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Talking Story visits the world of traditional healers

March 19, 2013 By

Talking Story

A healer is born in Talking Story, a documentary adventure about traditional healers and their practices. Director Marie-Rose Phan-le meets over a dozen world healers as she reclaims her own family legacy.

Director of photography Joseph Hudson captures vivid, memorable portraits of each healer amidst the ancient cultures of Hawaii, Peru, Nepal, Vietnam, India and China.

During the journey, Phan-le discovers her own calling to heal. To sponsor a screening of Talking Story, contact the director.

From restless traveler to healer

“In the wake of globalization, many cultures were on the verge of losing their elders, and with them, precious healing traditions and spiritual knowledge,” notes Phan-le. Following a successful career in TV and film, she decided to document this wisdom.

At age four, Phan-le emigrated with her family from Vietnam to the U.S. Tales of her great-grandfather, a seer, and her aunt, a healer, became taboo. She was urged to assimilate into Western culture.

Phan-le observes, interviews and receives healing from each elder. All hold a spiritual world view. Compassion and selfless service emerge as common themes.

Marie-Rose Phan-li

Called to honor and preserve

“Talking story” is what Hawaiians call slowing down and sharing stories. Every healer entrusts Phan-le with his or her own story.

Each visit is memorable. Pablo Amaringo Shuna (Don Pablo) is a retired shaman who runs an arts school for underprivileged children in the Peruvian Amazon. Robert Po’okapu Keli’iho’omalu Sr. (Uncle Robert) is a charismatic Hawaiian elder. He founded a Nature Walk filled with rare medicinal plants after lava flow spared his land in 1990. Powerful footage shows the molten lava dissolving highways and yards.

Honoring Goddess Pele

Sylvester Kepilino (Papa K), a well-known kahuna and master of lomilomi, expresses his reverence for the Hawaiian Volcano Goddess Pele. Hawaiian healing combines the use of physical elements of the islands with prayer. God is the actual healer, he says.

Phan-le visits her aunt Tran Thi Lien, a retired healer. Aunt Lien explains how three goddesses worked through her to heal illnesses of the body, mind and spirit.

Her niece has the ability to become a healer if she chooses, her aunt reveals. First, she will have to pass a test of character. A healer becomes a sacred vessel for compassion, a conduit between heaven and earth. Later, she is told to undergo training, purification and spiritual practice.

Marie-Rose Phan-li2

Oracle tests character

In one dramatic scene, an oracle takes over Phan-le’s body. The crew films as her body cries and writhes in pain. Finally the being speaks, telling listeners to purify themselves. After returning to normal consciousness, the director did not remember the incident.

Witnessing power and mystery

Talking Story introduces you to power and mystery as it highlights teachable moments. In making this film, defining her dream and living it, Phan-le demonstrates upaya, skillful means.

The director now practices healing and is writing a book. She founded the Healing Planet Project, a non-profit dedicated to preserving the healing arts.

If you like Talking Story, you might enjoy:  The Road to Q’ero: A Journey Home; Samsara.

 

Talking Story   2011  /  NR  /    1 hour,  25 min

Cast Overview:   Pablo Amaringo Shuna, Robert Po’okapu Keli’iho’omalu Sr., Mary Fragas, Sylvester K. Kepilino (Papa K), Tran Thi Lien, Takka Bahadur Rokaya, Sonam Gyalpo, Nyadak Lama, Dragpa Choden (Agu Lama), Samten Chobal, Tsering Chobal Lama, Mangale, Sher Bahadur, Rigzin Mangyal, Tsering Paljor, Dongba

Director:  Marie-Rose Phan-le

Genre:  Documentary, Adventure

 

Filed Under: Compassion, Documentary, Heal, Healing - Traditional, Native & Life Wisdom, Nature, Spirituality Tagged With: , ,

Bidder 70: climate activist Tim DeChristopher acts for humanity

February 6, 2013 By

In Bidder 70, climate activist Tim DeChristopher commits civil disobedience to save 22,000 acres of Utah’s red rock wilderness. Beth and George Gage direct this film about a young man’s heart, courage and patriotism.

In the final days of the Bush administration, Utah’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) held a controversial auction to sell oil and gas drilling rights for public lands in southern Utah. The wilderness is known for its beauty, and borders on several national parks.

DeChristopher became Bidder 70 at the auction on December 19, 2008. He knew he risked prison. Yet his mind was clear. A deep sense of peace filled him. The University of Utah economics major won a dozen bids worth about $1.8 million.

Direct action saves wilderness

It was “an ethical, necessary and direct action to protect our planet, our democracy and my fellow human beings,” DeChristopher said. Motivating him were the “exploitation of public lands, the lack of a transparent and participatory government, and the imminent danger of climate change.”

Climate change is a “big weight that our generation is bearing on our shoulders.” He met with Terry Root Ph.D., winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. She confirmed that the worst effects of climate change are now unavoidable. “This is human lives at stake,” he said. “Massive amounts of human lives and human well-being.”

Wikipedia

 

Finding a new path forward

Incoming Interior Secretary Ken Salazar later cancelled drilling leases on public lands in Utah. DeChristopher was still indicted on federal charges.

As hearings and delays continued, he co-founded Peaceful Uprising, a movement known for its lively art, music and street theater. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico underscored the urgency of climate change. He spoke at national rallies, including PowerShift 2011.

Activism is “not a one-day deal”

Visiting his native West Virginia, DeChristopher was stunned by its poverty. Environmental activist Larry Gibson showed him areas decimated by mountaintop removal for coal mining. “The movement is not a one-day deal,” Gibson noted.

“Time is hard to do,” anti-war activist David Harris advised DeChristopher. “They got your body. No way around it. But they only get your mind if you give it to them.”

Bidder 70a

“A movement of the heart”

Actor and activist Robert Redford, a Utah resident, praised DeChristopher. “He just did what he thought was his constitutional right. In the meantime we have all these guys on Wall Street sending this country into the tank. And no one’s going to jail. No one’s even being brought to justice.”

