These are a few of the films we are considering screening here at The Linda. If you would like to comment or have a film suggestion of your own, please e-mail us at: film@thelinda.org

CLEAR CUT: The Story of Philomath, Oregon

In the rural Oregon logging town of Philomath, every high school graduate has their college tuition paid thanks to the generosity of local lumber baron Rex Clemens. But when a new schools Superintendent arrives from Chicago, the administrators of the scholarship become concerned over the increasingly "liberal" direction of the schools. The conflict between the old-time loggers and the "urban immigrants" escalates dramatically, and the scholarship administrators deliver an ultimatum: either the superintendent leaves, or the scholarship is withdrawn, leaving the town's children without money for college.

Film Website

THE FLAW

The Flaw makes one thing clear from the outset -- there was nothing simple about the U.S. financial collapse of 2007. Within minutes, experts had identified plenty of culprits: market failure, a credit culture, a wage crisis, a debt crisis, and upward redistribution of income. That's economic shorthand for fasten your seatbelt.
David Sington's rigorously constructed analysis of the meltdown, told entirely by economists, brokers, bankers, and borrowers, plays like a financial whodunit. Moving past the usual suspects, it creates a vivid historical context through which to view twentieth-century American capitalism.
Bolstered by graphics and animation (ironically plucked from postwar cartoons extolling free markets) the film renders complex ideas digestible and argues that capitalism has changed in the last 30 years -- and not for the better. Once sold on consumer power through borrowing and a higher standard of living, we realize we bought into a lie. The Flaw has burst the bubble.

Film Website

THE LAST MOUNTAIN

It's easy to forget that each time we turn on a light, we are contributing to the ecological damage caused by the coal that generates electricity in this country. The Last Mountain gives us plenty of reasons to remember. Contaminated air, soil, and water; coal dust, cancer clusters, and toxic sludge are all by-products of this widespread energy source.
Focusing on the devastating effects of mountaintop coal removal in West Virginia's Coal River Valley, filmmaker Bill Haney illustrates the way residents and activists are standing up to the industry and major employer that is so deeply embedded in the region. With strong support from Bobby Kennedy Jr. and grassroots organizations, awareness is rising in the battle over Appalachian mountaintop mining. Forces are aligning to prevent coal removal on Coal River Mountain and preserve the region's precious natural resources. Superb storytelling and exquisite photography combine to remind us that this environmental calamity impacts us all.

HOW TO DIE IN OREGON

From its opening scene, where a terminally ill cancer patient takes a lethal dose of Seconal and literally dies on camera, it becomes shockingly clear that How to Die in Oregon is a special film. In 1994, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. As a result, any individual whom two physicians diagnose as having less than six months to live can lawfully request a fatal dose of barbiturate to end his or her life. Since 1994, more than 500 Oregonians have taken their mortality into their own hands.
In How to Die in Oregon, filmmaker Peter Richardson (Clear Cut: The Story of Philomath, Oregon screened at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival) gently enters the lives of the terminally ill as they consider whether -- and when -- to end their lives by lethal overdose. Richardson examines both sides of this complex, emotionally charged issue. What emerges is a life-affirming, staggeringly powerful portrait of what it means to die with dignity.

The Elephant in the Living Room

The Elephant in the Living Room is a documentary film about the controversial American subculture of raising the most dangerous animals in the world as common household pets. Director Michael Webber follows the journey of two men at the heart of the issue. One, Tim Harrison, a man whose mission is to protect exotic animals and the public, and the other, Terry Brumfield, a big-hearted man who struggles to keep his two pet African lions that he loves like his own family.

The Elephant in the Living Room is screening at Rosendale and Spectrum Theatres . Sarah LaDuke of WAMC's The Roundtable speaks with one of the subjects of the film, Tim Harrison. Tim is a decorated police officer, firefighter and paramedic. In his career, Harrison has captured and rescued literally hundreds of lions, tigers, alligators, bears and deadly snakes, all in the United States.

Listen by copying and pasting this link:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1789378/The.Roundtable/The.Elephant.in.the.Living.Room

Film Website