Standard Operating Procedure
Wednesday, December 3
7:00 PM
Hooked on Colfax
3215 E. Colfax Ave, Denver
$5 donation or 1 hour volunteer

Master filmmaker Errol Morris turns his keen eye to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in this intense and provocative documentary. Using interviews with the soldiers that appeared in the now infamous torture photos, Morris strings their stories together with vivid reenactments and striking digital technology for a wrenching look at the events at the prison. With his trademark straight-into-the-lens interview style, it is chilling to see the familiar faces of Lynndie England and Sabrina Harmon as they try to articulate their experiences. The lawlessness and confusion in the prison quickly become evident, and as their stories unfold, the film slowly strips away the many puzzling questions that surround the incidents, exposing a much larger truth about corruption within the US military, corruption that appears to reach far beyond the handful of soldiers that took the fall for the scandal.

ARGUSFEST 5TH ANNUAL FAIR TRADE HOLIDAY BAZAAR

Do your holiday shopping with a conscience.

What Would Jesus Buy?
Thursday, December 4
7:00 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver
$5 donation or 1 hour volunteer

What Would Jesus Buy? follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt!

From producer Morgan Spurlock (SUPER SIZE ME) and director Rob VanAlkemade comes a serious docu-comedy about the commercialization of Christmas.  Bill Talen (aka Reverend Billy) was a lost idealist who hitchhiked to New York City only to find that Times Square was becoming a mall. Spurred on by the loss of his neighborhood and inspired by the sidewalk preachers around him, Bill bought a collar to match his white caterer’s jacket, bleached his hair and became the Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. Since 1999, Reverend Billy has gone from being a lone preacher with a portable pulpit preaching on subways, to the leader of a congregation and a movement whose numbers are well into the thousands.

Through retail interventions, corporate exorcisms, and some good old-fashioned preaching, Reverend Billy reminds us that we have lost the true meaning of Christmas. What Would Jesus Buy? is a  journey into the heart of America – from exorcising the demons at the Wal-Mart headquarters to taking over the center stage at the Mall of America and then ultimately heading to the Promised Land … Disneyland.

Will we be led like Sheeple to the Christmas slaughter, or will we find a new way to give a gift this Christmas?  What Would Jesus Buy? may just be the divine intervention we’ve all been searching for.

The Shopocalypse is upon us … Who will be $aved?

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood
Wednesday, December 10
7:00 PM
Hooked on Colfax
3215 E. Colfax Ave, Denver
$5 donation or 1 hour volunteer

Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children’s advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children’s marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids.

Flow: For Love of Water
Thursday, December 11
7:00 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver
$5 donation or 1 hour volunteer

Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question “CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?”

Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.

Bigger Stronger, Faster:
The Side Effects of Being American
Wednesday, December 17
7:00 PM
Hooked on Colfax
3215 E. Colfax Ave, Denver
$5 donation andor 1 hour volunteer

In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. Is it any wonder that so many of our athletes take performance-enhancing drugs? Director Christopher Bell explores… In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. Is it any wonder that so many of our athletes take performance-enhancing drugs? Director Christopher Bell explores America’s win-at-all-cost philosophy by examining the way his two brothers became members of the steroid subculture in an effort to realize their American dream. Ingeniously beginning the film by harkening back to the mentality of the 1980s, where the heroes were Rambo, Conan, and Hulk Hogan, Bell recounts how these role models led him and his brothers into powerlifting and dreams of becoming all-star wrestlers. Those dreams were soon shattered by the realization that success in those fields required the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Bell uses his personal story as an entree into analyzing the bigger issues that surround these drugs: ethics in sports; the health ramifications, both physical and psychological; as well as the mentality that fuels it all. Bigger, Stronger, Faster* combines crisp editing of hilarious archival footage with priceless family revelations, as well as interviews with congressmen, professional athletes, medical experts, and everyday gym rats. The power of the film is the way Bell stays away from preconceptions and stereotypes and digs deeper to find the truth and concoct a fascinating, humorous, and poignant profile of one of the side effects of being American.

The Times of Harvey Milk
Thursday, December 18
7:00 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver
$5 donation and/or 1 hour volunteer

WINNER OF 1985 ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY

A devastatingly skillful and emotionally compelling documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk charts the political rise and brutal slaying of the first openly gay city official in the United State, Harvey Milk. Ironically, the same election that brought Milk to the board of city supervisors of San Francisco also elected the man who killed him, a former police officer and fireman named Dan White. After White shot both Mayor George Moscone and Milk, his defense lawyers convinced the jury that White’s judgment was impaired by depression and junk food, resulting in a conviction for manslaughter instead of murder–a verdict that prompted riots. With care and conviction, The Times of Harvey Milk captures not only Milk himself, but also the political and social landscape in which these events took place. The interviews–with friends, politicians, and journalists–are articulate and heartfelt, expressing the impact that Milk had upon this historical moment.