The 2011 Peace on Earth Film Festival (POEFF), along with the Board of Directors of Transcendence Global Media, present films in the areas of peace, nonviolence, social justice and an eco-balanced world at Friday, February 25 through Sunday, February 27 at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Claudia Cassidy Theater on 78 East Washington.
Hosted by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, POEFF has been an annual event since 2008. This year, the festival is screening 30 free films that were chosen from a field of 148 international films.
“The Peace on Earth Film Festival was designed to encourage filmmakers to craft films in the genre of peace, nonviolence, social justice and an eco-balanced world,” says POEFF Executive Director Nick Angotti. “However, we have taken the festival beyond showing films and awarding filmmakers and have helped showcase Chicago’s effort for peace and environmental protection while providing an education element to the audience.”
Kicking off the festival will be Curt Fissel’s Delicious Peace Grows in a Ugandan Coffee Bean, a documentary about Christian, Jewish, and Muslim coffee farmers in Uganda who form the “Delicious Peace” Cooperative for economic development during the terror filled Idi Amin regime. The film was an official selection of the 2010 United Nations Association Film Festival.
The Chicago premiere of Living for 32, produced by Maria Cuomo Cole, will show Friday evening, February 25 as does Kindness Thought Bubble, an animated film directed by Chicago’s Amy Krouse Rosenthal. A special presentation of Radical Disciple, the Story of Father Pfleger is also slated for Friday, followed by a question and answer session with the film’s directors Bob Hercules and Keith Walker.
Moderated by director/producer John D. Hancock, a Filmmakers Panel features a question and answer session with several participating film directors, Saturday afternoon, February 26. The Midwest premiere of the Australian film, Ronan’s Escape screens in the evening of February 26.
On Sunday afternoon, February 27, the award-winning Chicago journalist Robert C. Koehler, moderates the Peacemakers Panel comprised of activists, educators and community leaders who are at the forefront of peace and social justice practices.
Closing the festival is the U.S. premiere of Ryabinoviy Vals directed by Alyona Semenova and Aleksandr Smirnov on Sunday evening, February 27. The film explores the topic of young girls sent to clear bombs left in the fields of Northern Russia after World War II.
For a complete list of activities and screenings, visit www.peaceonearthfilmfestival.org.
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