Winter Film Series - Community, Connection and Sustainability
Concerned about the environment and climate change?
Looking for ways to make a positive, sustainable change for people and the planet?
Join us for a Friday evening film series that focuses on hopeful and positive solutions to problems affecting our world.
On Friday night, Feb 19th, we kicked off the series with a hugely successful showing of The Power of Community and subsequent discussion. Instead of the dire and frightening stories of the plight that our planet is in, we were treated to an example of the great things that people can do when presented with a precipitous and immediate unavailability of fossil fuels.
Please join us over the next four weeks for more in this wonderful series.
Place: Acterra
3921 E. Bayshore Rd., Palo Alto
Directions
No charge for this event. Please RSVP using the buttons below (click "more >>>" first if you are viewing this article on the SVAN home page), to help us plan programs and keep you informed of changes!
Feb 19: The Power of Community
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When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba’s economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half — and food by 80 percent — people were desperate.
This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people. They share how they transitioned from highly mechanized agriculture to using organic farming and urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis. The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis, is an example of options and hope. |
Feb 26: The Yes Men
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The Yes Men follows a couple of anti-corporate activist-pranksters as they impersonate World Trade Organization spokesmen on TV and at business conferences around the world. |
The story follows Andy and Mike from their beginnings with GWBush.com, and on to their tasteless parody of the WTO’s website.
Mike and Andy soon find themselves attending important functions as WTO representatives. Delighted to speak for the organization they oppose, Andy and Mike don thrift-store suits and set out to shock their unwitting audiences with darkly comic satires on global free trade. Weirdly, the experts don't notice the joke and seem to agree with every terrible idea the two can come up with.
Exhausted by their failed attempts to shock, Mike and Andy take a whole new approach for one final lecture. 
March 5: What’s the Economy For, Anyway?
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Ecological economist Dave Batker gives us a humorous, edgy, factual, timely and highly-visual monologue about the American economy today, challenging the ways we measure economic success–especially the Gross Domestic Product–and offering an answer to the question: What’s the Economy For, Anyway?
Using Gifford Pinchot’s idea that the economy’s purpose is “the greatest good for the greatest number over the longest run,” Batker compares the performance of the U.S. economy with that of other industrial countries in terms of providing a high quality of life, fairness and ecological sustainability, concluding that when you do the numbers, we come out near the bottom in nearly every category. |
Batker shines a humorous light on such economic buzzwords as “productivity,” and “consumer sovereignty,” while offering ideas for “capitalism with a human face,” a new economic paradigm that meets the real needs of people and the planet.
March 12: In Transition
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'In Transition' is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground.
The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun. |
March 19: Taking Action – Where Do We Go From Here?
Over the last several weeks, we showcased films that highlighted issues facing our communities and suggested positive actions for our society. The dialogue has been engaging and we’re ready to take this energy to another level.
This Friday is the culminating event from the series, where the focus will turn from what others have done to what we will do. We want to develop positive, hopeful, and enjoyable actions and activities that contribute to our theme of community, connection, and sustainability.
To do this, we’re planning a modified “open space" approach. We'll post blank newsprint around the room and if anyone has an idea, they can write it up with a 3-4 word title and stand next to their poster. Then others will circulate around the room, chatting with the poster people and adding phrases to the poster as well as their name and email. After 30-45 minutes, we'll come together to see which activities/actions have risen to the top.
If you haven't attended previous events, no problem! We'll first go over the main ideas that we've covered in the past four weeks.
Also, for those who want to get started on their ideas right away, we've reserved the same space for the following Friday evening (March 26) for follow-up working sessions.
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