Planet in Focus Presents:
Mixed Greens Monthly Screening Series 2008

Join us at the Gardiner Museum on the last Friday of each month as we celebrate the best environmental films from our 2007 festival! Hand selected straight from our 2007 festival line-up, here is your chance to experience again or for the first time this rare and note worthy collection of films from around the country and around the world!

A special thank you to our 2008 Mixed Greens co-presenter, The Gardiner Museum!

Location: Gardiner Museum
111 Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C7

Contact:
Planet in Focus: 416 531 1769

Gardiner Museum: 416 586 8080
www.gardinermuseum.on.ca

Tickets:
Pay what you can ($7.00 suggested)
No advance sales, tickets can be purchased at the door

Dates & Times: Every fourth Friday, 6:45 pm

Schedule (Jan- Mar):

Friday January 25th
P is for Papaya
Aube Giroux, Canada, experimental, 2007, English, 8 min.
Told as a romance gone bad, this short documentary reveals some of the sour secrets beneath the skin of a popular tropical fruit.

Bushman’s Secret
Rehad Desai, South Africa, documentary, 2006, 65 min., Afrikaans, Nu!, Ju’Hoan, English Subtitles
You don’t take everything away…you give something back. That is nature. When the pharmaceutical industry got a hold of what is considered a profitable secret - the hoodia plant - it inspired filmmaker Rehad Desai to travel to the Kalahari to investigate global interest in ancient Bushmen knowledge. He meets Jan van der Westhuizen, a fascinating Khomani San traditional healer.
Jan's struggle to live close to nature is hampered by centuries of colonial exploitation. Unable to survive as they once did hunting and gathering, the Khomani now live in a state of poverty that threatens to see the last of this community. Who will pass on the knowledge of the land to its people and who can protect the plants that hold secrets and are a means to their survival?
This is a story of dispossession of the land, its inhabitants, their cultural and agricultural wealth.

Friday February 29th
The Nature of Rebirth (Oddech wielkiego lasu)
Johanna Lampi, Finland, short, 2007, Polish and English subtitles, 14 min.

“If you are quiet in nature, the nature starts to reveal itself. We all die, but what is dying?”
Europe’s oldest forest Bialowieza, inspires reflection on the symbiosis of death and the nature of rebirth among four individuals deeply affected by its mysteries… Exquisitely shot, this poetic meditation on life and death introduces us to Zbigniew who takes care of the bisons, Jerzy - a passionate entomologist, Joanna an artist transformed by the solace of the forest, and Janusz who walks the forest and ruminates on the effects we humans have on nature. This is an environmental film for the ages.

Snow-white Blacknoses (Schneeweisse Schwarznasen)
Sylviane Neuenschwander
Switzerland, documentary, 2006 , Swiss, German, English subtitles, 86 min.
Reinhold and his fellow sheep-breeding colleagues do shift work in the city, with the rest of their waking hours spent tending meticulously to their beloved Valais Blacknose sheep. The sheep of the Swiss Alps are not bred for their wool, nor for their meat, but rather for their good looks that bring pride and prestige to their owners. The obsession is lost on the wives and children of the sheep farmers; they are perplexed with this labour of love. A sensitive and charming tale about the strong affections between a farmer, his sheep and a vanishing way of life.

Friday March 28th
-40 degrees
Paul Davis, Canada, documentary, 2007, French, English subtitles, 14 min.
In a sub-arctic town in the dead of winter, a substitute teacher gets a phone call. A short tale of one man’s journey to work on a bike in minus -40 degree weather.

Carbon Neutral Production: -40C was shot in -41C temperatures with a 2 person crew, one of whom was also the narrator, director and stunt guy. The production used only one SUV as a crew transfer vehicle. The interior shots were all done in hydro-heated houses which are naturally carbon neutral. The film was edited in a hydro-heated environment and the crew relied on bikes and foot to get to and from set. Electricity from the production was 100% hydro.

Edge of Eden: Living with Grizzlies
Jeff and Sue Turner, Canada, documentary, 2007, English, 88 min.
In Kamchatka, the most easterly region of Russia, a little miracle with huge implications is in the works. Considered by many to be the most dangerous animal in the world the grizzly bear, an endangered species, finds a protector and defender in Canadian conservationist, Charlie Russell. As a surrogate mother he struggles to reintroduce orphaned cubs to the wild against the backdrop of a dramatic landscape filled with lurking predators and poachers. Filmed in the course of a year, this relationship is bound to fill you with awe and sure to win your hearts and minds.

Future films TBA