Jesus Camp

I went to see Religulous last night. I'll blog a bit about it later. I mentioned to my friend J. this afternoon that I'd gone to see it and he brought up another documentary about religious fundamentalism that he said had really had an impact on him. Jesus Camp lost out to An Inconvenient Truth for the Academy Award in 2006, they say. It's about the "Kids on Fire School of Ministry", which holds summer camps for born again kids to teach them all about taking back America for Jesus Christ. It's probably one of the spookiest things I've seen in a long time. Here's some info on it.

And here's the thing itself:

Documentary: Money as Debt

This animated 45-minute documentary explains how what we now know as money was created, and it explains how the fractional reserve banking system that's evolved now props up and controls entire economies by encouraging and ensuring debt; it also suggests the need for reforms to this system. Your notions about work, the value of a dollar, and the banking system will be irreparably changed after you've viewed this.

Producer Paul Grignon says of it:

Money created as interest-bearing bank credit is a magic trick, a fraud - now 3 centuries old; one that very few people have seen through despite, or rather because of, its utter simplicity.

It is my intention to make this mysterious debt-money system comprehensible to everyone. It is also my intention to foster sufficient understanding of the problems with this money system that citizens will be motivated to join the monetary reform movement and/or create local alternatives to the global monetary system - a system in which most of the productive people of the world are collectively chained to an ever-increasing and perpetually unpayable debt.

Earthlings - Part 1 of 3

Earthlings is a multi-award winning 2005 documentary by writer/director Shaun Monson, which took around five years to put together. Narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, it examines, in a frank and often jarring manner through the use of facts and footage, how humans have come to completely rely on non-human animals, using them for food, clothing, entertainment and experimentation. We breed and exploit them for profit. As sad and awful as some of the images are in this documentary, they're an accurate portrayal of what goes on "out of sight". There's no sensationalism in this film -- just reality.

Part 1, as presented in this YouTube video, features animals raised to become our pets, as well as animals raised to become our food.

Earthlings - Part 2 of 3

Part 2 continues to examine how we raise animals for food. It also focuses on the seafood industry, including the health issues surrounding it. It goes even further to examine the whaling industry and Japanese dolphin hunts. I won't pretend otherwise -- these images are some of the most difficult things I've seen myself in a long time.

Part 2 also examines animals we use for clothing -- for their skin or fur. It also starts looking at animals used for entertainment by featuring images from rodeos and it takes a glimpse at hunting and fishing at the very end.

Earthlings - Part 3 of 3

The final third of the documentary focuses on the gruesome lives of circus animals, on the rigging and cruelty of bullfighting, and then, finally, on animal experimentation.

Free Popcorn!

There's a non-profit media arts collective in Montreal that calls itself "überculture" that's kick-started a project called Cinema Politica, which they describe on their website as "a cross-Canada grassroots network of political cinema exhibition sites showcasing independent Canadian artists". Filmmaker/journalist Avi Lewis is quoted as calling it "a much-needed head-butt to the corporate movie machine".

For the past few weeks, while zipping around downtown on my bike, I've been seeing these posters up everywhere promoting various socio-political documentaries being screened at Conserver House on St. John St. on Friday evenings. I finally stopped and took note of the contact information and checked out the organizers' web page.

"Fredericton: Friday Night Docs" is the name of the weekly event. Donations are accepted in lieu of an actual admission, free popcorn is provided and after each documentary, discussion of the subject-matter covered is encouraged. I'm particularly excited about a screening of the documentary Earthlings they'll be holding on October 19. For anybody who's interested in viewing this documentary and who may be outside of the Fredericton area, it's available via Google Video. In a nutshell, it's about humanity's complete dependence on -- and disrespect of -- animals, through the "pet" and entertainment industries, through factory farming (and its fur and leather production by-products), as well as through animal testing in the name of science and / or medicine The documentary's official website has much more detailed information about it.