Back in December, The Ossining Documentary & Discussion Series gathered at the Budarz Theater at the Ossining Public Library for this month’s screening of The Human Experience. Simply – The Human Experience is a documentary that follows the story of Jeffrey Azize and his journey as he searches for answers to the question, "What does it mean to be human?” Divided into three experiences, we follow Azize and his brother as they 1) live out on the streets of New York City among the homeless, 2) travel with Surf for a Cause to Peru and visit a hospital for abandoned children, happy despite their illnesses, and 3) venture with friends to rural Ghana, where they met families and victims of AIDS on their way to visit a leper colony, befriending disfigured lepers exiled from their villages along the way. The film circles back and concludes in a beautiful way that I won’t ruin for you! But I’d recommend having some tissue nearby. What they all ultimately discover are messages that resonate with all demographics, from gender to age to ethnicity to mobility – The overwhelming takeaway I gathered was a sense of community that we as humans desire, build, move through, grow from and develop into. This was certainly my favorite screening thus far – perhaps because it ultimately encompasses every film that we show. The discussion after the screening showed just how touched everyone had been after the film as well. ~Cheers to Community~
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Written by CEO & Founder, Toro Adeyemi Last week, the Ossining Documentary & Discussion Series met and screened Bag It, a humorous & informative film that deals with issues surrounding single-use plastic bags. This documentary was well time as a movement towards charging for plastic bags (and banning them altogether!) has gained momentum throughout the country as well as the world. The film queries, Is Your Life Too Plastic? “We need to understand that our modern day convenience of single-use plastic bags seems free but actually comes at a very high cost to our health and environment. When we put our garbage at the curb we think it goes away. But where is away? There is no away,“ says panelist, Sharon Rowe, an Ossining-based business owner interviewed in the film. What did I take away?
It really is crazy how much plastic we use and waste and just toss away. In the images above, the OD&DS committee took on a challenge: 5 of us would collect all of the plastic we saw in the streets for 3 days before the screening.
Imagine how much we would have collected after a week. Imagine, what’s going on in your neighborhood? Written by CEO & Founder, Toro Adeyemi Last week, before this government shutdown had begun, the Ossining Documentary and Discussion Series met to watch Dear Governor Cuomo, a concert protest film that raises awareness surrounding hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” the process of extracting natural gas from shale rock found deep within the earth. It’s no bueno. Here’s some of why:
While it would be great if the US had an independent source of energy, the fracking solution is too short term. Once natural gas depletes, where will we be? My thoughts are we should find more sustainable methods of energy retrieval – solar power anyone?? This documentary was incredibly insightful and pretty entertaining given the intermittent musical performances. We were fortunate to have an amazing discussion panel as well! I asked Jon Bowermaster, writer/director of Dear Governor Cuomo, Paul Gallay, President of Riverkeeper, and Catherine Borgia, Westchester County Legislator, to role play: “We’ve seen this film, we’re discussing how horrible this process is for the environment and for people in general. I’d love to hear from each of you, what is something good about fracking?”
Short story shorter, none of these experts could come up with an answer. Governor Andrew Cuomo has the power to stop this from happening in the State of New York – Tweet #banFracking @NYGovCuomo and let him here your voice! This is an issue that affects us all. Want to learn more? Get the lowdown on hydraulic fracturing at http://nyagainstfracking.org/facts/ |
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