Civil disobedience starts as “a movement of the heart,” said John Schuchardt, attorney and peace activist. “It’s always a matter of conscience, and conscience only operates through an individual.”

As DeChristopher and his friends hike the Utah wilderness, he observes: “To see this land and this view, there’s no way that I could ever regret what I did.”

Ecoactivists encouraged

DeChristopher told the court: “In these times of a morally bankrupt government that has sold out its principles, this is what patriotism looks like. With countless lives on the line, this is what love looks like, and it will only grow.”

Bidder 70 is an excellent film for peaceful protestors and the Occupy movement. It offers hope that “we’re going to completely overhaul our system and create a more just world.”

Bidder 70: Take Action

To learn more and to take part in participatory democracy, please visit: Peaceful Uprising, 350.org and Sacred Economics. To bring Bidder 70 to your area, please visit the website.

DeChristopher was released from prison in April 2013. He continues his activism.

If you like Bidder 70, you might enjoy:  The Last Mountain.

 

Bidder 70   2012  /  NR  /    1 hour,  13 min

Cast Overview:   Tim DeChristopher, Terry Tempest Williams, Robert Redford, Patrick Shea, Dennis Willis, Terry Root, Ron Yengich, John Schuchardt, David Harris, Larry Gibson

Director:  Beth and George Gage

Genre:  Documentary

PeacefulUprising.org

Filed Under: Activism, Awaken, Character, Community, Compassion, Current Affairs, Documentary, Ecoactivism, Environment, Inspiration, Learn & Grow, Millenials, Nature, New Economy, Top Films, True Stories Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Sedona: Frances Fisher gets caught in a vortex

May 10, 2012 By

An advertising executive is snagged by metaphysical forces in Sedona. Frances Fisher stars as Tammy Johnson, an energetic go-getter who is compelled to open her heart and change her life. Tommy Stovall writes and directs this lighthearted New Age comedy.

Arizona’s mystical red rock mountains set the stage for healing and transformation. Sedona is now streaming at Gaiam TV.

Hurried heroine

On her way from Portland to Phoenix to pitch a new contract, Tammy takes a wrong turn and ends up in Sedona. Clutching her cell phone, she assures her business partner that “I’m not lost! I just don’t know where I’m going.”

Tammy almost hits a young boy who wanders into the road. He is startled but unhurt. In a miracle moment, she’ll meet father and son again.

When a small plane makes an emergency landing, it forces Tammy off the road. Sidelined by a broken axle, she seeks help. Today just happens to be her birthday.

Spiritual tune up

Infuriated by the long wait at a local garage, Tammy seeks coffee while she meets some eccentric locals. Reluctantly, she agrees to get a pedicure from intuitive spiritualist Deb Lovejoy (Beth Grant, wide-eyed, loving and spot on).

Caring coffee shop owner Pierce (Christopher Atkins) transcends the film’s wacky stereotypes with grounded wisdom.

As bizarre misfortune continues, Tammy remembers a heart ache from her youth. Confronting a homeless woman Claire “da lune” (Lin Shaye), she is forced to surrender and accept healing.

A red balloon and kismet

Meanwhile across town, vacationing attorney Scott (Seth Peterson) and his partner Eddie (Matthew J. Williamson) argue during a hike with their sons Denny (Trevor Sterling Stovall) and Jeremy (Rand Schwenke). Eddie wants Scott to turn off his cell phone so he can really appreciate his family.

When 7-year-old Denny disappears, the family begins a frenzied search. A local guide Chuck (Tatanka Means) helps them look. Scott begins to reevaluate his priorities. Director Stovall achieves a natural, heartfelt portrayal of a gay family.

Weaving whimsy and depth

Fisher (Unforgiven; Titanic) achieves marvelous depth as a headstrong businesswoman embracing her gentle, vulnerable side. Peterson (Providence; Burn Notice) is intense as a dad who realizes he wants his son to be happy, not “perfect.”

The plot is skillfully woven with synchronicities and flashbacks. Filmed in just 21 days, Sedona is a gem in the rough.

Soaring cinematography by Rudy Harbon brings Sedona and its quirky citizens to life. Composer Ebony Tay used indigenous and local musicians to create a rich soundtrack.

If you like Sedona, you might enjoy:  Our Idiot Brother; We Bought a Zoo.

 

Sedona    2011  /  NR /  1 hour, 30 min

Cast Overview: Frances Fisher, Seth Peterson, Beth Grant, Matthew J. Williamson, Trevor Sterling Stovall, Rand Schwenke, Christopher Atkins, Kylee Cochran, Barry Corbin, Tatanka Means, Lin Shaye

Director:  Tommy Stovall

Genre:  Dramedy, Indie Comedy, Adventure


Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Compassion, Heal, Healing - Traditional, Learn & Grow, Native & Life Wisdom, Nature, Spirituality Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Paul Hawken: unprecedented wave of human justice movements sweeps globe

April 5, 2012 By

An unprecedented human justice “movement of movements” is sweeping the globe, according to environmentalist, entrepreneur and author Paul Hawken. Hawken probes economic and social justice in an extraordinary interview from The Global Oneness Project.

A tsunami of money

 “A wave of money, like a tsunami” always precedes environmental and social damage in the world, says Hawken.

Rather than measure consumption, economics should gauge “the fulfillment of people’s needs, and the fulfillment of their aspirations to grow, develop and become everything that is latent and potential in each one of us.”

“We have to be connected to each other, to be in community, and that’s the greatest security,” he adds. Reconnecting with nature and one another is vital as we accept and look past our differences.

 “A movement of movements”

Economic and social justice movements circle the globe today, says Hawken. Naomi Klein calls this “a movement of movements.” Hawken compares them to the body’s own immune system.

Hundreds of lymph nodes work to isolate and destroy invaders in the human body. Like human justice movements, they have no central governing body.

