For this year’s @Scalarama, the Sumac Centre offers three film screenings, free and open to all.
All films chosen are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution.
Tuesday 29th September, 8pm:
The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz, (2014) 105 min | Documentary
The Internet’s Own Boy follows the story of programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz. From Swartz’s help in the development of the basic internet protocol RSS to his co-founding of Reddit, his fingerprints are all over the internet. But it was Swartz’s groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing combined with his aggressive approach to information access that ensnared him in a two-year legal nightmare. It was a battle that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26. Aaron’s story touched a nerve with people far beyond the online communities in which he was a celebrity. This film is a personal story about what we lose when we are tone deaf about technology and its relationship to our civil liberties.
http://www.takepart.com/internets-own-boy
Find out more about Scalarama and Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/
For this year’s @Scalarama, the Sumac Centre offers three film screenings, free and open to all.
All films chosen are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution.
Sunday 27th September, 3pm: Sita Sings the Blues (Animated film)
In the Indian legend, Sita is given to Prince Rama in marriage after Rama conquers the other princely suitors for her hand. No sooner is Rama appointed crown prince than he falls victim of a plot that sends him into banishment for fourteen years. Sita accompanies her husband, but is abducted shortly afterwards. With the aid of friendly gods, Rama sets off in pursuit and, following a dangerous struggle, succeeds in freeing her. Rama and Sita return to their home where Rama is made king. But soon after this Rama begins to doubt his wife’s fidelity and casts her out. Sita undergoes a fire test to prove her steadfastness, survives unscathed and returns to Rama.
Summary: 2008 · 1 hr 22 min · Music / Animation
This is a family friendly screening
Find out more about Scalarama and Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/
Films and talk about the current situation in West Papua.
West Papua, the western half of the island of New Guinea, has been the scene of ongoing conflict for over 50 years as the Indonesian military tries to assert its dominance over the Papuan people. Most of the news about West Papua which reaches us in Europe is connected to this conflict – the military opens fire on a demonstration, an activist is imprisoned for treason. But behind the headlines there are a million different struggles as individual Papuans and their communities try to live their everyday lives in this violent society that is so determined to marginalise its indigenous inhabitants. In the cities Papuans struggle to survive when they have been squeezed out of the economy by migrants from elsewhere in Indonesia. In rural villages, people have to contend with oil palm and sugar cane plantations, logging and mining companies, who are owned by Indonesia’s elite or foreign multinationals, invariably backed up by police and military. And since the New Guinea rainforests are the third largest tropical forest on the planet, their struggle for cultural survival will have impacts around the globe.
This is the story of some of those local struggles, told using photographs and video made by local Papuan activists. There will also be a distro of pamphlets highlighting different struggles not just in West Papua, but also in Indonesia and the rest of South East Asia.
