The First Tuesday
Film Festival has been presenting films of social relevance on a regular
basis since October of 2006:
February 2010
click to visit film website
Gentleman's Choice
Director Micky Grant was present for this screening of this touching film about the rise and fall of an exceptional man, Chris Adams. You see him sky rocket to stardom during the rise of World Class Wrestling in the 80s. Then you see how he starts to slide downhill, due to drugs and alcohol and due to some unfortunate events, that ultimately ended his life.
January 2010
License restrictions prevent us from mentioning the name or actors in this film on our website (or posters).What we can tell you:
We will be enjoying a classic 1960's film which brings to the surface race relations through the eyes of a child and small community. A spirited discussion is sure to follow on how racism has changed today, and how it hasn't. A powerful community film!
December 2009
Renewal Project
Across the nation, people of faith are standing up for the environment. Evangelical Christians are fighting mountaintop removal, a coal mining process that is decimating Appalachia. Muslims are supporting sustainable farming. Jews are helping children experience the bond between nature and spirituality. Interfaith Power and Light is mobilizing people of all faiths in a religious response to global warming. For the first time, the combined energy of these diverse activists is the driving force behind a feature-length documentary, entitled RENEWAL. Veteran film producers Marty Ostrow and Terry Kay Rockefeller have crisscrossed the country to capture these exciting stories of people whose passion and deep moral commitment are making a difference in a time of grave ecological threats.
November 2009
Sustainable Table
Produced and directed by Mischa Hedges, Sustainable Table is a feature documentary that takes an unadulterated look into the food you eat. What's on your plate? Where does it come from? What effects does it have on the environment and your body? What can you do to help?
October 2009
License restrictions prevent us from mentioning the name or actors in this film on our website (or posters).What we can tell you:
This film deals with a very current topic - social and ethical issues related to immigration. This movie is a prime example of the desperate measures decent people will take when things turn bad and all hope for a better future is gone. From the smugglers to the smuggled, they all have something to gain and something to lose and a story to tell. October's film is a drama that captures this moment and gives us a chance to walk in another's shoes.
September 2009
Scared Sacred
Unwrap The Darkness, Reveal The Light
In a world teetering on the edge of self-destruction, award-winning filmmaker Velcrow Ripper sets out on a unique pilgrimage. Visiting the 'Ground Zeros' of the planet, he asks if it's possible to find hope in the darkest moments of human history.
ScaredSacred deftly weaves together stunning footage with haunting memories, inspirational stories, and an evocative soundscape. An exquisite portrait of a search for meaning in times of
turmoil.
August 2009
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The World According to Monsanto
Monsanto's controversial past combines some of the most toxic products ever sold with misleading reports, pressure tactics, collusion, and attempted corruption. They now race to genetically engineer (and patent) the world's food supply, which profoundly threatens our health, environment, and economy. Combining secret documents with first-hand accounts by victims, scientists, and politicians, this widely praised film exposes why Monsanto has become the world's poster child for malignant corporate influence in government and technology.
July 2009
Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home
Our co-sponsors for this film include
the Dallas Peace Center, Spiral Diner & Bakery and Animal Connection of Texas.
Peaceable Kingdom follows the story of a cattle rancher turned vegetarian and his journey as he transforms his ranch into an animal sanctuary. This moving film will make you laugh, cry and re-think your world. The film makers provide a factual movie which educates but does not judge. There are some wonderful people, featured in this movie, who are working to help these animals.
June 2009
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Rethink Afghanistan
Our co-sponsors for this film include
the Dallas Peace Center
Rethink Afghanistan is a ground-breaking, full-length documentary focusing on the key issues surrounding this war. Please visit the website to join in the discussion and support their efforts.
May 2009
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Salud!
Our co-sponsors for this film include
the Dallas Peace Center
and the Cuba Friendship Committee
A timely examination of human values and the health issues that affect us all, Salud! looks at the curious case of Cuba, a cash-strapped country with what the BBC calls 'one of the world's best health systems.'