Protecting the world

When governments do not work on behalf of their citizens, Hawken says, “non-profits are acting in lieu of governments.”

The movements are “identifying and parsing the activity of the world, whether it be by business or by governments or institutions like religion,” says Hawken. Activities are found to be humane nor not.

“When a ‘toxin’ is identified,” he explains, “people are gathering around that policy or issue and try to contain it, arrest the rate of damage or damage, then create the means to prevent it in the future.”

 

Peace begins within

“War is the greatest inhumane thing we do,” Hawken believes. The peace movement itself is being redefined.

“It’s not just about the prevention or the absence of war,” Hawken notes. “It’s about the cultivation of peace within oneself, within one’s heart, everything that one does.” How we think, speak with others, and relate to nature, soil and other animals is key.

“Peace is every step,” Thich Nhat Hanh teaches. “Our future lies in making peace with everything we touch,” Hawken adds. When we recognize our essential oneness, we won’t demonize corporations, groups and individuals who represent our collective shadow.

Blessed unrest

Hawken’s book Blessed Unrest depicts how we can “fall in love with the world.” Humanity’s separation from nature is a collective wound that needs healing.

“You could say that it’s just perfect the way it is,” Hawken explains. “We created this amazing moment in time.” (5 out of 5 stars)

If you like The Paul Hawken Interview, you might enjoy: Thrive; 3 Magic Words; Anima Mundi; Dirt! The Movie.

 

Filed Under: Awaken, Change of heart, Compassion, Current Affairs, Ecoactivism, Forgiveness, Heal, Healing - Traditional, Learn & Grow, Nature, Transformation Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Contemporary Mayans wage sacred activism in time of prophecy

April 3, 2012 By

Mayan voices fill 2012 The Mayan Word, a unique opportunity to hear contemporary Mayans tell their story as they interpret Mayan prophecies about 2012. Melissa Gunasena directs.

The documentary raises awareness as it focuses on contemporary Mayan struggles. Mayan spirituality, sacred ceremonies and activist marches are shown.

The film is streaming free online courtesy of the filmmaker. You can support the film at the 2012 The Mayan Word website.

Sacred activists step forward

The Maya have survived repeated attacks since the Spanish invasion of the 16th century. Today, Mayans organize and carry out activism to resist multinational takeover of their land. They face police and military action. Assassinations have been reported.

Mining, dams and industrial agriculture exploit the land but do not preserve it for future generations. For many Mayans, land is still the center of their identity and spirituality.

Mayans see activism as an outgrowth of their love for Mother Earth. Cosmic vision, spirituality and politics are part of preparing for the changes of 2012, they say.

Leery of commercialization

Contemporary Mayans are noticeably absent in international conferences, books and films about the Mayan 2012 prophecies. Several Mayans have sharp words for Western tourists. “Neoliberalism wants us to disappear,” says Silvia Cime Mex of the Chichen Itza Artisan Collective, Mexico. “They want our culture to remain, but without us.”

“The whole system is interested in talking a lot about the Mayans of the past, the Mayans in museums, but they don’t want to know anything about us Mayans that are alive today,” says Pedro Uc Be, a teacher of the Maya Jornalero Collective, Mexico.

Tourism provides little benefit to Mayan indigenous communities, says Filiberto Penados, Founder of the Tumul K’in Center of Learning in Belize. In fact Mayan artisans are chased away from sacred ceremonial sites built by their ancestors. The Mayans are fighting for the right to administer those sacred sites.

Mayans view the world

Mayans “concentrate not so much on economic growth, but on well being,” Penados explains. “That well being comes from my relationship with my fellow man, with Mother Nature and with the cosmos.”

Mexican anthropologist Jose Luis Vera Poot leads us into a sacred Mayan cave. “Some call them dimensional gateways, and through them they had their visions, they traveled through time and space.”

“In our spiritual practice, we sustain the earth, we sustain the energy of the cosmos, we sustain our life,” says Juana Basquez, a spiritual guide from Guatemala. “Everything is interconnected and is sacred,” says Penados. There is “a sense of community, a sense of reciprocity, a sense of responsibility for each other.”

Talking with Nature

Martha Gonzalez, educational advisor from the Honduras, speaks of the ceremony offered when corn is planted. “Mother Earth also needs nourishment.”

How do you approach a medicinal plant? Felix Armando Sarazua Raxtunn, a Guatemalan spiritual guide, explains, “It’s not like you just cut a twig and make a tea and drink it. Just ask permission and tell it what you are going to use it for,” he advises. “They say the guides talk with the animals. All human beings have this perception.”

“This simple knowledge is what can still save us,” he believes. “And it is precisely what we need to take back to prepare ourselves for the next era.”

Views on Mayan prophecies

Efrain of the Chichen Itza Artisan Collective says, “The Mayans didn’t speak about the end of the world. They spoke about the end of a cycle.”

“No specific date is important,” he believes. “What’s most important is the moment where we can make a change in the human system, in the mind and in the heart.”

Earth changes are already upon us, says Juana Batzibal Tujal of the National Maya Coordination and Convergence. Heavy rains, drought, earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions have claimed many lives.

The Earth’s feminine energy is ascending in 2012, says the film. As Mayan women march, a protestor holds up a sign: “The Earth is not for sale.”

Raising awareness and hope

“In the western world, if they lived a more simple life, it automatically takes the pressure off the resources, our resources,” says Ronaldo Lec Ajcot of the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute.

This era may bring “more harmony, which means peace, equilibrium, more justice,” Basquez notes. “It’s the responsibility of human beings to transform so that the positive prevails.”

Painting in many colors, artist Rene Dionisio of Guatemala observes, “We are really lucky to be in this time, right?” (4 out of 5 stars)

If you like 2012 The Mayan Word, you might enjoy: Thrive; Timewave 2013.

