SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES
A WITCH STORY
Saturday, March 1st - 9:30am
Runtime: 1h 13m
Young writer Alice was a teenager when she discovered something that changed her life forever: she was a descendant of Martha Allen Carrier, a woman hanged for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. At 24, after scouring archives, reading academic texts, and compiling hundreds of pages of notes on witch hunts, Alice is ready to share her findings in a book. But before finishing the story, she has some last strings to tie up, which leads her to revisit the last days of Martha in Salem and to reckon with the fact that for millions around the world, Salem is not over.
Departing from a personal quest, and merging with the testimony of Italian feminist scholar Silvia Federici (“Caliban and the Witch”), and the performance of the Spanish artist Esther Musgo, A Witch Story is a feature documentary about memory and the need to unveil the real social and political motivations behind the Great Witch Hunts of Europe and the Americas to understand the violence waged against women today.
WATER FOR LIFE
Saturday, April 5th - 9:30am
Runtime: 1h 29m
Water For Life tells the story of Berta Cáceres, a leader of the Lenca people in Honduras; Francisco Pineda, a subsistence farmer in El Salvador; and Alberto Curamil, an Indigenous Mapuche leader in Chile, all of whom refused to let government supported industry and transnational corporations take their water and redirect it to mining, hydroelectric projects or large scale agriculture.
It is a story of courage and determination, betrayal and corruption, death threats and murder, and of unexpected victories in the countryside and in the courts. It is a story that asks how economic development can grow in harmony with environmental protections. Above all, Water For Life illuminates a growing recognition of Indigenous rights and a rising demand for corporate responsibility and environmental justice that’s being seen around the world. It is a story that begins and ends with water.
SINGLE USE PLANET
Thursday, April 17th - 6:00pm
Runtime: 1h 29m
Plastic is vital in so many ways to our modern way of life and well-being—but not all forms of it. In search of why evermore single-use plastic debris enters the ocean despite all efforts to recycle, we go upstream to where millions of tons of raw plastic are being made amidst the ruins of America’s bygone steel industry in Pennsylvania. Further upstream we see the economic and political realities that have boosted the new industry—realities reaching all the way to rural Louisiana where plans are laid to build the biggest plastic plant in the world. Can the powerful industry be persuaded to temper their production of single-use plastic? Our search leads to Washington D.C. and finally to France.
VIRULENT
Saturday, May 3rd - 9:30am
Runtime: 1h 20m
Virulent: The Vaccine War examines the consequences of vaccine hesitancy and denial. It’s a war anti-vax activists have been fighting for more than a decade. And Covid-19 is what they practiced for—a national conversation about vaccine safety and mandates.
A RISING TIDE
Saturday, June 7th - 9:30am
Runtime: 1h 33m
Every day, a small number of working people try hard to make it, but instead, they quietly fall off the edge of a cliff. We don’t notice it because it’s such a small number of people falling daily. Often, they find a way to get back up. Maybe another job opens up, and they go on with their lives. People are resilient. When you have kids, there’s no option but to be resilient. You must figure it out and push through the anxiety, self-doubt, and depression. But with covid, the ability to rebound has been disproportionately altered.These families are generally job insecure, housing insecure, and are usually unable to afford adequate health care. By robbing Peter to pay Paul, families are left with too few resources to secure food.”
Support Your Local Nonprofit Theater!
Support the nonprofit Chatham Orpheum Theater and help us continue to bring enriching arts experiences to our community! Your generous donations enable us to offer free kids' matinees, support local artists, and provide educational programs that make a lasting impact. Join us in keeping the arts accessible to everyone and creating cherished memories for families. Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference. Donate today and be a part of our vibrant cultural community!