23rd Annual International Festival - “Protecting the Earth and Our Future”

Tuesday, April 3

Film: “Argentina: A Hope in Hard Times” (2004)
11 a.m., Bonnell Building, Small Auditorium, BG-11
For many years Argentina was a poster child for the policies of Wall Street, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. But instead of the boom that was promised, their economy collapsed. Argentines stormed supermarkets for food. The police gunned down 30 people in just one day. Where people could have turned on one another in fear and desperation, they turned to each other in mutual support. These are their inspiring stories of a failed economy and distrusted politicians, of heartache and hard times, of a resurgence of grass roots democracy, and an irrepressible spirit of community told in colorful, resonant detail.
- from www.movingimages.org

French Food Demonstration and Tasting
12:30 p.m., Bonnell Building, Cafeteria
Tantalize your taste buds as faculty and staff from the College engage in a food demonstration of French cuisine. Presented by L. Aghazarian, P. McGarvey, R. Lonzoletti and S. Lipshutz as part of National French Week.

Poetry Reading: Elaine Terranova and Lynn Levin
12:30 p.m., Winnet Student Life Building, S2-3
Join Terranova (“Not To”) and Levin (“Imaginarium”) for reading and book signing of their recent poetry volumes. In conjunction with Community College of Philadelphia’s Spring Poets and Writers Festival.

Film: “An Inconvenient Truth” (100 min., 2006)
Film Showing and Discussion
2 p.m., Bonnell Building, Small Auditorium, BG-11
Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world’s scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.

If that sounds like a recipe for serious gloom and doom think again. From director Davis Guggenheim comes the Sundance Film Festival hit, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, reset the course of his life to focus on a last ditch, all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change.

In this eye-opening and poignant portrait of Gore and his "traveling global warming show," Gore also proves himself to be one of the most misunderstood characters in modern American public life. Here he is seen as never before in the media funny, engaging, open and downright on fire about getting the surprisingly stirring truth about what he calls our "planetary emergency" out to ordinary citizens before it's too late.

With 2005, the worst storm season ever experienced in America just behind us, it seems we may be reaching a tipping point and Gore pulls no punches in explaining the dire situation. Interspersed with the bracing facts and future predictions is the story of Gore's personal journey: from an idealistic college student who first saw a massive environmental crisis looming; to a young Senator facing a harrowing family tragedy that altered his perspective, to the man who almost became President but instead returned to the most important cause of his life convinced that there is still time to make a difference.

With wit, smarts and hope, “An Inconvenient Truth” ultimately brings home Gore's persuasive argument that we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue rather, it is the biggest moral challenges facing our global civilization. -from www.climatecrisis.net