MESYM hosts a documentary event each second Friday of the month @ Plaza Sentral. Everyone is invited to come watch the documentary, participate in the discussion, and meet like-minded people. Admission is free!

For our April event the crossover topic is Trump (again). We are screening Trumped: Inside The Greatest Political Upset Of All Time, an intimate behind the scenes look into the biggest political upset in recent US history. Mark Halperin, John Heilemann and Mark McKinnon follow the rise of Donald Trump from the primaries through the debates to the drama of election night, featuring a trove of never-before-seen footage secured during the making of the SHOWTIME documentary series ‘The Circus.’

Attend the event on our Facebook Group.

About ‘Trumped: Inside The Greatest Political Upset Of All Time’

In a behind-the-scenes look at the biggest political upset in recent history, TRUMPED offers unprecedented access and never-before-seen footage of then-candidate Donald Trump throughout the entirety of the 2016 presidential election, from the primaries through the debates to the dawning realization that the controversial businessman would become the 45th president of the United States. Though these events are freshly ingrained in our collective consciousness, the profound effect of watching them through the prism of an accelerated reality casts new light on the state of the Union while harnessing the power of cinema to expand our perception of the election.

#documentary #mesym

MESYM hosts a documentary event each second Friday of the month @ Plaza Sentral. Everyone is invited to come watch the documentary, participate in the discussion, and meet like-minded people. Admission is free!

For our March event the crossover topic is activism. We are screening Grasp the Nettle, a documentary which follows the exploits of a ragtag band of land rights activists in London as they struggle against corporations, government, police – and themselves – in their efforts to create alternative communities outside the framework of consumer society.

Attend the event on our Facebook group.

About ‘Grasp the Nettle’

When an eco-village pops up on a piece of disused land in West London, film-maker Dean Puckett gives up everything – his flat, job and normal life – to live among its eclectic inhabitants in an effort to understand what makes them tick. Before he knows it, he is pulled into an epic, inspiring and at times harrowing journey of discovery, as he follows the villagers from the suburbs to the heart of London outside the Palace of Westminster, where they occupy Parliament Square. Their ranks swelled by the homeless, the visionaries and eccentrics of the new-found Democracy Village clash with authority, and each other, as they grapple with how to balance their ideals of freedom with the increasing chaos around them.

Shot over three years in the aftermath of the 2008 banking collapse, Grasp the Nettle is an intimate exploration of the rise and fall of two radical social experiments, pioneered by the loved and the lost of a city reeling from the impact of economic and ecological crisis. In the process, it asks hard questions about the nature of freedom and the meaning of activism in ‘interesting times’.

#documentary #mesym

MESYM hosts a documentary event each second Tuesday of the month @ Loyar Burok. Everyone is invited to come watch the documentary, participate in the discussion, and meet like-minded people. Admission is free!

For our December event the crossover topic is Donald Trump. We are screening You’ve been trumped, a David and Goliath story for the 21st century, in which a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on a celebrity tycoon Donald Trump in order to save one of Britain’s very last stretches of wilderness.

Attend the event on our Facebook group.

About ‘You’ve been trumped’

In this David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on a celebrity tycoon. At stake is one of Britain’s very last stretches of wilderness.

American billionaire Donald Trump has bought up hundreds of acres on the northeast coast of Scotland, best known to movie-lovers as the setting for the 1983 classic film Local Hero. And like the American oil tycoon played by Burt Lancaster, he needs to buy out a few more locals to make the deal come true. In a land swimming with golf courses, Trump is going to build two more – alongside a 450-room hotel and 1,500 luxury homes. The trouble is, the land he has purchased occupies one of Europe’s most environmentally sensitive stretches of coast, described by one leading scientist as Scotland’s Amazon rain forest. And the handful of local residents don’t want it destroyed.

After the Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light, the stage is set for an extraordinary summer of discontent, as the bulldozers spring into action. Water and power is cut off, land disputes erupt, and some residents have thousands of tonnes of earth piled up next to their homes. Complaints go ignored by the police, who instead arrest the film’s director, Anthony Baxter. Local exasperation comes to a surreal head as the now “Dr” Trump scoops up an honorary doctorate from a local university, even as his tractors turn wild, untouched dunes into fairways.

Told entirely without narration, You’ve Been Trumped captures the cultural chasm between the glamorous, jet-setting and media savvy Donald Trump and a deeply rooted Scottish community. What begins as an often amusing clash of world views grows increasingly bitter and disturbing. For the tycoon, the golf course is just another deal, with a possible billion dollar payoff. For the residents, it represents the destruction of a globally unique landscape that has been the backdrop for their lives.

Funny, inspiring and heartbreaking in turns, You’ve Been Trumped is both an entertaining, can’t-believe-it’s-true tale and an environmental parable for our celebrity driven times. A moving score features music from jónsi, the internationally acclaimed musician and frontman of Sigur Ros. The film also offers a rare and revealing glimpse of the unfiltered Donald Trump, as he has been elected as President of the United States.

