Over three feature documentaries, Bay Area filmmaker Mark Kitchell has chronicled major movements of cultural and social change that have transformed our country. The Rafael celebrates his Kitchell with the first retrospective of his work.

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EVOLUTION OF ORGANIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 5  •  7:15

IN PERSON: Filmmaker Mark Kitchell & Warren Weber, Star Route Farm; Wendy Johnson, Green Gulch Farm; John Wick, Marin Carbon Project

Mark Kitchell’s new documentary tells the story of organic agriculture, tracking its arc from alternative origins to mainstream triumph. Begun by an assortment of back-to-the-landers, spiritual seekers and farmers’ sons and daughters who rejected chemical farming, the movement has broadened into both an industry oriented toward bringing organic to all people and a movement that has realized a vision of sustainable agriculture. Narrated by Frances McDormand and told by those who built the movement, it’s a collective portrait that recounts a fascinating history, but also explores the next generation expanding organic farming and carbon farming as a solution to climate change. Panel discussion follows the screening. Writer/Producer/Director: Mark Kitchell. (US 2018) 86 min. plus discussion.

ADMISSION TO THIS PROGRAM:  $13 General  |  $9 CFI Members

TO PURCHASE TICKETS, click the showtime on the date of your choice

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BERKELEY IN TYHE SIXTIES
THURSDAY, APRIL 12 • 7:15

IN PERSON: Filmmaker Mark Kitchell

Nominee for the Academy Award. And winner of the National Society of Film Critics Award and the Sundance Audience Award, Mark Kitchell’s first feature has come to be regarded as a defining documentary about the protest movements of the 1960s. The film brings an impressive sense of immediacy to the decade’s events: the birth of the Free Speech movement, civil rights marches, anti-Vietnam protests, the counterculture, the women’s movement, the rise of the Black Panthers. The San Francisco Chronicle called it “an exciting and provocative record,” and the Los Angeles Times wrote: “The film’s intellect is matched by a vivid sense of history; this really is the ‘60s again.” Writers: Susan Griffin, Mark Kitchell, Stephen Most. Director: Mark Kitchell. (US 1990) 117 min. plus discussion.

ADMISSION TO THIS PROGRAM:  $13 General  |  $9 CFI Members

TO PURCHASE TICKETS, click the showtime on the date of your choice

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John Harte

A FIERCE GREEN FIRE: THE BATTLE FOR A LIVING PLANET
THURSDAY, APRIL 19 • 7:15

IN PERSON: Filmmaker Mark Kitchell; John Harte, Professor of Ecosystem Sciences, UC Berkeley

Screened in anticipation of Earth Day, Mark Kitchell’s epic documentary is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement: grassroots and global activism spanning 50 years from conservation to climate change. Rich with archival footage, the film focuses on movements more than issues, unfolding in five acts, narrated successively by Robert Redford, Ashley Judd, Van Jones, Isabel Allende and Meryl Streep. Their vivid true stories include: David Brower and the Sierra Club; Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal; Paul Watson, Greenpeace and the whales and seals; Chico Mendes and the Amazon rainforest; Bill McKibben and issues of climate change. Writer/Producer/Director: Mark Kitchell. (US 2012) 101 min. plus discussion.

John Harte is a Professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. He did his undergraduate studies at Harvard and his PhD at the University of Wisconsin.  He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Leo Szilard prize from the American Physical Society, and is a co-recipient of a 2006 George Polk award in investigative journalism. He is an elected Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He has also served on six National Academy of Sciences Committees and has authored over 230 scientific publications, including eight books, one of which, “Consider a Spherical Cow” is a widely used textbook on environmental modeling. John’s research focuses on climate change, biodiversity, and maintaining ecosystem services for humanity.

This program is part of SCIENCE ON SCREEN, a series matching the art of film with experts in scientific fields addressing topics that affect our lives. Science on Screen is an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

ADMISSION TO THIS PROGRAM:  $13 General  |  $9 CFI Members

TO PURCHASE TICKETS, click the showtime on the date of your choice

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