out to stop Richard Nixon’s atomic bomb tests in Amchitka, Alaska, and end up creating the worldwide green movement.

Greenpeace was founded on tight knit, passionate friendships forged in Vancouver in the early 1970s. Together they pioneered a template for environmental activism which mixed daring iconic feats and worldwide media: placing small rubber inflatables between harpooners and whales, blocking ice-breaking sealing ships with their bodies, spraying the pelts of baby seals with dye to make them valueless in the fur market. The group had a prescient understanding of the power of media, knowing that the advent of global mass communications meant that the image had become a more effective tool for change than the strike or the demonstration. But by the summer of 1977, Greenpeace Vancouver was suing Greenpeace San Francisco and the organization had become a victim of its own anarchic roots – saddled with large debts and frequent in-fighting.

How To Change The World draws on interviews with the key players and hitherto unseen archive footage which brings these extraordinary characters and their intense, sometimes eccentric and often dangerous world alive. Somehow the group transcended the contradictions of its members to undertake some of the bravest and most significant environmental protests in history.

The film spans the period from the first expedition to enter the nuclear test zone in 1971 through the first whale and seal campaigns, and ends in 1979, when, victims of their own success, the founders gave away their central role to create Greenpeace International. At its heart is Bob Hunter, a charismatic journalist who had written his first science fiction comics at the age of 10. Somehow Hunter managed to bind together the ‘mystics and the mechanics’ into a group with a single purpose, often at huge cost to himself. The story is framed by his first person narrative, drawn from his writings and journals about the group, voiced alongside animations based on his own comics.

How To Change The World is an intimate portrait of the group’s original members and of activism itself—idealism vs. pragmatism, principle vs. compromise. They agreed that a handful of people could change the world; they just couldn’t always agree on how to do it.

Event Information

When: Saturday, September 26, 2015 – 4:30pm
Where: The Pearl Theatre

A Filmmaker Panel with John Choi, Nicholina Lanni, Kelly Nyks and John Rowe

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When: Saturday, September 26, 2015 – 6:30pm
Where: The Pearl Theatre

According to the elders of the Kara people, since before the grandfather of their grandfather’s grandfather, pastoralist people have lived in the Omo Valley of Southwest Ethiopia. The very existence of these people depends upon livestock, farming and rain. Protecting these most cherished elements of life sometimes involves harmful customs and beliefs.

OMO CHILD: The River and the Bush traces the story of the Kara and their beliefs that some children are born cursed or become cursed. Cursed children are called mingi and are killed. The Kara people believe mini children bring disease, drought and death to their families and to the community. one young educated man, Lale Labuko, decided he would challenge this ancient tradition. This is his story.

Event Information

When: Saturday, September 26, 2015 – 9:00pm
Where: The Pearl Theatre

The From the Edge of the Atlantic: Experimental Shorts screening showcases and celebrates Atlantic filmmakers working on the edge of documentary. The Festival is eager to incorporate films that explore different styles of filmmaking, where films emerge from the interplay between sound, image, atmosphere and place rather than traditional storytelling approaches.

Event Information

When: Sunday, September 27, 2015 – 10:00am
Where: The Pearl Theatre

In Requiem for the American Dream, Noam Chomsky, widely recognized as the most influential intellectual alive, makes plain the principles perpetuating the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a select few.

In his final long-form documentary interview, Noam Chomsky exposes with searing clarity the forces and policies behind the coordinated campaign to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a select few. Articulating ten fundamental principles that perpetuate this vicious cycle, Chomsky provides penetrating insight into the demise of democracy and erosion of opportunity that are likely to be the lasting hallmarks of our time.

Event Information

When: Sunday, September 27, 2015 – 10:30am
Where: Rime Restaurant + Wine Bar

Event Information

When: Sunday, September 27, 2015 – 1:00pm
Where: The Pearl Theatre

Do you remember when you were 11?

Australian filmmaker Genevieve Bailey travelled the world for six years talking with 11-year-olds to compose this insightful, funny and moving documentary portrait of childhood. From an orphanage in India, to a single-parent household in inner-city Melbourne, to bathing with elephants in Thailand, I Am Eleven explores the lives and thoughts of children from 15 countries. I Am Eleven weaves together deeply personal and at times hilarious portraits of what it means to sit at this transitional age. These young minds provide us with a powerful insight into the future of our world.

These children share their thoughts on a range of subjects such as love, war, global warming, music, terrorism, culture, family, happiness, religion and the future. Each of their situations allows a single glimpse into a young mind, and combine to provide a powerful insight into the future of our world. As straight up and personal as the ’7 Up’ series, and with the comedy and honesty of ‘Spellbound’, this documentary enables us to explore an age where these ‘not quite kids, not quite teenagers’ briefly linger, between the frank openness and sometimes naivety of childhood, and the sharp and surprisingly brave wisdom and knowing of adulthood. As much as it is a story about them, it is a story with them, of what it is like to be eleven today.

Short Films from the Youth Workshop will also be screened.

Event Information

When: Sunday, September 27, 2015 – 3:30pm
Where: The Pearl Theatre

The Grenadines are a small group of islands in the Lesser Antilles where the traditions of boatbuilding were once crucial to the survival of local communities skimming a living from the sea. Hundreds of sailing vessels were once launched here, more than anywhere in the West Indies.

Alwyn Enoe is one of the last wooden boatbuilders in the village of Windward, Carriacou. To keep the tradition alive, he decides to create a final vessel with his sons before the skills introduced by Scottish ancestors are lost forever.

Featuring striking cinematography, rare archival footage, interviews with Caribbean sea captains, exciting sailing and subjects relating to our own regions’ history and industry, Vanishing Sail is sure to entertain and capture the attention of all who have an interest in boatbuilding, sailing, sustainable community, and maritime history.

Event Information

When: Sunday, September 27, 2015 – 7:00pm
Where: The Pearl Theatre

Awards are presented to Filmmaker of the Year, Best Short Documentary and Best Feature Documentary.

The Film MAVIS! will also be screened:

MAVIS! is the first documentary on gospel/soul music legend and civil rights icon Mavis Staples and her family group, The Staple Singers. From the freedom songs of the ’60s and hits like “I’ll Take You There” in the ’70s, to funked-up collaborations with Prince and her recent albums with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Mavis has stayed true to her roots, kept her family close, and inspired millions along the way.