 

2012 The Mayan Word  /   2011  /  NR  /  1 hour, 4 min

Cast Overview:  John Major Jenkins, Juan Ixchop Us, Elias Jimenez, Maria Amalia Mex T’un, Ramiro Batzin, Juana Batzibal Tujal, Juana Basquez, Miguel Angel Amaya, Ana Laynez Herrera, Pedro Uc Be, Filiberto Penados, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot, Juan Rojas

Directors:  Melissa Gunasena

Genres:  Documentary, Spirituality

Language:  Spanish with English subtitles

Filed Under: Activism, Awaken, Character, Community, Compassion, Current Affairs, Documentary, Ecoactivism, Heal, Learn & Grow, Native & Life Wisdom, Nature, Spirituality, Transformation, True Stories Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Economics of Happiness: local initiatives heal global ills

April 1, 2012 By

The Economics of Happiness urges us to go local to solve environmental, economic and human problems caused by globalization. Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steven Gorelick and John Page direct.

Labor of love

Diverse, multicultural views abound here. Five years in the making, the documentary spans six continents. It is now available on DVD.

Eight “inconvenient truths” about globalization are described. Globalization breeds insecurity. It wastes natural resources, destroys livelihoods and accelerates climate change. Overall, it makes us unhappy.

You might be surprised to learn that globalization is wasteful and inefficient. Government hand-outs to big business and false accounting support it.

Tale of the Ladakhis

Ladakh, or “Little Tibet,” a village in the western Himalayas, is shown before and after globalization. Happy people are shown living sustainably on their land. All Ladakhis had spacious homes and plenty of leisure time. Community activities flourished. There was no unemployment.

Ladakh was opened to tourists in the mid-1970s. Subsidized roads were built to deliver subsidized, processed foods. This undermined the local farming economy, says Norberg-Hodge. Unemployment, depression and conflict followed. Air and water pollution appeared. Western advertising made folk ways seem passé.

Outside economic pressure “created intense competition, breaking down community and the connection to nature that had been the cornerstone of Ladakhi culture for centuries,” she explains.

 

Having more means less

Psychiatrists speak out about rising levels of depression in the West. Striving to measure up to media images of affluence, “there is a constant pressure on people to have bigger, better, more,” says psychotherapist Mary-Jayne Rust. “It doesn’t bring us happiness.”

Boston College professor Juliet Schor, author of Plenitude, notes that multinational corporations drive the food and entertainment choices of children. Comparison and competition exploit greed, says Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Children feel pressured to emulate Western culture.

Ecologies, resources depleted

“Encouraging consumerism threatens the ecological fabric of the entire planet. Natural resources are already stretched to the breaking point by population pressures,” Norberg-Hodge explains.

“It’s a terrific onslaught of marketing, merchandising, advertising, brainwashing,” says Balaji Shankar of India’s Kumarappa Foundation.

“The very logic of globalization requires that goods travel ever-longer distances from producer to consumer,” says Norberg-Hodge. “Because of hidden subsidies and skewed regulations, food from the other side of the world tends to cost less than food from a mile away.”

We pay for waste, inefficiency

Government subsidies fuel tremendous waste, according to Zac Goldsmith, Member of the UK Parliament. “Tuna caught on the East Coast of America is flown to Japan, packaged, then shipped back. English apples are flown to South Africa to be waxed, then flown back again to be sold.”

Fuel oil use and greenhouse gas emissions soar as goods crisscross the world.

Treaties such as NAFTA say that international trade will promote economic growth. Yet countries routinely import and export almost identical amounts of the same products such as potatoes, sugar, beef and coffee.

Casino economics

Mergers, takeovers and relocation of business to low wage countries threatens livelihoods, says Norberg-Hodge.

The situation is dire for displaced farmers in the Third World. “The present development model encourages urbanization, and intentionally works to reduce the number of farmers,” says Pracha Hutanuwatr, a leader in engaged Buddhist initiatives.

“All those displaced farmers have nowhere to go but the city, where they become cheap labor for industry, for investment from abroad,” he says.

Human rights crisis

“All we want is our land,” say Indian farmers. “Give us our land and we’ll work hard to make something, to make a life.”

“Removing people from the land is the root of all unemployment,” says Vandana Shiva, a Right Livelihood Award winner and author of Monocultures of the Mind. Shiva notes that “100,000 Indian farmers have been driven to suicide” as they lose their livelihoods.

Forced off the land into cities, religious and ethnic groups are forced to compete for few available jobs, says the film.

 

Free markets are not free

“The irony is that the majority of really polluting things that are happening today would not exist within a genuine free market,” Goldsmith says. States pay massive subsidies for monoculture farming, fossil fuel mining and nuclear power.

“It would be impossible to maintain the current global economy as it is today without enormous support from governments around the world. We’re about as far away from the free market as it’s possible to be,” he adds.

Economic growth at any cost?

More economic growth is touted as the answer to poverty, unemployment and environmental decline.

“Not only our economies but our societies, our political systems, the entire culture is focused on making sure that our GDP [gross domestic product] grows as fast as possible,” says Clive Hamilton, author of The Growth Fetish.

“Using GDP as a measure of societal progress is little short of madness,” Norberg-Hodge elaborates. “If there’s an oil spill, GDP goes up. If the water is so polluted we have to buy it in bottles, GDP goes up. War, cancer, epidemic illnesses . . . involve an exchange of money, and that means that they end up on the positive side of the balance sheet.”

Unplugging the corporations

Bailouts to big banks, stimulus packages to encourage consumer spending, and carbon trading schemes just keep a broken system afloat, the film says.

Small, local farms can produce substantially more food per acre and provide far more jobs, according to research.

When we withdraw legitimacy from big corporations, “they lose their power over us,” says David Korten, author of Agenda for a New Economy.

Gross National Happiness

The term Gross National Happiness was coined by the King of Bhutan in 1972. He went on to incorporate it in Bhutan’s development policy. Following his lead, world economists have begun to develop more meaningful measures of well being and prosperity.

