From styrofoam cups to artificial organs, plastics are perhaps the most ubiquitous and versatile material ever invented. No invention in the past 100 years has had more influence and presence than synthetics. But such progress has had a cost.

For better and for worse, no ecosystem or segment of human activity has escaped the shrink-wrapped grasp of plastic. Addicted To Plastic is a global journey to investigate what we really know about the material of a thousand uses and why there's so darn much of it. On the way we discover a toxic legacy, and the men and women dedicated to cleaning it up.

www.crypticmoth.com/plastic.php

On a river in Iran, 63 villages are threatened by a hydroelectric project and the people living along its banks pray for a miracle. Fereshteh Joghataei illustrates the huge scale of the redrawing of the valley, using ingenious maps, and a light-hearted soundtrack with music that splices traditional songs to Tangerine Dream.

A Dam has been built and the water is rising and 63 villages will beflooded and their residents must leave. There is a holy shrine in one of the villages and people are waiting for a miracle.

"remarkable... quietly spellbinding"
(Variety)

See the trailer: Quicktime / Flash

Imagine cramming 128 million people onto an island the size of Montana – you would be pretty close to replicating the density of Japan. Not surprisingly, space is at a premium and ergonomic design is right up there next to godliness.
Yet even in Tokyo, the pinnacle of this figurative "can of sardines," people of all ages still make room for a tiny bit of wilderness. It is only fitting that they have become captivated by nature’s most efficient invention in space, design and function – insects.

Sold live in vending machines and department stores, plastic replicas included as prizes in the equivalent of a McDonald’s Happy Meal and the subject of the No. 1 videogame, MushiKing, from the smallest backyard to the top of Mt. Fuji, insects inspire an enthusiasm in Japan seen nowhere else in this world.

Like a detective story, the film untangles the web of influences behind Japan’s captivation with insects. It opens in modern-day Tokyo where a single beetle recently sold for $90,000 then slips back to the early 1800s, to the first cricket-selling business and the development of haiku and other forms of insect literature and art. Through history and adventure, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo travels all the way back in time to stories of the fabled first emperor who named Japan the "Isle of the Dragonflies."

www.beetlequeen.com

"Hugley engaging and visually magnificent."
(Toronto Sun)

See the trailer: Quicktime / Flash

Fierce Light - When Spirit Meets Action
(Canada, 2008, 98 mins.) Asian Premiere

The 2006 murder of friend and fellow media-activist Brad Will in protest-torn Oaxaca, Mexico, is the impetus for Ripper's journey, which takes him to the flash points of spiritual activism around the world, including Montgomery, Alabama; Robben Island, South Africa; Andrah, India; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and South Central Los Angeles, where a months-long protest against the razing of a vital community garden provides a highly dramatic spine for the wide-ranging film.

En route, Ripper encounters a number of eloquent icons, including American Civil Rights legend Congressman John Lewis, actor turned activist Daryl Hannah, Nobel prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Alice Walker, Buddhist peace activist monk Thich Nhat Hahn, famed tree sitter Julia Butterfly Hill, and dharma punk, Noah Levine.

Fierce Light continues the quest for a fusion between spirituality and activism previously explored in Velcrow Ripper's award-winning feature documentary ScaredSacred (Special Jury Prize, Toronto International FIlm Festival).