March 2009
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The Canary
Effect
Kill the Indian, Save the
Man.
The Award Winning documentary, The Canary Effect, is a culmination of Yellow Thunder Woman's first hand experience growing up as a Native American and Robin Davey's passionate empathy of the need to bring such truths to a wider audience. This film delves deep into the often misunderstood and frequently over-looked historic realities of the American Indian, The Canary Effect follows the terrifying and horrific abuses instilled upon the Indigenous people of North America, and details the genocidal practices of the US government and its continuing affects on present day Indian country.
February 2008
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Peace,
Propaganda & the Promised Land:
U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison
of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East,
zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced
false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal
documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political
elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region,
among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies
to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is
reported.
January 2009
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At The Death House Door
Pastor Carroll Pickett and his daughter, Anne Ellis, both featured in the film,
were our special guests at this screening and shared their experiences.
December, 2008
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What Would Jesus Buy?
From producer Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) and director Rob VanAlkemade comes a serious docu-comedy about the commercialization of Christmas. Bill Talen (aka Reverend Billy) was a lost idealist who hitchhiked to New York City only to find that Times Square was becoming a mall. Spurred on by the loss of his neighborhood and inspired by the sidewalk preachers around him, Bill bought a collar to match his white caterer's jacket, bleached his hair and became the Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping.
What Would Jesus Buy? follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the
Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt!
November, 2008
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On the Line
What happens when a group of activists, priests, celebrities, and students risk arrest to protest U.S. foreign policy in Latin America?
This film is an inside look at the people behind one of the largest nonviolent movements in America today: the movement to close the School of the Americas/WHINSEC, a U.S. Army school that trains Latin American soldiers. In a world where politics, passion, and Constitutional rights collide, protesters discuss their activism, the dark side of U.S. foreign policy, and the challenges of protesting since 9/11.
The principal cast includes: Martin Sheen & Susan Sarandon, actors, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, Founder of School of the Americas Watch,
John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman, Bob Barr, political analyst and former US Congressman,
Gerry Weber, ACLU-Georgia
October, 2008
Click to visit the website
The 11th Hour
"The 11th Hour" is the last moment when change is possible.
The film explores how we've arrived at this moment -- how we live, how
we impact the earth's ecosystems, and what we can do to change our
course. Featuring ongoing dialogues of experts from all over the world,
including former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, renowned
scientist Stephen Hawking, former head of the CIA R. James Woolsey and
sustainable design experts William McDonough and Bruce Mau in addition to
over 50 leading scientists, thinkers and leaders who discuss the most
important issues that face our planet and people.
Produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, and written and directed by
Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, The 11th Hour is produced by
Leila Conners Petersen, Brian Gerber and Chuck Castleberry.
A SPECIAL SCREENING
September 12th, 2008
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Forgotten
Lives
CoSponsored
by the UUCOC Social Justice Ministry, Dallas
Peace Center, Community Now,
Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Justice for Haseeb Chishty.
"Forgotten Lives" is an independent documentary film that chronicles the horrors of Texas state institutions for people with intellectual disabilities. Texas has more institutions than any other state with more people including children warehoused in these facilities. As most states have downsized or completely shut down their institutions, Texas remains a dubious first for operating the most facilities.
Recently the Department of Justice has entered all Texas institutions to investigate civil rights violations and a wide range of abuse. Advocates have called for reform of this archaic system.
"Forgotten Lives" was produced by Community Now!, a statewide activist group calling for state institution reform. A cornerstone of the film is the Haseeb Chishty story. Haseeb was beaten horrifically by a state employee at Denton State School. His mother, Farhat has steadfastly stood by
Haseeb, working to get him out of the facility.
"Forgotten Lives" offers hope for a future of freedom for people in institutions to live in their communities with the
support they need to be successful.
September 2008
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Reel Bad
Arabs
This groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic
history that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of
silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring acclaimed
author Dr. Jack Shaheen, the film explores a long line of degrading images
of Arabs -- from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister
sheikhs and gun-wielding "terrorists" -- along the way offering
devastating insights into the origin of these stereotypic images, their
development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much
today.