One example of this is the Genuine Progress Index (GPI). Ron Colman, executive director of GPI Atlantic, explains that GPI takes into account human, community and natural wealth in addition to produced, material wealth. GPI “counts full social and environmental and economic benefits and costs.”

The Economics of Happiness calls for the removal of fiscal and other supports from giant, transnational corporations and banks.

Measuring progress locally

Small business and local economies can generate wealth in more equitable, sustainable ways. “If you shorten the distance between producers and consumers,” says Goldsmith, “you’re putting money straight back into the local economy where it’s desperately needed.”

Going local means that governments will re-evaluate what they regulate, tax and subsidize. Subsidies for renewable energies and mass transit are suggested.

Banking with local credit unions means that your dollars go to local economies. Ecovillages and post-carbon cities are on the rise. City governments are investing more locally. All these support local jobs and tax revenues.

Farmers’ markets allow consumers to pay less and farmers to earn more. Community is fostered at local markets.

Solutions underemphasized

The Economics of Happiness is mostly unhappy. It documents problems thoroughly and outlines solutions briefly.

What can you can do locally? The film’s Generate Alternatives and Become a Policy Changer pages are excellent places to begin. (4 out of 5 stars)

If you like The Economics of Happiness, you might enjoy:  Thrive; 2012: The Odyssey; Timewave 2013.

 

The Economics of Happiness  /   2011  /  NR  /  1 hour, 8 min

Cast Overview:  Helena Norberg-Hodge, Mary-Jayne Rust, Juliet Schor, Samdhong Rinpoche, Balaji Shankar, Zac Goldsmith, Pracha Hutanuwatr, Vandana Shiva, Clive Hamilton, David Korten, Ron Colman

Directors: Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steven Gorelick, John Page

Genres:  Documentary, Economics, New Thought

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Community, Current Affairs, Documentary, Heal, Native & Life Wisdom, Nature, New Economy, Transformation Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Queen of the Sun: bees helped by beekeepers

March 29, 2012 By

Bees are a treasure we’re quickly losing, according to Queen of the Sun. Taggart Siegel directs the revealing documentary that listens to bees and beekeepers.

Queen of the Sun is now available at Netflix and at the film’s website.

A world without bees?

Bees pollinate 40% of our food, says Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. “That’s four out of every 10 bites you consume.” “If we didn’t have bees to pollinate our crops, we’d have to eat just bread and oatmeal all the time, and a couple of nuts,” according to Kirk Webster, an organic beekeeper and queen breeder.

Industrial agriculture, with its use of monoculture farming, inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, threaten the very insects that make food possible, says Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved.

Habitat loss has taken a toll. The mechanization of beekeeping to make it profitable has sapped the honeybee’s vitality and health, experts say.

Monocultures may be efficient but they are not sustainable, Pollan explains. Allowing natural ecosystems to thrive around farmland is Nature’s pest deterrent.

Beekeepers speak

World headlines warn of colony collapse disorder. “Vanishing bees threaten U.S. crops,” the BBC News reported. “Bees Vanish, and Scientists Race for Reasons,” wrote The New York Times. America had lost 5 million bee colonies at the time of filming.

“The problem is an inner one,” says Gunther Hauk, a biodynamic beekeeper and owner of Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary, now in Floyd, Virginia. “Crisis will give us the possibility to learn something if we are willing. If the heart opens up enough to tell the mind something.”

“There is a reverence to bees,” says Ian Davies, a rooftop beekeeper in London. He believes we should revere bees “because they’re actually keeping us alive.”

Willing to change

Hauk and other beekeepers address the heart of the matter. Monoculture farming and widespread pesticide use contribute to the problem. Can we find the willingness to change? “Nature is much wiser than we are,” says Hauk.

It’s the people who are leading. Rooftop and backyard beekeeping are on the rise. Beekeeping was legalized in New York City in 2010, to the relief of many urban beekeepers.

 

Working against Nature

Extreme practices by agribusiness are revealed. California almond trees are grown on 600,000 acres in the state’s central valley. A monoculture crop, it lacks natural ecosystems where bees can live and feed.

Each year, three-quarters of all bees in America are trucked to California, says Pollan. Bees from other countries are shipped too. The bees are fed high fructose corn syrup laced with antibiotics, then released to pollinate the almond trees. Chemicals used on bees end up in honey and in humans, Pollan warns.

Millions of bees die in holding yards before pollination. More contract viruses before they are returned. Eric Olson, a migratory beekeeper, admits that the system is good for profits, but not for bees.

Who are the bees?

Bees are 150 million years old, says Yvon Achard, a 70-year-old bee historian in Grenoble, France. The honeybee was considered sacred in ancient cultures, a guardian of life and fertility. Beautiful footage of bees and beekeeping around the world is featured. Animation helps lighten the dire situation.

“To be a beekeeper is a kind of art,” says Achard. Like a yogi, “you have to be quiet. You have to explore your soul.” Achard’s bees seem to know him. Gently, he brushes them with his long mustache. “They like! They like!” he whispers. (5 out of 5 stars)

If you like Queen of the Sun, you might enjoy:  Anima Mundi; Dirt! The Movie.

 

Queen of the Sun  /   2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 23 min

Cast Overview:  Gunther Hauk, Michael Pollan, Vandana Shiva, Kirk Webster, Carlo Petrini, Yvon Achard, Ian Davies, Eric Olson, Raj Patel, Michael Thiele, Johannes Wirz, May Berenbaum, Scott Black, Philip Schilds, Hugh Wilson

Directors:  Taggart Siegel

Genres:  Documentary, Nature

Filed Under: Awaken, Current Affairs, Documentary, Ecoactivism, Heal, Nature, Spirituality Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Anima Mundi: a call to live in harmony with Gaia

February 27, 2012 By

 

People and planet are one, says Anima Mundi: Permaculture, Peak Oil, Climate Change and the Soul of the World. Australian director Peter Charles Downey’s film advocates permaculture, a “science of resilience” for mindful and sustainable living.

