From countercorp-news at countercorp.org Mon Apr 6 17:15:04 2009 From: countercorp-news at countercorp.org (CounterCorp News and Events List) Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 14:15:04 -0700 Subject: [CounterCorp] Mark your calendars! "Tipping Man 4" is May 28-30 Message-ID: <9FBF678F-4224-4747-B42E-0E209EAA091E@countercorp.org> Dear CounterCorp supporters, We're thrilled to announce the official dates for this year's Anti- Corporate Film Festival. As many of you know, we've moved the Festival from Fall to Spring, or more precisely, from October to May. The 2009 CounterCorp Festival will open on Thursday, May 28 and run through Saturday, May 30. We're also returning to our original location at the Victoria Theatre on 16th Street in San Francisco?s Mission District, where we held the first two Festival in 2006 and 2007. (Last year's Festival was at the beautiful Brava Theater on 24th Street.) The Anti-Corporate Film Festival -- sometimes also referred to as "Tipping Man" because of the CounterCorp logo depicting a crowd pulling down a statue of a corporate executive ? is in its fourth consecutive year. As the Bay Area film scene has grown over the years, it just seemed like there were too many festivals on the Fall calendar. So we decided to shift the Festival to the Spring to make it easier for people to attend, and to get more attention for the issues the films cover. Although we're hoping to screen at least one film that addresses the financial crisis and the broader economic system that underlies it, those kinds of films are admittedly pretty rare. We?ll probably see more of them coming out in the next year or so. Among the recurring themes in past Anti-Corporate Film Festivals have been industrial agriculture, intellectual property and artistic creativity, privatization, and corporate culture, crime, and abuse, and there'll be no shortage of those this year. The final program for this year?s Festival will be announced in early May. For more information, visit the CounterCorp website at www.countercorp.org , or e-mail us at filmfest at countercorp.org. CounterCorp is an all-volunteer organization that does not accept corporate funding or sponsorships, relying instead on donations from individuals and local small businesses, and ticket sales to fund the Festival and other year-round events. Please donate any amount you can! Stay tuned for more details about this year's Festival, and thanks as always for your support -- we couldn't do any of this without you! John Wilner Director CounterCorp: Putting An End to Business as Usual Get the latest CounterCorp event details on your computer/ iPod: webcal://icalx.com/public/CounterCorp/CounterCorp.ics Subscribe to CounterCorp's "Corporation Watch" e-mail list: For more information, visit http://www.corporationwatch.org Donate to CounterCorp by selecting us on the drop-down menu at https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=695 From countercorp-news at countercorp.org Fri Apr 10 19:24:00 2009 From: countercorp-news at countercorp.org (CounterCorp News and Events List) Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:24:00 -0700 Subject: [CounterCorp] Co-presentation film event: "Delta Force", April 15, San Francisco References: <5A962F00E8F145269EE53E86B73A6089@NewComputer007> Message-ID: <6DB4D62D-BBE6-4ADF-920B-0C9675AEE8B6@countercorp.org> Dear CounterCorp supporter, We are pleased to be co-presenting a film next week with our colleagues at Justice In Nigeria Now (JINN), who co-presented a series of short films about Big Oil's crimes and abuse Nigeria with us at last year's Anti-Corporate Film Festival. Next Wednesday, April 15, JINN and CounterCorp will be presenting "Delta Force", a documentary about Nigerian environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and the struggle of his Ogoni people in the Niger River Delta region, directed by Glen Ellis. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion entitled "Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Case Against Shell", which examines the upcoming trial of Shell Oil in federal court in New York on May 26. On November 10, 1995, acclaimed non-violent resistance leader Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his Ogoni colleagues were executed by Nigeria?s brutal military dictatorship. This one-hour documentary tells the story of the rise of Saro-Wiwa and the Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), and its violent suppression by the Nigerian military at the request, and with the complicity, of Shell Oil. On May 26, Ken Saro-Wiwa's relatives and other MOSOP members will bring Shell to trial in New York for the company?s complicity in the death of Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni leaders, and the destruction of Ogoni villages at the hand of the Nigerian military. The panelists will include: Cindy Cohn -- Counsel to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed against Chevron by Nigerian villagers for human rights abuses committed in 1998 and heard in U.S. court last fall in San Francisco, and a member of the "dream team" panel on Big Oil at last year's CounterCorp Festival. The Chevron case is now entering the appeals process. Cohn is legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Beresuanu Kingston -- An Ogoni activist now living in the San Francisco Bay Area who can speak first-hand about Shell?s abuses in Ogoniland. The screening and panel discussion is taking place at the Artist Television Access (www.atasite.org), 992 Valencia Street (at 21st) in San Francisco's Mission District. The evening's schedule is as follows: 6:00 pm -- Wine and Beer Reception 7:00 pm -- Film Screening 8:00 pm -- Panel Discussion A donation of $10-$30 is requested, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. This is a benefit for JINN (www.justiceinnigerianow.org ), a San Francisco-based non-profit organization working in solidarity with communities in Nigeria and allies in the U.S. to hold multinational corporations accountable for their operations in Nigeria. Please join CounterCorp in supporting this worthwhile group and cause, and learn more about Big Oil's decades-long rampage through the areas of the world where they extract oil, reaping billions in the process while causing billions of dollars worth of damage, and propping up -- and collaborating with -- brutal dictatorships for mutual advantage. If you ride in cars, buses, or airplanes, you consume the product of these activities -- this is your chance to find out what oil REALLY costs. We hope to see you there! John Wilner Director CounterCorp: Putting An End to Business as Usual 4th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival, May 28-30 www.countercorp.org Subscribe to CounterCorp's News and Events e-mail list at http://list.countercorp.org/mailman/listinfo/countercorp-news Get the latest CounterCorp event details on your computer/ iPod: webcal://icalx.com/public/CounterCorp/CounterCorp.ics Subscribe to CounterCorp's "Corporation Watch" e-mail list: For more information, visit http://www.corporationwatch.org Donate to CounterCorp by selecting us on the drop-down menu at https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=695