Summer Film Series

For the second year in a row Sustainable Lafayette will be hosting a summer film series at the Lafayette Library & Learning Center (Community Hall) that will feature three recently released documentaries on Tuesday evenings in June and July, and an additional movie in August.  See movie descriptions and event info below.

Free coffee and cookies will be served at each movie.  $5 donation suggested.

In Organic We Trust – Tuesday, June 26th – 7pm

For the last 10 years, organic food sales have grown 20 percent and now 78% of Americans eat some type of organic food. Yet most people don’t really know what it means. When “organic” became a brand, everything changed – the philosophy and the label grew apart. Demand expanded too quickly to be supported by small local farming and big corporations moved in.  Can gummy bears or bananas flown halfway across the world truly be organic?  This is an eye-opening documentary that takes a first-hand look at the organic food industry, reveals its shortcomings, and explores paths toward a truly organic, self-sustaining agriculture system with local farmers’ markets, urban farmers and school gardens inspiring new solutions. Directed by Kip Pastor (82 min).  More info or to see the trailer… 

SWITCH – Tuesday, July 17th – 7pm

Test audiences have called this ‘the most important energy film since An Inconvenient Truth.’  What will it really take, to switch from oil and coal, to their alternatives? Dr. Scott Tinker, Director of the Bureau of Economic Geology, professor of geosciences, and renowned energy lecturer, embarks on a round the world journey to answer this and related questions: If coal is dirty, why do we keep using it? Can we really clean it up? Will oil get more expensive? Will it run out? How quickly will we adopt alternatives, and which ones? How risky is hydraulic fracturing? How dangerous is nuclear? What are the biggest challenges, and most promising solutions, to our energy transition? What role does each of us play? Dr. Tinker goes inside the world’s premiere energy sites for all resources, from coal to solar, and talks to leaders in government, industry and academia, exploring the world of energy like no documentary has ever done before.   (1 hour. 43 min.)   More info or to see the trailer…

Bag It – Tuesday, July 31st – 6:30pm (event) and 7pm (movie)

Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes-single-use disposable bags that we mindlessly throw away.  But where is “away?” Where do the bags and other plastics end up, and at what cost to our environment, marine life and human health?   Bag It follows “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic world. Jeb is not a radical environmentalist, but an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics. Jeb’s journey in this documentary film starts with simple questions: Are plastic bags really necessary? What are plastic bags made from? What happens to plastic bags after they are discarded? Jeb looks beyond plastic bags and discovers that virtually everything in modern society-from baby bottles, to sports equipment, to dental sealants, to personal care products-is made with plastic or contains potentially harmful chemical additives used in the plastic-making process. When Jeb’s journey takes a personal twist, we see how our crazy-for-plastic world has finally caught up with us and what we can do about it. Today. Right now.  (1 hour, 19 min).  More info or to see the trailer…

The First 70 - Tuesday, August 28, 2012 | 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Join us as we co-host this final film in the Summer Film series with the Lafayette Open Space Group. The First 70 is a movie about the proposed closure of 70 California State Parks. It was made by two young people who visited the parks and the people who treasure them. Included will be a discussion of the value of these parks to all Californians, and the need to protect and preserve all our parks and open spaces for posterity. We will have Ron Brown, President of Save Mt. Diablo as a speaker, and will also show a short video celebrating 75 years of the East Bay Regional Park District. A speaker from the Open Space Group will then talk about the need to preserve our local parks and open space.

More information about the movie: The First 70.