Monsanto has beenin thenewsrecently. More so than usual. I’m not sure what caused the uptick, but we thought, surely someone has made a documentary on Monsanto by now, right? Well, not one that we could find (though if you know of one, holler!) so we went with the next best thing, which turned out to be a very sobering doc called “The Future of Food.” It centers around GMO foods, which = Monsanto, mostly.
The mood in the room when this movie was over was pretty heavy, but it also sparked some excellent discussions. We hope you take it on one day, if you haven’t seen it already.
In 2010, HBO released a documentary called “Gasland”. It’s kind of like what “Erin Brockovich” would have been had they told that story as a documentary. At the time, hydrolic fracturing was just starting to become part of the mainstream political consciousness. Which is crazy if you think about it, considering it has been going on in some areas of the country, as we see in “Gasland”, for nearly a decade or longer.
No matter what you think about this issue, you should be thinking about it. New York state is currently in a battle over whether or not to allow around 40,000 natural gas drills to be built in the state, including drills that would have an effect on our drinking water. Yes, OUR DRINKING WATER. Just think about that for a second. If this doesn’t require our involvement, what does?
“It’s amazing that what took mother nature millions of years to build can be destroyed in a few hours with a piece of heavy machinery.”
Since December’s brvnch was dominated by our White Elephant gift exchange, we decided to show a shorter, but none-less-relevant, documentary - The Story of Stuff.
I first saw this video during my last year at OU, and it completely blew my mind. And when I watched the faces of our brvnchers as it played, I remembered that shocked, angry feeling very well.
The 20-minute movie (which you can watch in full, above, or on the website) explains the current process of how all our stuff is extracted, made, consumed and disposed of, demonstrating how our emphasis on unlimited growth is inherently flawed. The perfect message for the holiday season, right?
This is one of those movies everyone should see, and doesn’t have an excuse to not see.
In November, our documentary hour had a viewing of “Tapped.” What is more vital to life than water?
This film takes a look at the bottled water industry, and how they have repackaged tap water, even essentially stealing from local municipalities, and through extensive PR campaigns have convinced us to drink it at great cost to the environment, our health and the health of our neighbors, and our wallets.
“This government’s for sale. So everything is ready to be auctioned off, including the public’s right to water.” - Dennis Kucinich
Our first documentary, which we viewed in October, was appropriately the catalyst for the beginning of The Blackened Brvnch - Forks Over Knives.
I was fortunate enough to see a screening of this film in D.C., hosted by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Ever since, I’ve been trying to get everyone I know to watch it. The film strongly advocates what they call a “whole foods, plant-based diet,” and features the groundbreaking research of Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, which supports that position. And the reason I believe the film is so important, is because of it’s message that our health is something we can control. You are not doomed by your genes. For someone whose family has a scary history of heart disease, on both my mom and dad’s sides, it’s a very important message to hear.