August 2008
Click
to visit the filmmaker's website
Two Towns
of Jasper
On June 7, 1998, the most vicious racially motivated murder since the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till occurred in Jasper, Texas. James Byrd, an African American, was chained to a pick-up truck and dragged behind it for three miles until his body disintegrated. Three white men from Jasper, with ties to white supremacist groups, were arrested and later convicted for the crime.
Two film
crews, one black and one white, set out to record the repercussions of
this modern-day lynching by following the trials of the men charged with
the crime and the reactions of the community members. Two Towns of Jasper
integrates footage from an all white crew documenting the white community
and an all black crew filming the black community.
July 2008
Click to visit the filmmaker's website
Injection
AIDS is a global tragedy,
striking Africa especially hard. Rampant reuse of disposable syringes is
responsible for as many as seven million cases of AIDS in Africa alone.
In 1999, five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor were arrested in
Libya and convicted of infecting over four hundred Libyan children with
HIV in a Benghazi hospital. Libyan prosecution, operating at the
discretion of infamous dictator Moammar Kaddafi, has maintained at trial
that the nurses conspired with the American CIA and the Israeli Mossad to
maliciously infect the children.
In this hard-hitting film,
Mickey Grant travels to Kenya, Bangkok, Sofia, Libya, Rome and London in
an attempt to discover the hidden truths. He follows the trail of syringes
from hospital to garbage dump, and then back into Africa's health care
system.
June 2008
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I Know I'm Not Alone
Michael Franti, world-renowned musician and human rights worker, travels to Iraq, Palestine and Israel to explore the human cost of war with a group of friends, some video cameras and his guitar.
A compelling soundtrack, visual and musical montages and Franti's intimate voiceovers make the film speak to the MTV, X, Y & Z generations, as well as the baby-boomers. A true armchair travel film pulling the audience into these war zones in the company of Michael's guitar, eloquence and wit - you feel the humanity, artistic resilence and sometimes horrific experience of what it's like to live under the bombs and military occupation.
May 2008
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Dangerous Living
Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the
Developing World is the first documentary to deeply explore the lives of
gay and lesbian people in non-western cultures. Traveling to five
different continents, we hear the heartbreaking and triumphant stories of
gays and lesbians from Egypt, Honduras, Kenya, Thailand and elsewhere,
where most occurrences of oppression receive no media coverage at all.
April 2008
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In Debt We Trust
Emmy Award winner Danny Schechter's 'In Debt We Trust' explores the relationship
between Congress and the credit complex and how it is having an enormously negative impact on the country's financial health.
March 2008
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China Blue
China Blue takes us inside a blue-jeans factory, where Jasmine and her friends are trying to
survive a harsh working environment. But when the factory owner agrees to a deal with
his Western client that forces his teenage workers to work around the clock, a confrontation
becomes inevitable.
Shot clandestinely in China, under difficult conditions, this is a deep-access account of what
both China and the international retail companies don't want us to see how the clothes we buy
are actually made.
February 2008
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Who Killed the Electric Car?
"A murder mystery, a call to arms and an effective inducement to rage, Who Killed the
Electric Car? is the latest and one of the more successful additions to the growing ranks of
issue-oriented documentaries." - The New York Times
January 2008
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Sicko
Michael Moore's Sicko is an Academy Award nominated documentary film by American
filmmaker Michael Moore that investigates the American health care system, focusing on its
for-profit health insurance and pharmaceutical industry. The film compares the
private-sector U.S. system with the socialized systems of Canada, the United Kingdom,
France and Cuba.
December 2007
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Shadow Company
This film explores the moral and ethical issues private military solutions create for private military companies
(PMCs) employees, for the Western governments who foot the bill for their salaries and for everyday citizens like you. So what is really at risk?
