Robert Kenner's Food, Inc. is a documentary that tells the story about how agribusiness took over production of our country's food supply. This has resulted in our food having very little nutritional value which has led to widespread obesity (no pun intended), a variety of other health problems and putting small farmers out of business.

ELEVATE FILM FESTIVAL INSPIRES THOUSANDS
by Michael Allen Howard

The 2008 Elevate film festival (5th annual) was held on Sunday, October 5th and it was absolutely inspirational from start to finish.  Kicking it off in grand Hollywood style with a green twist, directors, producers and cast members posed for photos and stopped for interviews on the Green Carpet.

Marla Maples on the Green Carpet - The Elevate Cheerleaders Kickoff

BURNING MAN: VOYAGE IN UTOPIA -

A new film by  LAURENT LE GALL of Free Run Pictures. Laurent was both Producer and Director. The documentary about the Burning Man event was an official selection of the Santa Cruz International Film Festival, and has screened in Paris and New york as well as locally in Northern California at The Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa, and the Castro Theater in San Francisco.

"Voyage in Utopia is a remarkable piece of story telling. It does
what our event is said to do: it evokes the inexpressible; it
invites imagination to inhabit the unknown."
    - Larry Harvey, founder of Burning Man

A new film that previewed in the in San Francisco Bay Area recently is: COMPASSION RISING, a  Millennia Music film, conceived and produced by Michael D. Fitzpatrick.

It is the story of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Thomas Merton and the Radical Music Convergence inside the world's largest cave!

The film was 11 years in the making. At this pivotal time in history, music is an important harmonizer."Compassion Rising was created with the intention of bringing forth a new musical voice designed to silence the mind an open the heart and body to the feeling of compassion, peace and love."

BOOK REVIEW: The Way of Story--The Craft & Soul of Writing, by CATHRINE ANN JONES

ATMA member, CATHRINE ANN JONES, a multitalented writer and screenwriter, is also an award winning playwright and screenwriter whose films include "The Christmas Wife" with Jason Robards and Julie Harris, "Unlikely Angel" with Dolly Parton, and the popular television series, "Touched by An Angel."

The Way of Story is a unique, profound inquiry into the nature of our humanity as captured through the stories we tell and have told about ourselves since the beginning of our history on the planet. Cathrine Ann perceives the stories we tell and live by as a mirror of who we are and our beliefs about ourselves and the nature of reality.

Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan,Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, et al and directed by Ben Affleck--who was present, along with Amy Matigan, at the screening.

Thanks to Betty Lou Page for my ticket to the MV Film Festival's screening of Ben Affleck's directorial debut, "Gone Baby Gone." The Film is a character driven piece by the author of the critically acclaimed "Mystic River," and about another riveting moral dilemma--this time involving the abduction of a 4 year old child from a drug addicted mother. The film showcases the spectacular acting talents and rising star of Casey Affleck, brother of academy award winning screenwriter and actor, Ben Affleck--who, himself, has found a wonderful place among the new, young directors of his generation.