Each evening begins with an
optional
social hour and pot luck supper at
6:30 pm,
followed by the film at
7:30 pm,
followed by a discussion at the end of the film.
Wednesday, November 4 at 7:30 pm
Work
and
Time
What
is work?
Why is it important?
What's changed about work in
our globalized, corporatized
world?
Why are we overworked,
under-worked, or out of work?
Why don't we have enough
time for the things we say
are most important in our
lives?
What are we "saving
time" for anyway?
This documentary examines
work and time as intertwined
problems in our fast-forward
lives and why it has become
increasingly harder to find
balance. Jeremy
Rifkin, Matthew Fox, Paul
Hawken, Barbara Moses, Sally
Lerner, Stewart Brand, and
"El Vez," the Mexican Elvis
impersonator, are some of
the people who offer ideas
on what work and time mean
and how we can get to a more
equitable place in our
lives.
Wednesday, November 11 at 7:30 pm
How
to
Save
the
World
One man one cow one planet
This
relatively new documentary,
2008, explores the
revolution in food
production called
"biodynamic farming."
At first glance the task of
saving the world appears to
have fallen on an unlikely
candidate.
Peter
Proctor
is 80 years old but has
single handedly spearheaded
his farming movement in
India. It has
literally altered that vast
nation’s agricultural
landscape. Peter is a
latter day Johnny Appleseed
;
he takes his solution to one
farm at a time. He has
traveled all over the world
teaching farmers how to
create better food by
creating better soil.
He is rather a biodynamic
phenomenon in his own right
and finds it difficult to
find people half his age
able to keep up with him.
This farming revolution is
over 100 years in the
making. The true
father of biodynamic
farming, Rudolph Steiner
(also the founder of the
Waldorf school) was born in
1861. It is Steiner’s
principles that Peter dusted
off and applied in the
Indian subcontinent.
The film also examines where
our own American food comes
from and how much autonomy
we have sacrificed at the
altar of convenience.
We seem not to have a
problem with buying food
products rather than food.
The choice to be made is
whether to have giant
agribusinesses decide what
we eat
--
and live with chronic
disease
--
or to grow and eat our own
food and be healthy.
Peter Proctor has helped
thousands of farmers not by
railing against the problem
but by living the solution.
From the moment
David Brower
first laid eyes on the beauty of the
Yosemite Valley, he fought to preserve the
American wilderness for future generations.
The story of a true American legend, this
documentary documents the life of this
outdoorsperson, filmmaker, and environmental
crusader whose fiery dedication not only
saved the Grand Canyon but also transformed
the Sierra Club into a powerful national
political force, giving birth to the modern
environmental movement. At the center
of the film are the themes that absorbed
David throughout his life
:
the threatened beauty of the American earth,
the spiritual connection between humans and
the great outdoors, and the moral obligation
to preserve what is left of the world's
natural wonders. Seen through David’s
own eyes
--
he was an accomplished filmmaker and his
stunning footage is included here
--
a 1956 raft trip down Glen Canyon, before
its damming up, evokes the awful sadness of
losing public land we have failed to
protect. And in period footage of
David’s early rock-climbs (done in sneakers,
with hemp ropes) and of his training in the
Tenth Mountain Division (who defeated the
Nazis in the high Alps), Daivd Brower
emerges as an unlikely and inspiring
national hero.
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/mdave.html
Wednesday, November 25
at 7:30 pm
In
Grave
Danger
of
Falling
Food
This film tells the permaculture story with
verve and imagination. Watch
Bill Mollison
loping through Australian suburbs, planting
hazelnuts guerilla fashion.
Permaculture is a bit of everything.
To some people it is architecture, to
others, organic farming
;
some say it is a
philosophy and a way of life, others believe
it is their only hope. Permaculture is
a design system, but the engineering
principles it follows are those of life.
Bill Mollison looks at the natural processes
of the Earth as a system that is stable and
fertile, yet becomes ever more complex.
He believes our human environment should be
brought back to this state. In this
film, he shares his deep understanding of
nature and how a stable permaculture system
can supply all our needs while we embrace
and enrich nature. He says
permaculture will work anywhere. All
you have to do is plant. Permaculture
is a connecting system involving many
different disciplines:
agriculture,
architecture, power supply, and more.
You can grow a garden in a few weeks that
will grow you vegetables and timber for your
whole life.