November 2007
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War Made Easy: Presidents, Pundits & Spin
This film reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of
government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after
another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes
remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W.
Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated
the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.
October 2007
Marjoe
This Oscar®-winning 1972 documentary, directed by Howard Smith and Sarah
Kernochan, does more than expose an evangelical fraud. It is a story of celebrity, faith and showmanship.
It follows the story of Marjoe Gortner. Marjoe became an ordained minister at the age of 4
and preached to a large flock of believers, even though Marjoe didn't believe himself.
September 2007
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When I Came Home
A film about homeless veterans in America: from those who served in Vietnam to those
returning from the current war in Iraq. The film looks at the challenges faced by returning
combat veterans and the battle many must fight for the benefits promised to them.
August 2007
Click to view the trailer
Out of Balance: Exxon Mobil's Impact on Climate Control
Discusses how they spearheaded the climate misinformation campaign along with their refusal
to take action against climate control.
July 2007
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American Blackout
Many have heard of the alleged voting irregularities that occurred during the presidential
elections of 2000 and 2004. Until now, these incidents have gone under-reported and are
commonly written-off as insignificant rumors or unintentional mishaps resulting from an
overburdened election system.
American Blackout chronicles the recurring patterns of voter disenfranchisement from
Florida 2000 to Ohio 2004 while following the story of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia
McKinney. McKinney not only took an active role investigating these election debacles, but has found herself in the middle of her own after
publicly questioning the Bush Administration about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Featuring: Congressional members: John Conyers, John Lewis, Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, Bernie
Sanders and jounalists Greg Palast and Bob Fitrakis.
June 2007
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Sir! No Sir!
This is the story of one of the most vibrant and widespread upheavals of the 1960's - one
that had a profound impact on American Society, yet has been virtually obliterated from the
collective memory of that time. "Perfectly time with the doubts of the Iraq War" Variety.
May 2007
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Jesus Camp
Follows a group of children to Pastor Becky Fischer's "Kids on Fire Summer Camp," where
kids are taught to take back America for Christ. The film is a first-ever look into an intense
training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of
America's political future.
April 2007
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Waiting to Inhale: Marijuana, Medicine and the Law
It's the first documentary to examine the movement to legalize cannabis for medical use.
March 2007
no film screened
February 2007
Click to visit the website
Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety
It is an easy-to-follow documentary that walks the audience through the problems caused by
pharmaceutical industry marketing tactics like TV ads, sales reps and free drug samples.
January 2007
Click to view the movie
Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture
and Disappearances in the 'War on Terror
Outlawed places the post-9/11 phenomenon of renditions and the "war on terror" in a human
rights context and calls for action end these human rights abuses.
December 2006
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Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
The story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.
Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and
Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children
who have been changed forever as a result of corporate greed in the reconstruction of Iraq.
Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private security companies making a killing in
Iraq and the decision makers who allow it.
November 2006
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The Corporation
Winner of 25 INTERNATIONAL AWARDS including 10 AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS Explore the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Footage from
pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda illuminates the corporation's
grip on our lives. Taking its legal status as a "person" to its logical conclusion, the film puts
the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask, "What kind of person is it?" Provoking,
witty, sweepingly informative, THE CORPORATION features 40 interviews with corporate
insiders and critics - including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Michael
Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.
October 2006
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An Inconvenient Truth
From director Davis Guggenheim comes the Sundance Film Festival hit, AN INCONVENIENT
TRUTH, which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt
global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that
surround it. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the
2000 election, re-set the course of his life to focus on a last-ditch, all-out effort to help
save the planet from irrevocable change. In this eye-opening and poignant portrait of Gore
and his "traveling global warming show," Gore also proves himself to be one of the most
misunderstood characters in modern American public life.
November 2005
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Wal-Mart: The High Cost of a Low Price
The documentary film sensation that's changing the largest company on earth. The film
features the deeply personal stories and everyday lives of families and communities
struggling to survive in a Wal-Mart world. It's an emotional journey that will challenge the
way you think, feel and shop.
Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff
