GASLAND (USA, 2010, 107 min.)

"The rare example of cinema art that is also an organizing tool, the pic has a level of research, gutsiness and energy that should generate sensational response everywhere it plays...if a film can ever enact social change, which is rare, the potency of GasLand suggests that this may be that film." - Robert Koehler, Variety

It is happening all across America — rural landowners wake up one day to find a lucrative offer from an energy company wanting to lease their property. Why? The company hopes to tap into a reservoir dubbed the “Saudi Arabia of natural gas.” Halliburton developed a way to get the gas out of the ground — a hydraulic drilling process called “fracking” — and suddenly America finds itself on the precipice of becoming a natural gas superpower. But what comes out of the ground with that “natural” gas? How does it affect our air and drinking water? GasLand is a powerful personal documentary that confronts these questions with strength and a sense of humor.

When filmmaker Josh Fox receives a cash offer in the mail to sell his own property for gas extraction, he travels across 32 states to meet other rural residents on the front lines of fracking. He discovers toxic streams, ruined aquifers, dying livestock, brutal illnesses and kitchen sinks that burst into flame. He learns that all water is connected and perhaps some things are more valuable than money. Directed by Josh Fox. Produced by Trish Adlesic, Josh Fox and Molly Gandour. Winner, Special Jury Prize, 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Washington, D.C. Premiere
Discussion with filmmaker Josh Fox follows screening.

FREE
7:00 pm
Carnegie Institution for Science, Elihu Root Auditorium
1530 P St., NW (Dupont Circle Mertro)

The 2010 Festival explores the vital connections between food and the environment. What we eat is essential to our health and wellbeing; how food is produced and transported to our tables affects the condition of our planet. Starting from the ground up, Dirt! The Movie and Soil in Good Heart focus on earth’s most underrated source of fertility and its key role in creating nourishing food. Our pre-Festival screening for D.C. public and charter school students, What’s On Your Plate? investigates the sources of our food while Lunch looks specifically at school food programs. Food Fight traces the birth of the country’s sustainable organic food movement in California during the 1960s, led by Alice Waters. Fresh and Ingredients celebrate today’s farmers, chefs and business people who are creating a new food culture in America. Terra Madre highlights the contributions of Italy’s Slow Food movement and HomeGrown spotlights an urban family farm in Pasadena, California. Nora! profiles Washington restaurateur, Nora Pouillon, founder of the nation’s first certified organic restaurant. Find out more about the over 150 or so films.

World Premiere of "Senegal: The President's Tour"
Featuring His Excellency Abdoulaye Wade President of the Republic of Senegal & Mr. Tiki Barber, Television Correspondent
6:00 pm Monday, March 22, 2010

The World Bank
Preston Auditorium
1818 H St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20006
Metro: Farragut West

RSVP: marieme@africasummit.org or call (202) 232-3862 by March 19, 2010.

Presidential Tours of Africa Series
The Presidential Tours of Africa are a series of comprehensive films that highlight African countries and follow their Heads of State as they take viewers on an in-depth tour. The Africa Society in partnership with the Travel Channel began its Presidential Tours of Africa Series in 2003 with the premiere of "Uganda: The Presidential Tour," led by President Kaguta Museveni. After the success of this film, the series went on to feature Ghana in 2005 and Botswana in 2008. The third and most recent film in the series, "Botswana: The President's Tour," premiered in August 2008 at The World Bank and featured former President Festus G. Mogae, who later received the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s Award for Achievement in African Leadership.

These groundbreaking films have reached over 180 million households with positive and accurate images of Africa, showcasing each nation's unique tourist attractions, natural wonders, industry, and modernity. These positive images of Africa promote tourism and combat the pervasive negative stereotypes that continue to plague the continent.

From the DC Latin American Film Showcase:

“Tradition”, “Diversity” and “Renewal” might be the best terms one can use to describe the essence of more than thirty films presented in this Latin Film Showcase organized by the Ibero-American Cultural Attachés Association, which will be free and open to all in the Washington DC metropolitan area. This event showcases films from almost twenty countries, and in its diversity brings together contemporary classics such as La gente de la Universal (Colombia, 1993) and El hijo de la novia (Argentina, 2001), as well as new and surprising examples like La Nana (Chile, 2009) and Juventude (Brazil, 2008). Besides this wide variety of tendencies, documentaries from Spain and Latin American countries are also highlighted, such as El honor de las injurias (Spain, 2007) and the highly acclaimed Cocalero (Bolivia, 2007).

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'DC Latin American Film Showcase'