Solar San Antonio at the Movies
Solar San Antonio, together with a host of local civic and environmental groups, introduces a new monthly film series at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. The series is designed to make educational opportunities around environmental issues more widely available through high quality, award-winning films and documentaries.
Third Thursday of every month at 7:30 p.m.
* NEW LOCATION * Alamo Drafthouse Park North location, 618 NW Loop 410
$5 discounted admission for Students, SSA members, EchoTown green card holders, and members of Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, Green Spaces Alliance, Sierra Club, and Bexar Audubon Society.
$9 general admission
And you can always grab a bite to eat at the Alamo Drafthouse, too!
Featured Film
Thursday, February 18 at 7:30 p.m.
In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
Upcoming Films
Coming Soon...
Previous Films
King Corn
Two friends with one year to spare and a deep curiosity about the American food distributionsystem set out to grow and acre of corn and see what becomes of their crop in director Aaron Woolf's agricultural-themed documentary. Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis are best friends from college who have decided to move from the east coast to the Midwest in hopes of getting a better idea where the food they consume on a daily basis actually comes from. Corn is America's most productive and subsidized grain. Upon relocating to Iowa, the pair and seeks out theassistance of friends and neighbors in procuring the land, seeds, fertilizers, and herbicides needed to grow a one-acre bumper crop of this highly-versatile commodity. As their maize is harvested and the sometimes-troubling realities of modern faming begin to emerge, the pair sets off on a mission to track the progress of their product and find out just how it is used to create a variety of different food products. What emerges is an informative and at times disturbing account of both the food Americans so readily consume without so much as a second though and the alarming state of the contemporary agricultural industry.
Flipper was one of the most beloved television characters of all time. But ironically, the fascination with dolphins that he caused created a tragic epidemic that has threatened their existence and become a multibillion dollar industry. The largest supplier of dolphins in the world is located in the picturesque town of Taijii, Japan. But the town has a dark, horrifying secret that it doesn't want the rest of the world to know. There are guards patrolling the cove, where the dolphin capturing takes place, who prevent any photography. The only way to stop the evil acts of this company and the town that protects it is to expose them....and that's exactly what the brave group of activists in The Cove intend to do.Armed with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, the members of the small group, led by the most famous dolphin trainer in the world, devise a covert plan to infiltrate the cove to document the horrifying events that happen there. Along the way, they uncover what may be the largest health crisis facing our planet— the poisoning of our seas. Part environmental documentary, part horror film, part spy thriller, The Cove is as suspenseful as it is enlightening. The final result is a heart-wrenching, but inspirational, story that shows the true power of film in the hands of people who aren't afraid to risk everything for a vital cause.
Energy Crossroads: A Need to Change Course
As our global population and its appetite for energy rise drastically, resource depletion and global warming have become the most pressing issues facing humanity today. Most experts agree that global peak oil production, when demand exceeds supply, will occur within the next 15 years and will drasticallychange the very fabric of our industrialized world. As fossil fuels power every facet of the American economy, how can we avoid an energy crisis and a possible collapse of our economy? In addition to increasing geopolitical conflicts, the process of extracting and using these crucial resources is endangering the very own habitat that we depend on to prosper as a species - pushing the earth's climate and ecosystem to a point of no-return. Scientists and experts agree that the use of renewable energy such as solar and wind power, coupled with higher efficiency and conservation, will be key factors in preserving our quality of life and paving the way to a sustainable world for our children. Will America be up to the task as it consumes 25% of the world's energy, 85% of which comes from non-renewable fossil fuels? This award-winning documentary offers concrete solutions for those who want to educate themselves and be part of the solutions in this decisive era. The film features passionate individuals, entrepreneurs, experts and scientists at the forefront of their field bringing legitimacy and expertise to the core message of the piece.
Burning the Future: Coal in America
Burning the Future: Coal in America examines the explosive conflict between the coal industry and residents of West Virginia. Confronted by emerging “clean coal” energy policies, local activists watch a world blind to the devastation caused by coal's extraction. Faced with toxic ground water and the obliteration of 1.4 million acres of mountains, our heroes launch a valiant fight to arouse the nation's help in protecting their mountains, saving their families, and preserving their way of life.
THE END OF SUBURBIA: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream
Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years, so too has the suburban way of life become embedded in the American consciousness. Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream. But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary.
The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean for North America? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia ?
Trashed
"Trashed" is a provocative investigation of one of the fastest growing industries in North America. The garbage business. The film examines a fundamental element of modern American culture...the disposal of what our society defines as "waste." It is an issue influenced by every American, most of whom never consider the consequences. Nor, it seems, the implications to our biosphere. At times humorous, but deeply poignant, "Trashed" examines the American waste stream fast approaching a half billion tons annually. What are the effects all this waste will have on already strained natural resources? Why is so much of it produced? While every American creates almost 5 pounds of it every day, who is affected most? And who wants America to make more?
The 11th Hour
Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, this captivating documentary explores the perilous state of 
our planet, and the means by which we can change our course. Described as "Essential viewing... an unnerving, surprisingly affecting documentary." Contributors to this crucial film are noted politicians, scientists and other ambassadors for the importance of a universal ecological consciousness.
Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - the world water crisis - and asks the question, "Can anyone really own water?"
Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply. Beyond identifying the problem, Flow also offers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.
A feature-length documentary about solutions to plastic pollution, it encompasses three years
of filming in 12 countries on five continents, including two trips to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where plastic debris accumulates. It is described as "a sobering must-see and needs to be shown at every educational level globally" by Dr. James M. Cervino, Visiting Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Department of Marine Chemistry.
