Peace On Earth Film Festival

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 17, 2008 5:02PM

“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, a new film festival aims to showcase the best independent films around the world on the themes of peace and non-violence. The Peace On Earth Film Festival, running from August 29 - 31 at the Biograph Theater, has a lineup of forty films. Headlining is the Chicago premiere of the award-winning documentary The Dalai Lama Renaissance. Narrated by Harrison Ford, it chronicles a summit of forty of the West's most innovative thinkers organized by the Lama to discuss the world's problems. Other featured documentaries cover Rwanda (Flowers of Rwanda), Darfur (TENTS: The Patchwork Project) and the recent uptick in violence here in Chicago (Will We Be Next). There will also be plenty of animated films, student films and shorts. Sovereignty, a short film created by Jonathan Sales and Rolin Jones (producer and writer of Weeds), is a biting suburban satire that we're anxious to see.

The full schedule hasn't been uploaded to the festival's site yet, but passes are available for purchase. You can join their mailing list to receive festival updates and announcements.