Film series focuses on environment, social issues

Beginning in August, St. Matthew’s Church in Louisville is hosting a Saturday night film series to generate discussion about environmental and social justice issues. The film series is sponsored by the congregation’s Green Team, whose members are devoted to promoting the stewardship of the environment through advocacy and education. To kick off the series, a film will be shown every Saturday in August. Each showing, followed by a potluck meal and discussion, will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. (ET) at the church, which is located at 550 N. Hubbards Lane.

The August schedule follows with a brief description of the films:

August 2, 2008
Super Size Me, a 2004 American independent documentary film. It follows filmmaker, Morgan Spurlock, for one month, during which his three daily meals come from McDonald's. The film elaborates on the physical and psychological changes that he experiences, and it also explores the fast food industry's influence upon our nutrition.

August 9, 2008
Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance, a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio. Consisting of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and natural landscapes across the U.S., viewers experience a tone poem. In the Hopi language, Koyaanisqatsi means "crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living."

August 16, 2008
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, a 1964 Stanley Kubrick comedy that satirizes the Cold War and mutual assured destruction. Starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, the film tells the story of a mentally unstable U.S. Air Force general who orders a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviets and then the attempts to recall the bombers to prevent a nuclear apocalypse.

August 23, 2008
The Constant Gardener, a 2006 award winning drama set in a remote area of Northern Kenya, including some places that St. Matthew's missionaries have visited. The film follows the story of a husband on a mission to solve the brutal murder of his activist wife, Tessa, who accidentally discovered shady dealings by a powerful pharmaceutical company. The British High Commission in Nairobi assume that the husband, Justin Quayle, their mild-mannered, modest colleague, will leave the matter to them but he undertakes a personal journey across three continents to uncover and expose the truth - a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Quayle could ever have imagined.

August 30, 2008
Paradigm Lost, a documentary in progress made by a local filmmaker. Reflecting many concerns expressed regarding today's religious communities, the film collects interviews exploring Buddhist, Quaker, Catholic and Episcopalian practices and traces spiritual journeys of various individuals, ranging from those with constrictive religious world views to more encompassing visions. The film also raises questions of faith, sin, grief and courage in response to a changing world. The filmmaker will be available for comment and dialogue, offering the audience an opportunity to help shape the film.