[CounterCorp] Opening night film, and radio interview TODAY

[CounterCorp News and Events List]

Dear CounterCorp supporters,

	We're thrilled to be able to announce the first four films that will  
be screening at this year's 4th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival,  
which is coming up at the end of this month: May 28-30 at the Victoria  
Theater on 16th in San Francisco.

	We hope to be able announce a couple of high-profile films to round  
out the Festival program shortly. And Festival director John Wilner  
will be discussing these films at greater length in a radio interview  
this afternoon at 1:30pm Pacific time (see details below).

OPENING NIGHT

	The Festival opens this year with the West Coast premiere of "Sweet  
Crude", a new documentary about Shell Oil's crimes and abuses in  
Nigeria's Niger River Delta. We showed a clip from the film, which was  
still in production at the time, at last year's CounterCorp Festival.

	This year we have the completed film, along with director Sandy  
Cioffi, who will be in attendance to speak about her experiences in  
making the film -- including being detained by the Nigerian military  
at the behest of Shell Oil -- and the issues her film raises.

	The opening screening of "Sweet Crude" coincides with a landmark  
trial against Shell and one of its executives that begins two days  
before the Festival. They are being sued for complicity in the torture  
and killing of peaceful Nigerian protesters more than 10 years ago.

FESTIVAL PROGRAM

	In addition to "Sweet Crude", we'll also be screening a second oil- 
related film, which hits a little closer to home. "Black Wave" is a  
new documentary about the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and its long-term  
impact on the environment, human health, and economy in southern Alaska.

	On the 20th anniversary of the spill, "Black Wave" shows how --  
despite Exxon's claims that it cleaned up Prince William Sound -- it  
is still easy to find oil residue there, residents and clean-up  
workers are suffering health effects, and the local economy has not  
recovered.

	While oil may be the world's most precious liquid commodity, the  
third film in this year's Festival examines the other one: water.  
"Blue Gold: World Water Wars" chronicles attempts by huge  
multinational corporations to gain control of humanity's dwindling  
supply of fresh water.

	The film looks at the role of corporations as the chief culprits in  
polluting water through negligent industrial practices, as well as  
their rapidly expanding efforts to take over public sources of water,  
in order to generate huge profits by monopolizing our most basic human  
need.

	The fourth film in the Festival program examines another nexus  
between human health and corporate power. "Killer at Large" examines  
the epidemic of obesity in the United States, and points the finger  
squarely at corporate control over our food supply and media.

	The film chronicles the shift to industrial agriculture dominated by  
a few large corporations, and how their advertising and marketing  
campaigns encourage Americans to over-consume a subsidized, corporate- 
driven diet of cheap, high-calorie, low-nutrition processed foods.

COUNTERCORP ON THE RADIO

	You can hear more about these films, and this year's Anti-Corporate  
Film Festival, this afternoon by tuning into an interview with  
CounterCorp director John Wilner on KZYX-FM, Mendocino County Public  
Radio.

	John will be appearing on the "Corporations and Democracy" show from  
1:30-2:00pm Pacific Time. Those of you outside the KZYX listening area  
can hear the program streamed live over the Internet at http://kzyx.mcn.org:8000/kzyxlive.m3u 
.

	So tune in if you can, or otherwise stay tuned for more announcements  
about this year's Festival, which is coming up up in a short four  
weeks. And if you can make a donation to help support CounterCorp, it  
will help us present even more and better movies this year and beyond.

	Thanks as always for your support -- we couldn't do any of this  
without you!



      CounterCorp: Putting An End to Business as Usual
      4th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival, May 28-30
			www.countercorp.org

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