Further to yesterday's newsletter item, we had a response from one of our society members with some on-the-ground experience in Myanmar (aka Burma).

Robert Semeniuk writes:

I am a photojournalist and have worked in and around Burma for many years. I would like to suggest another reputable relief agency that has been working inside Burma for a number of years now. This organization is very responsive because they are on the ground, right now:

http://www.thirst-aid.org/

Thank you Robert and to all of those who have taken the time to donate to this effort.

To Bowen Island Film Society members, this far away event may seem more topical after a recent screening of Mystic Ball, which explores the culture of this southeast Asian country through chinlone, a unique and collaborative ball juggling sport.

We hope that as you reflect on the recent disaster and the warm and welcoming people portrayed in the documentary, you wil consider donating to the cyclone relief effort.

Below are direct links to two reputable relief agencies with quick and easy online donation processes. Your donation can be tagged specifically for Myanmar or for more general purposes:

• UNICEF
• Canadian Red Cross

Amal

Saturday March 29, 2008
7:30 pm

Collins Hall, Bowen Island

101 minutes, Rated PG
English and Hindi with subtitles.

Rupinder Nagra, leading actor and co-producer of Amal, is traveling from Toronto to introduce the Film Society’s March 29 screening. Playing the title role, Rupinder is a veteran of Canadian British and Indian cinema and television production, having worked with Deepa Mehta ("Water") as well as Bollywood directors and many others. Also appearing in the film is well-known character actor Roshan Seth ("Indiana Jones- Temple of Doom", "Passage to India", "Monsoon Wedding" and many more titles).

Amal tells the story of an autorickshaw driver in New Delhi whose innate compassion stirs up cross-caste conflicts. Faced with a huge bequest from a wealthy acquaintance, Amal must question his own values while watching greed corrupt many around him.

This vividly textured film by first time Canadian director Richie Mehta, shows us an unvarnished India through the touching story of one man’s decency. By examining a family in which wealth creates nothing but the hunger for more, the story evokes lingering vestiges of the caste system. Acting as an inadvertent inspiration to the dying patriarch, Amal’s wisdom teaches that we are defined as much by what we sacrifice as by what we possess.

This is a "must-see" film, winding up BIFS' winter season. Expect lots of interesting discussion with our honoured guest following the screening.

"… modest and good-hearted, yet finally unsentimental." Adam Nayman, Eye Weekly

Visit www.bowenfilm.com to view a trailer of the film and to see a list of further reading material.

604-947-0450

http://www.bowenfilm.com

King Corn

Saturday February 23, 2008
7:30 pm

Collins Hall, Bowen Island

88 minutes, Rated G

We are very excited about our February screening. King Corn is a wonderfully entertaining and enlightening documentary about a cornerstone of the North American diet: feed corn (no we're not talking about Chilliwack Peaches and Cream here). AND we are extremely fortunate to have two guests -- filmmaker/co-lead Curt Ellis (on the right of the photograph) and Outreach Producer Caitlin Boyle -- with us from Portland, Oregon to take part in our movie night discussions.

King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.

In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.

King Corn manages to win us over in part because it does not announce its outrage through a bullhorn. Instead, this soft-spoken movie directed by newcomer Aaron Woolf gets its point across by settling in among its rural Iowa subjects and following the lead of its goofy everyman co-producers/stars, Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis -- The Boston Globe

Visit www.bowenfilm.com to view a trailer of the film and to see a list of further reading material.

604-947-0450

http://www.bowenfilm.com