10 October 2010

11am screening at the Renoir Cinema, London map

The Time of Their Lives
Jocelyn Cammack, UK 2009
57 mins
[E]

With a combined age of almost 300, Hetty, Rose and Alison love to share their concerns on everything from terrorism and global warming to sex, death and the meaning of life. Rose, at 101, is the oldest newspaper columnist in the world; Hetty, 102, is still marching against war; and Alison, 88, a one-time Communist Party member is now a self-styled 'establishment lady'. Surprising, passionate and at times very funny, they bring to the screen a rare perspective on old age. The film has screened in nurmerous festivals and was broadcast on BBC Storyville in July 2009.

The Bitter Taste of Tea
Erling Borgen and Tom Heinnemann, Denmark/Norway 2008
59 mins
[E]

The filmmakers travel to tea estates in Sri Lanka, Kenya, India and Bangladesh—some traditional, some fairtrade — to expose unsafe work environments and labour exploitation. They find little meaningful difference between fairtrade and non-fairtrade operations, which raises difficult questions. Are organisations like the EU’s Max Havelaar Foundation being duped by tea growers? Or are growers doing the best they can in a brutal industry and a market in which the demand for fairtrade tea is insufficient to create trickle-down profits for their workers? It is left to the viewer to weigh the arguments and decide.

The screening will be followed with a discussion led by Jocelyn Cammack, Hetty Bower and Bernard Miller; Tom Heinemann (to be confirmed) and Barbara Crowther, Fairtrade Foundation Director of Communications.