MESYM’s Documentary Night is held every 2nd Tuesday of each month. Everyone is invited to come hang out, watch a documentary, meet like-minded friends and take part in the discussion. Admission is free!

For our November event we will watch Power to Change, a film about a great vision—and the people turning it into reality: the rebels of our day. The future of world energy lies in decentralised, clean supplies stemming 100% from renewable sources. That is the message of the documentary Power to Change — The energy rebellion.

Join the event on our Facebook Group.

Skype Q&A with the film director, Carl A. Fechner

Carl-A. Fechner is a qualified educator, journalist, filmmaker and producer. A winner of the European Solarprize and the B.A.U.M.-Environmental prize, he has long been advocating the need for fundamental change. In 1989 he founded fechnerMEDIA GmbH, which since its inception has been promoting examples of sustainable living and has won numerous international awards for its documentary films, PR campaigns and crossmedia projects.

About “Power to Change”

Germany faces the biggest structural reform since the beginning of the industrial age. POWER TO CHANGE – The EnergyRebellion is the cinematic experience and exploration of this millennium challenge.

This is the story of a quest – a search in which questions are raised and answers found.

• What does the energy turnaround mean for us?
• What are the economic, ecological and social implications?
• What are the challenges and risks?
• What is at stake and what is the price?

The film shows the conflict over an energy revolution, which began as a grassroots movement and is being advanced through decentralized, regional players. It draws upon the personal stories of people who have taken the responsibility for their energy supply and the protection of their natural livelihood into their own hands. By weaving together people and places it creates an authentic record of our time. With a journalistic-analytical approach, supported by in-depth research, the film shows the daily struggle of activists, entrepreneurs, skeptics and critics in dealing with this energy revolution. It seeks to attract international media attention in order to project their struggle onto to the world stage.

It’s a film that aims to put an end to the doomsday scenarios and the cynical discussions over the feasibility of the energy revolution. It’s entertaining, exciting and fascinating, without succumbing to moralistic preaching. But it is irreconcilable where reconciliation is not possible.

#documentary

MESYM’s Documentary Night is held every 2nd Tuesday of each month. Everyone is invited to come hang out, watch a documentary, meet like-minded friends and take part in the discussion. Admission is free!

For our October event we will watch We come as friends, a modern odyssey, a dizzying, science fiction-like journey into the heart of Africa. At the moment when the Sudan, the continent’s biggest country, is being divided into two nations, an old ‘civilizing’ pathology re-emerges – that of colonialism, clash of empires, and yet new episodes of bloody (and holy) wars over land and resources.

Join the event on our Facebook group.

About “We come as friends”

If “history does not repeat itself, but rhymes”, WE COME AS FRIENDS bares witness to this disquieting reality – it is a complex, profound and humorous cinematic endeavor – a tale of very old and rather sinister verses.

WE COME AS FRIENDS is a modern odyssey, a dizzying, science fiction-like journey into the heart of Africa. At the moment when the Sudan, the continent’s biggest country, is being divided into two nations, an old ‘civilizing’ pathology re-emerges – that of colonialism, clash of empires, and yet new episodes of bloody (and holy) wars over land and resources.

The director of DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE takes us on this voyage in his tiny, self-made flying machine out of tin and canvas, he leads us into most improbable locations and into people’s thoughts and dreams, in both stunning and heartbreaking ways. Chinese oil workers, UN peacekeepers, Sudanese warlords, and American evangelists ironically weave common ground in this documentary.

Stills from the film

#documentary

MESYM’s Documentary Night is held every 2nd Tuesday of each month. Everyone is invited to come hang out, watch a documentary, meet like-minded friends and take part in the discussion. Admission is free!

For our August event we will watch How to Change the World, the documentary which chronicles the adventures of an eclectic group of young pioneers – Canadian hippie journalists, photographers, musicians, scientists, and American draft dodgers – who set out to stop Richard Nixon’s atomic bomb tests in Amchitka, Alaska, and end up creating the worldwide green movement.

Join event on Facebook.

About “How to Change the World”

In 1971 a small group of activists set sail from Vancouver, Canada in an old fishing boat. Their mission was to stop Nixon’s atomic test bomb in Amchitka, Alaska. Chronicling this untold story at the birth of the modern environmental movement and with access to dramatic archive footage unseen for over 40 years, the film centres on eco-hero Robert Hunter and his part in the creation of the global organization we now know as Greenpeace.

Alongside a group of like-minded and idealistic young friends in the ‘70s, Hunter would be instrumental in altering the way we look at the world and our place within it. These early pioneers captured their daring and sometimes jaw-dropping actions on film and from this director Jerry Rothwell has made a thrilling, sometimes terrifying film. A prizewinner at the Sundance Film Festival it is one of the must-see documentaries of 2015. Structured by the five rules of engagement from Hunter’s writings, scroll down to learn more.

Photos of Bob Hunter and the early Greenpeace campaigns