Anima Mundi is now streaming on YouTube’s syndicadoFilms channel, or you can buy the DVD.

Old paradigm blues

With thoughtful discussion, exciting music, montages and archival footage, Anima Mundi shakes loose old beliefs. When you hear a 1950’s announcer call pollution “necessary” so we can enjoy “a chicken in every pot,” you’ll cringe at our outdated world view.

Overconsumption and reliance on dwindling oil supplies threaten our survival, leaders and scholars say. Downey interviews them to explore solutions.

What is permaculture?

Permaculture is a practice of cultivating land sustainably, relying on renewable resources and self-sustaining ecosystems. It treads gently on the Earth.

David Holmgren, who co-founded permaculture, summarizes the philosophy and design principles behind it. Examples from Holmgren’s book Permaculture Principles and Pathways include:

the built environment (passive solar); tools and technology (reuse and recycle); culture and education (participatory arts and music); health and spiritual wellbeing (yoga and other body/mind/spirit disciplines); finance and economics (ethical investment); land tenure and community governance (eco-villages and co-housing); and land and nature stewardship (seed saving and forest gardening).

Soul of the world

Anima mundi, meaning “soul of the world,” challenges the mechanistic world view. Treating the Earth like a dead machine has been a terrible mistake, Holmgren warns. “We need to re-ensoul the world” by applying “the same design principles that sustainable societies did before using fossil fuels.”

Holmgren believes we must redesign “our centralized, highly efficient industrialized machine” as abrupt climate changes begin. Nature teaches us how to survive with diversity and flexibility, he says.

Evolve or perish

“The choice being presented to mankind now is either evolve or perish,” says author Michael C. Ruppert. “Grow up or die. Change the way you view the world and your relationship to it.”

“It’s as if we in science have just discovered a sixth kind of life, which is life at the level of our planet,” says Dr. Stephan Harding, ecologist and professor. “We have to act now. Immediately.”

We need to bond with Gaia as our mother, says Dr. Christine James, psychologist. Dr. Mark O’Meadhra, integrative medicine specialist, believes exploiting the earth is “a public health problem.”

Protecting food and seed

“If we don’t relocalize our food system over the next decade, you or your children will be lining up with your ration ticket,” says Holmgren. Centralized food production and transportation “is extremely dependent on the era of cheap energy, and the era of cheap energy is over,” he adds.

Human rights activist Dr. Vandana Shiva protects seed from biotech food giants. Shiva compares seed to Gandhi’s spinning wheel, a metaphor for life and self-empowerment. “Earth is the most generous employer and job provider,” she notes, but “lack of work is a product of the marketplace.”

Adam Grubb and Dan Palmer of Permablitz redesign people’s backyards into “very edible gardens.” It’s also a way to meet people, have fun and learn.

Shop ‘til you drop?

“Classical economics is the real religion of this age,” says environmentalist John Seed. “It’s a very insidious religion. It’s consuming the Earth with a fervor.”

Seed was director of the Rainforest Information Centre, which successfully campaigned to save the sub-tropical rainforests of New South Wales. He co-authored the deep ecology classic Thinking Like a Mountain.

Our wasteful way of life is a “systemic trap,” says Holmgren. Harding agrees that “suicidal growth cannot continue.”

Sustainable growth

Perpetual growth is a dangerous practice, Holmgren argues. “Natural systems only grow at a maximum of 5% per annum.” We exceed that at our peril, he says.

Holmgren foresees “the economy of the household, the economy of the community” in gift and the barter economies. Money economies like LETS (Local Energy Trading Systems) are free from “the perpetual need to grow.”

 

Energy ROI stats startle

Holmgren cites world averages in energy returns on investment (ROI) compared to energy expended (e.g., the costs of drilling).

Oil currently gives a 10:1 ROI. (When oil was plentiful, the ratio was 100:1.) PV Solar achieves a 10:1 ROI. Wind energy yields an impressive 25:1 ratio. ROIs from coal (3:1), tar sands (2:1) and nuclear power (2:1) are relatively poor.

“Biofuels (2:1 or less ROI) are a bit like emissions trading schemes,” says Seed. Holmgren warns that using “renewable versions of what we’ve got” to perpetuate overconsumption would “drive us over a cliff.”

Earthships take off

Eco-architect Michael Reynolds, creator of the Earthship concept, says our way of life must change because of the effects of “population explosion and climate change and dwindling resources.”

Earthships are built into the ground with recycled and/or natural materials. Solar energy can fuel flat screen TVs and computers in an Earthship, while heating, cooling and electricity are powered “off the grid.”

Musical mind journey

Downey composed the theme song The Inner Workings. Also featured are The Permie Song by Michelle Morgan, and music by the Jed Rowe Band.

The director-cinematographer-editor says he followed permaculture design principles to make this independent, low budget film with love and minimal resources. (4 out of 5 stars)

If you like Anima Mundi, you might enjoy:  Dirt! The Movie; Thrive; 2012: Time for Change.

 

Anima Mundi   2011  /  NR  /  1 hour, 17 min

Cast Overview: David Holmgren, Dr. Stephan Harding, John Seed, Michael C. Ruppert, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Noam Chomsky, Michael Reynolds, Dr. Christine James, Dr. Mark O’Meadhra, Dan Palmer, Adam Grubb

Director:  Peter Charles Downey

Genre:  Documentary

 

Filed Under: Awaken, Community, Current Affairs, Documentary, Ecoactivism, Environment, Nature, Nature and Science Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Women in the Dirt dig urban, private lands with soul

February 7, 2012 By

Women in the Dirt shows women landscape architects weave science, art, healing and activism into public and private lands in California. Seven leaders in the profession are profiled. Carolann Stoney directs.

The women discuss their greatest accomplishments, inspirations and challenges. Peers give community and historic perspectives.

Nature inspires, heals

You’ll feel transported to these private gardens, cityscapes, state and national parks. Bold projects like the Los Angeles River Basin will affect generations to come. Small designs like The Chase Garden make a modest home famous.

