[Corp. Watch] 4th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival Opens May 28 in SF

[Corporation Watch]

ANTI-CORPORATE FILM FEST OPENS WITH OIL, CLOSES WITH WATER

Program also looks at corporate influence on our diet, culture, and  
foreign aid

(San Francisco, May 19) -- The 4th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival  
opens on Thursday, May 28, at 7:00pm with the West Coast premiere of  
SWEET CRUDE (USA, 2009, 92 min), the first feature-length film about  
Big Oil's devastation of the environment and people of Nigeria's Niger  
River Delta region, and efforts -- some of them violent -- by local  
residents to have their grievances addressed.

	The screening coincides with increased violence by the Nigerian  
security forces in the area where the film was made, and with the  
start of a landmark civil trial in a New York court for Shell Oil's  
role in the torture and killing of Nigerian protesters over than 10  
years ago. Director Sandy Cioffi will speak afterward about her  
experiences making it (including being detained by Nigerian security  
forces for five days) and recent and ongoing events, and will be  
joined by Nigerian activist Joel Bisina, who is in the film.

	The oil theme continues at 9:15pm with the West Coast premiere of  
BLACK WAVE (Canada, 2008, 99 min), a chronicle of the 20-year legal  
battle -- the longest in U.S. history -- that toxicologist Riki Ott  
and the residents of Cordova, Alaska, have waged against the world's  
most powerful oil company, ExxonMobil, to win compensation for the  
worst industrial disaster in U.S. history: the Exxon Valdez spill.  
Director Robert Cornellier will be in attendance for a post-screening  
Q & A.

	Friday also includes an opening night reception featuring local  
organic food, drink, and film clips at the San Francisco Media Archive  
(www.sfm.org) at 8:00pm.

	The Festival continues on Friday at 7:00pm with the California  
premiere of KILLER AT LARGE (USA, 2008, 105 mins), which looks at the  
epidemic of obesity in the U.S. that could give this generation a  
shorter lifespan than their parents. The film traces a corporate- 
driven shift to industrial agriculture, and marketing campaigns that  
encourage Americans to over-consume cheap, high-calorie processed food.

	This year's centerpiece film at 9:15pm is the West Coast premiere of  
RIP: A REMIX MANIFESTO (USA, 2008, 86 min), which explores the idea of  
"intellectual property" in the Information Age, as digital technology  
changes the relationship between musicians and audiences. The film  
follows popular mash-up artist Girl Talk, who creates new music by  
chopping up and re-assembling other people's songs, and sounds an  
alarm about corporate control over our collective culture and right to  
creative expression.

	Closing night begins at 7:00pm with the West Coast premiere of  
APOLOGY OF AN ECONOMIC HITMAN (Greece, 2008, 93 min), a film  
adaptation of John Perkins' controversial book, 'Confessions of an  
Economic Hitman', which seemed to confirm what critics of  
international "development" have long suspected: that U.S. and other  
Western countries use economic "development" institutions such as the  
World Bank and IMF to trap poor countries in permanent debt and  
advance corporate interests. Opening with Perkins' public apology for  
helping to overthrow the populist president of Ecuador, the film  
documents Washington's ongoing use of this strategy in Panama, Saudi  
Arabia, and elsewhere -- including, most recently, Iraq.

	The Festival closes on Saturday, May 30, at 9:00pm with the Northern  
California premiere of BLUE GOLD: WORLD WATER WARS (USA, 2008, 94  
min), a look at our dwindling supply of fresh water, and efforts by  
giant corporations to turn a basic human necessity into a private, for- 
profit commodity. As water becomes the new oil, competition for  
control over it is already leading to the first "water wars". Director  
Sam Bozzo will be in attendance for a post-screening Q & A.

	"Tipping Man 4", the 2009 Anti-Corporate Film Festival, runs May  
28-30 at the Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th Street, in San Francisco's  
Mission District. For more information -- including the complete  
Festival program, film trailers, and online tickets, visit www.countercorp.org 
.

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