Screening and Panel: Banking on Disaster

March 20, 5:30 PM

Wechsler Theater, Mary Graydon Center

Illuminating the role of the World Bank in the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest, this film documents the disastrous consequences of paving a road through the heart of the world’s largest rainforest in Brazil. The road through the state of Rondonia, partly financed by the World Bank, was paved to help hundreds of thousands of colonists from other areas of Brazil move into the region to farm. However, the effects on the environment have been severe, measures to protect the Indians have proven inadequate and, ironically, many of the settlers have gained very little due to poor soil and poor planning.

One of British documentarian Adrian Cowell’s most watched films, Banking on Disaster was critically important in mobilizing an international group of rainforest activists who, working with Brazilian leaders such as Chico Mendes, have succeeded in bringing about fundamental change. More »

Can a Movie Save the Rainforest?

Discussion to follow film with filmmaker Adrian Cowell and Steve Schwartzman, Environmental Defense Fund, moderated by Pat Aufderheide, Professor and Director, Center for Social Media, School of Communication, American University.