Monthly documentary screenings for change
A monthly film series of documentaries called “Movies That Matter Beacon” will be launched on the last Friday of each month, starting on Friday, Aug. 28, at 7:30 p.m., at the First Presbyterian Church of Beacon at 50 Liberty St. in McKinley Hall. Admission is free (donations to help maintain the series will be accepted).
The series will show documentaries that address the pertinent issues of our times, with emphasis on climate change, economic inequality, racial justice and political protest in the interest of educating for action.
Films will be shown in their entirety and will be followed by discussion of the issues raised.
The first film, on Aug. 28, is Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide and international movement, organizing and empowering the women of Kenya and effecting major change in their undemocratic and corrupt government.
Upcoming films are The Last Mountain (on the devastation of mountaintop mining in Appalachia) on Sept. 25; Food Chains (the story of the Immokalee tomato pickers of Florida) on Oct. 30; Food, Inc. (on agribusiness and food justice) on Nov. 27; Years of Living Dangerously (on climate change) on Jan. 29. (There is no film in December.) Films may be subject to change.
Co-sponsors of the series are the First Presbyterian Church of Beacon, the Beacon Peace Awards Foundation, Beacon Independent Film Festival and Southern Dutchess NAACP. Doors open at 7 p.m. The films will be shown promptly at 7:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.
For further information, call 845-838 -2415 or 914-907-4928, email [email protected] or register at eventbrite.com.
