Ignacio Chapela

Movies

A Dangerous Idea
Himself
A dangerous idea has threatened the American Dream from the beginning - the belief that some groups and individuals are inherently superior to others and more deserving of fundamental rights. Such biological determinism provided an excuse for some of America's most shameful history. And now it's back. This documentary reveals how biologically determined politics has disenfranchised women and people of color, provided a rationale for state sanctioned crimes committed against America's most vulnerable citizens, and now gains new traction under the Trump administration.
Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction
Himself
The first feature-length documentary film to fully investigate the growing threat to Earth's life-support systems from the loss of biodiversity. If current trends continue, scientists warn that half or more of all plant and animal species on Earth will become extinct within the next few decades. Call of Life investigates the scope, the causes, and the predicted effects of this unprecedented loss of life, but also looks deeper, at the ways in which both culture and psychology have helped to create and perpetuate the situation. The film not only tells the story of a crisis in nature, but also in human nature, a crisis more complex and threatening than anything human beings have ever faced before.
Fed Up!
Himself - Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley
Nominated for an Environmental Media Award, this eye-opening documentary explores the United States' food production system from the organic farming of the Green Movement to the genetically engineered food of the Biotech Revolution. Through fascinating archival footage and interviews with farmers, scientists, government officials and activists, Fed Up! provides a detailed and sometimes disturbing overview of contemporary food production. About 70% of the food we eat contains genetically modified ingredients and is not labeled. The biotechnology industry is spending $50 million a year to convince us that this technology is our only hope for feeding the world and saving the environment. Family farmers are disappearing at an astonishing rate as people continue to go hungry both here and abroad. Toxic agricultural chemicals continue to poison our air, food and water and put farm workers in serious danger. What's a person to do?