The Office of Global Awareness at Payap University, in collaboration with the Northern Climate Crisis Network (NCCN), proudly presents the following Payap Reel program of films.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
21st & 28th January 2010 through 4th, 11th & 18th February 2010

17:00-19:30 hrs (5:00-7:30 pm)

Pentecost Building, Room 419

(formerly the Graduate and International Studies Building)

Payap University, Mae Khao Campus (behind Carrefour)

Thursday 21 January: “HOME” (2009 / 93 min)

Belgian aerial photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and his team traveled around the planet over 18 months to make this film. This movie shot from the air over fifty countries has a mission and carries a message for humanity: to become aware of the full extent of its spoliation of the Earth’s riches and change its patterns of consumption.
We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth’s climate. The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.

Thursday 28 January: “CRUDE IMPACT” (2006 / 97 min)
CRUDE IMPACT is a powerful and timely story that deftly explores the inter-connection between human domination of the planet and the discovery and use of oil.

This documentary film exposes our deep-rooted dependency on the availability of fossil fuel energy and examines the future implications of peak oil — the point in time when the amount of petroleum worldwide begins a steady, inexorable decline. Journeying from the West African delta region to the heart of the Amazon rainforest, from Washington to Shanghai, from early man to the unknown future, CRUDE IMPACT chronicles the collision of our insatiable appetite for oil with the rights and livelihoods of indigenous cultures, other species and the planet itself.  It is a thought-provoking story filled with discovery, sorrow, outrage, humor and ultimately, hope.  Directed by James Jandak Wood.

Thursday 4 February: “THE POWER OF COMMUNITY” (2007 / 53 min)

A documentary about the kinds of adaptations we could make to living in a world constrained by the need to radically cut back on fossil fuel use to reduce CO2 pollution. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba lost its cheap oil supply and had to learn how to adapt. It was hard, but they did it.
This documentary takes you through various aspects of life in Cuba – Economy, transportation, health-care, agriculture, education – and explores how they dealt with the dramatic reduction of fossil fuels to a mere fraction of their pre-1990 levels. It was nice to meet the people, see the sights, and hear the sounds. The overall feeling was that the Cubans had improved the quality of their life (after a difficult “Special Period”). Their health was better, greater sense of community, better food and healthier land. The director was left with the question: Why should we wait until we run out of oil? Let’s do it now. The part not expected was how it challenged the understanding of the difference between a Communist country and Capitalism. Did you know that a greater percentage of Cubans own their own home than in America? More farmers now own their own land? Sort of turns the notion of what a “Free-Market” is on its head…

Thursday 11 February: “BLIND SPOT” (2009 / 91 min)

BLIND SPOT is a documentary film that illustrates the current oil and energy crisis that our world is facing. Whatever measures of ignorance, greed, or wishful thinking, we have put ourselves at a crossroads, which offer two paths with dire consequences. If we continue to burn fossil fuels we will choke the life out of the planet, and if we don’t, our way of life will collapse.

Directed by Adolfo Doring; features interviews with William Catton Jr., Max Fraad Wolff, Richard Heinberg, Kenneth Deffeyes, Albert Bartlett, Roscoe Bartlett, James Hansen, David Pimentel, Joseph Tainter, David Korten, Jason Bradford, Elke Weber, Mary-Ann Hitt, Terry Tamminen, Ted Caplow and Derrick Jensen.

Thursday 18 February: “WHAT A WAY TO GO – LIFE AT THE END OF EMPIRE” (2007 / 125 min)
A middle class white guy comes to grips with Peak Oil, Climate Change, Mass Extinction, Population Overshoot and the demise of the American Lifestyle.
What is it doing to us, as thoughtful human beings, as we face the overwhelming challenges of:
·         Peaking fossil fuel flow rates?
·         Critically degraded ecosystems?
·         A changing climate?
·         An exploding global population?
·         Teetering global economies?
·         An unstable political climate?
And what is it doing to the rest of the life on this planet?

Featuring interviews with Daniel Quinn, Derrick Jensen, Jerry Mander, Chellis Glendinning, Richard Heinberg, Thomas Berry, William Catton, Ran Prieur and Richard Manning, WHAT A WAY TO GO looks at the current global situation and asks the most important questions of all:

–         How did we get here?

–          Why do we keep destroying the planet?
– What do we truly want?
– Can we find a vision that will empower us to do what is necessary to survive, and even thrive, in the coming decades?
Writer/Director Timothy S. Bennett

Organized by Steve Green & Ricky Ward. (http://ourchiangmai.com) Tel: 084-985-9668 and Jessica Loh, Head, International Campus Life, Payap Universityhttp://ic.payap.ac.th

*Each Payap Air screening will be followed by an opportunity for discussion facilitated by a member of the NCCN