Can you say anything important or interesting in 12 minutes or less? Can you say it with style and visual flair? The documentary filmmakers spotlighted in the Tenth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival speak up loud and clear some even shout on a wide range of subjects that never fail to keep us watching. Some tackle familiar topics such as individuals struggling against insurance companies (Julie Winokurs Denied and Katie Falkenbergs Uninsured in the Mississippi Delta); others are more offbeat (Annalise Littmans Aquafinito, which reveals that people spend more money on bottled water than on going to the movies). Still others, such as Yan Chun Sus The Last Town, deal with unique historical events. The Last Town examines the days just before the 1,800-year-old Chinese city of Kai Xian will be flooded by water from the Three Gorges Dam. More than a dozen other cities some with more than 2,000 years of continuous habitation had already been flooded. But history and, it turns out, civil rights, are pushed aside in the name of progress. The towns are flooded, a host of politicians and construction company execs line their pockets, and the residents are relocated to shanty villages, where they are given substandard housing and left with nothing but uncertainty about their futures. 7 p.m. Barnevelder Movement Complex, 2201 Preston. For information, call 713-868-2101 or visit www.aurorapictureshow.org. Free to $7.
Fri., Dec. 3, 7 p.m., 2010
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2010.