Mark W. Gray’s cinematography draws you in with soothing, often enigmatic landscapes.

Isabelle Greene

“Spaces should be designed to give the most exquisite comfort,” says Isabelle Greene, granddaughter of legendary architect Henry Greene. Greene’s landscapes blend with natural ecosystems.

She designed the tranquil Lovelace Residence garden, creating a swimming pool so natural that a pair of mallard ducks nests there briefly each year. The garden becomes an extension of the surrounding old oak woodlands.

“I don’t believe in struggle,” Greene says. “The boldness of the risk in the garden comes through and makes it sweet and fresh each time.” She has been hailed for The Valentine Garden. A Zen-like calm fills this low maintenance, drought tolerant land filled with native succulents, trees and gravel paths.

Pamela Palmer

Using water to inspire meditation and relaxation, Pamela Palmer is known for her simple, elegant design around The Blue Oak Residence in Sonoma. Planes of water reflect the blue oaks around the home, changing with each sunrise and sunset.

Palmer also designed the Horizon Garden right on the ocean. A steel and Lucite fence becomes a window on water and sky.

A modernist, Palmer says that “we need to create habitats instead of ornamental gardens.” Native plants draw beneficial birds and insects.

Andrea Cochran

Andrea Cochran is known for her work at The Curran House, an affordable housing project in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. The rooftop garden feels like a sanctuary, surrounded by Temple Bamboo along brick walls.

Cochran’s edgy, avant garde style graces Stone Edge Farm. The land holds a Zen spa, wild gardens, and a 15-foot-tall pyramid at the property’s edge.

She received a National Honor Award for Walden Studios, where she raised the property four feet above a flood plain to create terraces, vineyards and water elements around artist studios.

Mia Lehrer

Born in El Salvador, Mia Lehrer is known for her community projects in Los Angeles and Orange County. She designed Vista Hermosa Park and kid-friendly environmental exhibits at Tree People.

Her largest project is The Los Angeles River Basin. A continuous greenway will be built along 32 miles of the concrete-encased river. New open spaces, parks and connections will welcome families and communities. Lehrer has held hundreds of community meetings to invite feedback and promote this “new face for the city.”

The biggest challenge in her work is global responsibility, Lehrer says.

Katherine Spitz

Streets must become “beautiful places where people actually want to live part of their lives,” says Katherine Spitz. Spitz reflects the personality of each community in her streetscapes. “We need wider sidewalks, narrower traffic lanes.”

Her goal is to make Los Angeles “more aware of its citizens and its rich natural heritage.” Her designs grace Pico Boulevard and the University of California San Diego.

Both architect and landscape architect, Spitz also created The Chase Garden. The lush plantings around a middle class duplex appeared on the cover of Garden Design magazine.

Lauren Melendrez

Head of the largest woman-owned landscape architecture firm in California, Lauren Melendrez has overseen projects for the Los Angeles Zoo, Pasadena City Hall, The Civic Center Master Plan, and The Staples Center.

Melendrez is dedicated to transforming public spaces in a “car city.” Working for Los Angeles’ Redevelopment Agency in 1975, “I spent a lot of time trying to change attitudes.” She’s proud of her positive influence on decision- and policymaking.

“What really makes downtowns work are the sidewalks,” says Dan Rosenfeld, Senior Deputy for Economic Development, Sustainability and Mobility. “It’s not the buildings, it’s not the skyline. It’s the stuff that happens on the streets.” Sidewalk tables with umbrellas and other family-friendly features are arriving.

Cheryl Barton

Originally an artist, Cheryl Barton studied fine arts and geology. She designed Rosie the Riveter Memorial Park in Richmond on the former site of the Kaiser Shipyards. Photos of World War II women welders, dubbed “riveters” by male welders, are displayed in an abstract ship under construction.

Barton left a prestigious landscape architecture firm to snag greater projects and more artistic freedom. She went on to design Rincon Park in San Francisco’s Embarcadero. Barton transformed the military base of Fort Baker into a conference center for global environmental issues. She loves to take the history of a place and update it.

Women in the Dirt opens with a quote from Kathryn Gustafson: “Designing a landscape is about connecting the body, soul and mind to the land itself.” (5 out of 5 stars)

If you like Women in the Dirt, you might enjoy:  Urbanized; Eames: The Architect and the Painter.

 

Women in the Dirt    2011  /  NR /  1 hour, 14 min

Cast Overview: Pamela Palmer, Andrea Cochran, Mia Lehrer, Isabelle Greene, Katherine Spitz, Lauren Melendrez, Cheryl Barton

Director:  Carolann Stoney

Genre:  Documentary, Environment

Filed Under: Awaken, Community, Documentary, Healing - Traditional, Nature, Nature and Science, Transformation Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

To save Coal River Mountain, Bobby Kennedy Jr. joins West Virginians

January 21, 2012 By

Coal River Mountain is The Last Mountain in a film filled with West Virginia voices. Bill Haney directs.

This eloquent documentary examines coal, wind, water, American democracy and rural spirit.

Destruction detailed

Mountaintop removal mining has destroyed over 500 Appalachian mountains, decimated 1 million acres of forest, buried 2,000 miles of streams, and contaminated many more, according to the film. Haney co-wrote the screenplay with Peter Rhodes.

Almost half of the electricity in the U.S. comes from burning coal, Haney tells us. One-third of that coal comes from West Virginia.

Activist Bobby Kennedy Jr. called

Coal River Mountain is the last barrier to toxic blasting dust and sludge containment areas, says Bo Webb of Naoma, WV. To save the mountain, local residents contact environmental lawyer, writer and activist Bobby Kennedy Jr.

Heavy metals taint water

Scientists measure high levels of heavy metals downstream from area mines. Lead, arsenic and selenium are found. “It’s ruined their wells, it’s ruined their springs,” says Dr. Ben Stout, professor of Biology at Wheeling Jesuit University.

