About

Café Libre is a site for people who want to live  in environmentally safe, healthy and just communities.  It was started by Lydia Breen, a writer and filmmaker interested in artists/activists and issues concernng enviornmental justice. 

 Currently is working on a series articles about the poor air quality outside schools around the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.  She has worked as a stringer for Newsweek and  written articles  for E/the Environmental Magazine, Grit Magazine, Sojourners, the National Catholic Reporter, the Boston Phoenix, the Louisiana Weekly and others.  She is a member of The Society of Professional Journalists’ freelance committee.

In 2006 Lydia co-wrote Shake the Devil Off, an Oscar-nominated film about St. Augustine’s Catholic Church in New Orleans – a historic,  predominately black church that was threatened with closure after Hurricane Katrina.   The idea for the film came from Lydia’s experience living in New Orleans in the run-up to the storm.  Her contacts with St. Augustine’s  helped her obtain the footage for more than one quarter of the film, produced and directed by a Swiss film company.

For 15 years, Lydia lived in Geneva, Switzerland and a writer and filmmaker.  Her clients included  the International Red Cross, the World Health Organization the International Olympics Committee,  the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Council of Churches and others. She has shot on locations in conflict zones in all world regions.   Her commissioned films as well as  her own documentaries have been shown in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Cafe Libre welcomes comments from readers and contributions from guest bloggers.  Contact Lydia Breen through the  Comment section.