Open for Climate Justice: An International Open Access Week Film Festival

Paywall: The Business of Scholarship is a documentary which focuses on the need for open access to research and science. The film questions the rationale behind the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers, examines the 35-40% profit margin associated with the top academic publisher, Elsevier, and looks at how that profit margin is often greater than some of the most profitable tech companies such as Apple, Facebook,
and Google.

Staying true to the open access model, the film is free to stream and download, for private or public use, and maintains the most open CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons designation to ensure anyone regardless of their social, financial, or political background will have access.

Executive produced and narrated by Robert Redford and directed by award-winning filmmaker Mark Decena, Watershed tells the story of the threats to the once-mighty Colorado River, and offers solutions for the future of the American West. As the most dammed, dibbed, and diverted river in the world struggles to support 40 million people and the peace-keeping agreement known as the Colorado River Compact reaches its limits, Watershed introduces hope. In Watershed, we meet Jeff Ehlert, a fly-fishing guide in Rocky Mountain National Park; Colorado rancher Dan James; delta restoration worker Edith Santiago; Navajo council member Glojean Todacheene; Rifle, Colorado, mayor Keith Lambert; Los Angeles native Jimmy Lizama, and a group of Outward Bound teens rafting down the Colorado River as they all reflect a compelling new water ethic—one that illuminates how letting go of the ways of old can lead to a path of coexisting with enough for all.

Unbreathable: The Fight for Healthy Air is a timely, powerful look at fifty years of the Clean Air Act and the challenges we still face to ensure healthy air for everyone. Weaving historical milestones with current day stories of environmental injustice, the film is an excellent tool for educational and community engagement.
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This 30-minute film premieres at a critical time. Asthma is the number one health issue for children, and recent research links air pollution to higher cases and deaths from COVID-19. Environmental regulations and enforcement of existing laws are being stripped away when the need for renewable energy is more urgent than ever.

On the Fenceline: A Fight for Clean Air is an urgent call for justice for Philadelphia's low-income communities. After years of living on the fenceline of the east coast’s largest oil refinery and suffering from several critical health issues – including cancer, asthma, and COPD – residents have come together to stand up to CEOs and fight for their right to breathe.

On June 21, 2019, an explosion at the refinery was the tipping point for the majority of residents. As the now-defunct refinery land has been put up for sale, the opportunity has finally come for community members and environmental activists to shut down operations for good.

The film follows three particular members of the activist organization: Sonya Sanders, a resident who fights for a better future for both her son and sick husband, Carol White, a resident whose health was impacted by the June explosion and who lost a mother to cancer, and Rodney Ray, a former refinery laborer whose family has resided in the area for multiple generations. Viewers are put up-close and personal on the streets with Philly Thrive as this resilient community fights to keep the refinery closed for good.

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.

Riveted: The History of Jeans reveals the fascinating and surprising story of the iconic American garment. They’re more than just a pair of pants — America’s tangled past is woven deeply into the indigo fabric. From its roots in slavery to the Wild West, youth culture, hippies, high fashion and hip-hop, jeans are the fabric on which the history of American ideology and politics are writ large.