High levels of cancer have occurred near contaminated wells. Jennifer Hall-Massey points out the homes of six neighbors who died of brain tumors in Prenter, WV.

Former Massey contractor Ed Wiley and his 11-year old granddaughter Kayla Taylor petition Governor Joe “Friend of Coal” Manchin to build a new school away from a coal silo. Four teachers and a student from the school have died of cancer, Wiley says.

Water supplies for millions threatened

“Mountaintop coal mining is literally threatening the water supplies of tens of millions of people,” says Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist for the National Resources Defense Council. Millions of people get their water from the headwaters of the Cumberland Plateau bioregion.

“Coal is mean. Coal’s cruel and it kills,” says Maria Gunnoe of Bob White, Coal River Watershed.

It’s all legal, says Bill Raney, President of the West Virginia Coal Association. When Massey Energy completes mining in an area, it returns the rubble to the mountain top and “reconstructs” it.

Mountain reclamation falls short

Mountaintop removal destroys original topsoil and forests, says Jack Spadaro, former superintendent of the National Mine Health & Safety Academy. Now piles of rock are covered by grass. That contributes to dangerous flooding, he says.

Gunnoe says her neighborhood floods “every time it rains.” Flooding regularly threatens communities throughout the Coal River Valley. Some families have lived in the region for 200 years or more, says Webb.

Job cutting stats

If coal mining is so good for the economy, asks Kennedy, “then why is West Virginia one of the poorest states in the nation?”

Over the last 30 years, the coal industry has increased production by 140% in West Virginia, while cutting 40,000 jobs, says Joe Lovett, senior attorney for Appalachian Mountain Advocates. Strip mining allows the industry to save on labor.

Kennedy is cheered and booed when he speaks at a protest rally at the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Ecoactivists seem equally matched by employees of Massey Energy. Health and environmental issues are secondary to jobs, some believe.

Environmental protection upended

When The Clean Water Act was revised during the Bush administration, it legalized mountaintop removal for the first time.

“There are hundreds of thousands of violations of those permits by coal companies in this region every year,” says Lovett. “The state DEPs do nothing about them, or slap the companies on the wrist and actually protect them.”

Activist heroes

Climate Ground Zero activists from all over the country arrive to stop Massey from mining Coal River Mountain. They treesit for nine days before a blizzard forces them down. They are arrested.

“Non-violent civil disobedience does work,” says protestor Joshua Graupera. “It’s a beautiful thing to be strong enough to not get violent, to not get angry.” Mug shots of the protestors are shown.

“To me they’re heroes of American democracy,” says Kennedy. You’ll be moved by the activists’ willingness to risk their safety and serve prison time.

Coal use drives climate change

“The mother of all environmental problems is the climate change issue,” says Gus Speth, former Dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. “It’s very real, it’s happening today, and at the core of the problem is coal.”

Top environmental scientists overwhelmingly agree that greenhouse gases hasten climate change. “Mining and burning coal is the number one source of greenhouse gases worldwide,” says Haney.

Blankenship speaks

Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, tells a television journalist that global warming is “absolutely not” related to coal mining, but that the climate is “changing naturally.”

Between 2000 and 2006, Massey Energy committed more than 60,000 environmental violations and paid relatively minimal fines. During his 18 years as CEO, Massey’s compensation topped $190 million.

“Legalized bribery”

The coal industry spent $86 million, and coal utilities spent $1 billion, on political donations and lobbying in the last decade, says Haney.

In turn, billions of U.S. tax dollars go to the coal industry every year. Tax credits are granted for “clean coal” technology research, for mining waste clean-up and complying with pollution laws.

Can coal be “clean”?

“The coal industry continues to operate old, dirty plants,” says Speth, because “regulations on the old plants are less demanding than they are for the new plants.”

The Kenaw River power plant, built in 1953, was never retrofitted with pollution controls. In 2008, it released over 40 million pounds of pollutants including mercury, arsenic and lead.

Wind energy championed

“We need green jobs! We need all the jobs we can get!” Lorelei Scarbro, a local activist, tells the DEP protest rally. She supports a sustainable wind farm for Coal River Mountain.

A feasibility study shows that Coal River Wind would create more long-term, safe jobs than the coal industry. The county would gain $1.75 million annually from wind farm tax revenue, compared to $36,000 a year from mountaintop coal removal, she says. Wind would power 70,000 homes, says Scarbro.

Kennedy argues that coal energy costs 23.1 cents per kilowatt hour if you include expenditures for air and groundwater pollution, healthcare in Appalachia, and climate change. The cost of wind electricity is 7.9 cents per kilowatt hour, he says.

Canada leads the way

The government of Ontario, Canada is moving to decommission all its coal-fired power plants by 2014. It is replacing these with renewable energy.

Action campagns

Haney’s film is both eloquent and stirring, a testament to activist involvement and change. To get involved, visit the The Last Mountain movie website or Coal River Mountain Watch.

Following criminal investigations, Massey Energy is now up for sale. Don Blankenship has retired.

Kennedy’s Waterkeeper Alliance has forced the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to make deep cuts in pollution. Yet coal companies continue to apply for mountaintop removal permits.

“You’re connected to coal whether you realize it or not,” says Gunnoe. “Everybody’s connected to this and everybody’s causing it and everybody’s allowing it.” (5 out of 5 stars)

If you like The Last Mountain, you might enjoy:  Thrive.

 

The Last Mountain    2011  /  PG /  1 hour, 35 min

Cast Overview: Robert Kennedy, Jr., Maria Gunnoe, Bo Webb, Jennifer Hall-Massey, Bill Raney, Ed Wiley, Chuck Nelson

Director:  Bill Haney

Genre:  Documentary, Ecoactivism, Nature

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Community, Compassion, Current Affairs, Documentary, Ecoactivism, Heal, Learn & Grow, Nature, Transformation, True Stories, Youth Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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