10-6 (Thurs) 13:00-14:30 Killing the Messenger: The Deadly Cost of News

10-6 (Thurs) 15:00-16:00 Whisper of Minqin

10-6 (Thurs) 16:30-18:00 To Live for Food (Premiere)

Killing the Messenger: The Deadly Cost of News

Director: Tricia Todd, Eric Matthies

Genre: Documentary

Country: USA

Runtime: 78 min.

Killing the Messenger: The Deadly Cost of News is a feature length documentary focusing on the journalists who have been censored, targeted, tortured, intimidated, kidnapped, and killed. Murder is the leading cause of work-related deaths for journalists. Everyone in the world is impacted each time a reporter is imprisoned or a blogger is censored. As countries restrict news, they restrict information that is important to all. This documentary aims to address the dangers faced by journalists today and why these dangers exist, as well as raise public consciousness about the deadly cost of news in today's society.

Whisper of Minqin

Director: Wang Wenming

Genre: Documentary

Country: China

Runtime: 54 min.

Whisper of Minqin is a feature length documentary that examines the ongoing, trans-generational battle between villagers and Mother Nature now carried on by the likes of ten-year-old He Fangfei. Eco-refugees like the He family want to remain in Minqin and believe it is up to the people to take fate into their own hands in order to remain on their land. But the vast and relentless desert, spanning thousands of miles and swallowing up everything in its path, must be reckoned with. Will the desert claim Minqin or will the people reclaim their land?

To Live for Food

Director: Shang Ming

Genre: Documentary

Country: China

Runtime: 60 min.

It’s a story about a diplomat turned farmer. Ms. Zhang is leading a one-woman crusade to implement her philosophy of sustainable farming. She’s transformed a chemically polluted area into an organic farmland and supported it by selling the produce to urban consumers. Will her initiative become sustainable and provide a viable alternative to pesticide and fertilizer heavy farmed goods in China? Following her story, the film explores a flawed Chinese food system, observing dilemmas in land use and food consumption, as well as the low social status and income of the farmers driving the agriculture industry. Will sustainable farming give them hope for change, too?

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