Entries associated with the tag "documentary":

Almost Home, about the transformation of an American nursing home, screens free Saturday at 2 PM at the Chicago Cultural Center's Claudia Cassidy Theater. Produced for the PBS documentary series Independent Lens, the film chronicles the struggles of ailing patients, emotionally torn caregivers, and low-paid orderlies as they struggle to implement changes that could "shuck the nursing home stigma."

For more information, call 312-744-1430 or visit the CCC here.

Iron Ladies of Liberia, an hour-long 2007 documentary chronicling Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's first year in office, screens Saturday at 1 PM at the West Englewood branch of the Chicago Public Library (1745 W. 63rd). A grandmother and Harvard-educated economist, Johnson Sirleaf is the first elected female president in her country and the first freely elected female head of state in all of Africa.

The movie will be followed by a discussion with Columbia College lecturer Prexy Nesbitt, author of Apartheid in Our Living Rooms: US Foreign Policy and South Africa. The library's auditorium seats about 60, and moviegoers are welcome to bring food and drink.

For more information, call Maggie Berndt at 312-422-5585 ext. 239.

Filmmakers Marty Ostrow (America and the Holocaust) and Terry Kay Rockefeller (NOVA, Eyes on the Prize) investigate the emerging faith-based environmental movement in their documentary Renewal, focusing on people of different religions from across the U.S. who are united in their call to activism. Among those profiled is Chicago's Shireen Pishdadi, who contacted rural organic growers to ensure an environmentally sound supply chain for the local Muslim community's halal food.  

The 90-minute documentary, called "earnest, idealistic, and fired with the righteous potential of making a difference" by the Boston Globe, screens free tomorrow at 7 PM at Lakeview's Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ. The church hopes the film's rallying cry spurs others in Chicago's religious community to action.

The film will be screened on a 14'-by-14' screen inside the WAUCC's main facility, which fits 400. Call Pamela Richart at 773-556-3418 or visit the church's Web site for more details.

At the Death House Door, the latest documentary by Kartemquin Films (Hoop Dreams), screens tonight at 7 PM at Thorne Auditorium, Northwestern University School of Law (375 E. Chicago). The film centers around the experiences of Reverend Carroll Pickett, the longtime death-house chaplain at "Walls" prison in Huntsville, Texas, and his relationship with Carlos De Luna (pictured), who is now widely believed to have been wrongly convicted and executed due to evidence uncovered by Trib reporters Steve Mills and Maurice Posley.

After the screening there will be a Chicago-exclusive panel discussion with Reverend Pickett; Steve Mills; Edwin C. Yohnka, director of communications and public policy for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois; and Peter Gilbert and Steve James, codirectors and coproducers of the film. Rob Warden, a legal affairs journalist and executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, will moderate.

The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required; e-mail events@prarie.org or call 312-422-5580.