The Orange County chapter of ReclaimDemocracy.org meets the second Saturday evening of each month from 6:30 - 8:30 PM at the Irvine Ranch Water District building at 15600 Sand Canyon Ave. (corner Sand Canyon Ave. and Waterworks Way) in Irvine. Our meetings are free of charge and free refreshments are available.
We typically screen documentary films relating to topics critical to our organization's mission, including campaign finance reform, media consolidation, corporate crime, trade agreements and trade organizations, factory farms and ther impact on America's food supply, ethical consumption, and more. Films we've seen and discussed in past meetings include: The Corporation, The Future of Food, The Power of Nightmares, Who Killed the Electric Car?, Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety, Independent America, Iraq For Sale, This is What Free Trade Looks Like, Free Speech For Sale, and many others. Guest speakers have presented on national health insurance, peak oil, plastics in our environment, campaign finance reform legislation, and other topics.
Join us for any of our meetings - there is no need to RSVP - and enjoy the films we show, the presentations given by our guest speakers, and the invigorating, insightful discussions that follow. You will be educated and entertained while meeting new, like-minded friends!
DETAILS ON OUR NEXT MEETING:
August 9, 2008 from 6:30 - 8:30 PM at the Irvine Ranch Water District building at 15600 Sand Canyon Ave. in Irvine. Features a screening of the film: "DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE", a documentary depicting the myriad and altogether devastating effects of a globalized economy on the residents of a Tanzanian fishing village. DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Some time in the 1960's, in the heart of Africa, a new animal was introduced into Lake Victoria as a little scientific experiment. The Nile Perch, a voracious predator, extinguished almost the entire stock of the native fish species. However, the new fish multiplied so fast that its white fillets are today exported all around the world.
Huge hulking ex-Soviet cargo planes come daily to collect the latest catch in exchange for their southbound cargo… Kalashnikovs and ammunitions for the uncounted wars in the dark center of the continent. Meanwhile, the local population can only wonder what happened to the land they loved.
Here are some reviews:
A "harrowing, indispensable documentary. A work of art." - A. O. Scott, NY Times
"A fascinating cautionary tale in the guise of a documentary showing how, in the age of globalisation, things can evolve in the worst possible of unforeseen ways. Witty, incisive, heart-breaking, angry, shocking, and very imaginative, it's yet further proof that Austrian film-makers are now getting things right." - Time Out London
"Hubert Sauper's staggering documentary is essential viewing on the survival of two ruthlessly fittest species: the Nile perch, which quickly annihilated almost all other fish life in Tanzania's Lake Victoria after its artificial introduction in the '60s, and the omnivorous beast known as winner-take-all global capitalism." - The Village Voice
The film is free and refreshments are available.