Midcoast Peace and Justice

August 31, 2011 Denver, Colorado - Award-winning environmental filmmakers are releasing Mother: Caring for 7 Billion, a film on sustainability, over-consumption and population. A winner at the Boulder International Film Festival this year, Mother inspired the progressive Boulder audience to give a standing ovation. Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us wrote “Mother is a thoughtful, visually striking treatment of one of our biggest questions, both personal and planetary. It hooks you, holds you -- and leaves you genuinely hoping.”

In the film, Beth - a mother, a child-rights activist and a member of a large American family of 12 - realizes her own family's impact and then travels to Ethiopia and witnesses firsthand the pressures of rapid population growth in developing countries. There she meets a young woman Zinet, living in extreme poverty, who, against all odds, found the courage to break free from thousand-year-old-cultural barriers by refusing to get married young and by attending school.

“Overpopulation is just another symptom of a domination system,” says the film's director Chris Fauchere. “We not only need to empower women, but we also have to move away from a 'user' to a 'nurturing' attitude towards our planet and each other.” He then adds, “It's a win-win situation for women, the sustainability of the world economy and the health of the planet.”