past events

Transition Sebastopol is having a family potluck picnic!

Thursday, July 15
from 5:30 pm to 8 pm.

The picnic is happening on the beautiful grounds of St. Stephens Episcopal Church at 500 Robinson Road (off Bodega Ave. between Jewell Ave. and Pleasant Hill Road) in Sebastopol.

Everyone and anyone is invited. Kids are welcome and encouraged to come. Please bring some food to share, and bring your own plates and utensils. Also bring blankets and lawn chairs. Extra kudos if you bring some food grown from your own garden.

Transition is largely about building community bonds and strengthening our connections with each other. And what better way to do that than by sharing food together on a mid-summer evening!

It doesn't matter if you've attended a Transition Sebastopol event or not. Come just to meet others in the community. Or, if you are interested in Transition, this might be a good time to meet some of the folks involved in Transition and to get some information. However, this picnic is about sharing food and just being together more than being an informational meeting.

Also, there will be an introduction of the new Transition Sebastopol clubhouse room which has been generously donated for Transition Sebastopol's use by the wonderful folks at St. Stephens Church.

Come join us at our next Transition Sebastopol Movie Night at the French Garden Restaurant. Come early and enjoy dinner and conversation. 

Collapse Synopsis
Americans generally like to hear good news. They like to believe that a new president will right old wrongs, that clean energy will replace dirty oil and that fresh thinking will set the economy straight. American pundits tend to restrain their pessimism and hope for the best. But is anyone prepared for the worst?

Meet Michael Ruppert, a different kind of American. A former Los Angeles police officer turned independent reporter, he predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter, From the Wilderness, at a time when most Wall Street and Washington analysts were still in denial. Director Chris Smith has shown an affinity for outsiders in films like American Movie and The Yes Men. In Collapse, he departs stylistically from his past documentaries by interviewing Ruppert in a format that recalls the work of Errol Morris and Spalding Gray.

Sitting in a room that looks like a bunker, Ruppert recounts his career as a radical thinker and spells out the crises he sees ahead. He draws upon the same news reports and data available to any Internet user, but he applies a unique interpretation. He is especially passionate about the issue of peak oil, the concern raised by scientists since the seventies that the world will eventually run out of fossil fuel. While other experts debate this issue in measured tones, Ruppert doesn't hold back at sounding an alarm, portraying an apocalyptic future. Listening to his rapid flow of opinions, the viewer is likely to question some of the rhetoric as paranoid or deluded, and to sway back and forth on what to make of the extremism. Smith lets viewers form their own judgments.

Collapse also serves as a portrait of a loner. Over the years, Ruppert has stood up for what he believes in despite fierce opposition. He candidly describes the sacrifices and motivators in his life. While other observers analyze details of the economic crisis, Ruppert views it as symptomatic of nothing less than the collapse of industrial civilization itself.

Thom Powers
Toronto International Film Festival

Come join us at our next Transition Sebastopol Movie Night at the French Garden Restaurant. Come early and enjoy dinner and conversation. 

Wednesday, May 26
7:00 - 9:00pm

free event, donations appreciated to cover screening costs.

About the Movie:

Floods, drought, climate change, even war are all directly related to the way we are treating dirt."
DIRT! The Movie--directed and produced by Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow--takes you inside the wonders of the soil. It tells the story of Earth's most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility--from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation.

The opening scenes of the film dive into the wonderment of the soil. Made from the same elements as the stars, plants and animals, and us, "dirt is very much alive." Though, in modern industrial pursuits and clamor for both profit and natural resources, our human connection to and respect for soil has been disrupted. "Drought, climate change, even war are all directly related to the way we are treating dirt."

DIRT! the Movie--narrated by Jaime Lee Curtis--brings to life the environmental, economic, social and political impact that the soil has. It shares the stories of experts from all over the world who study and are able to harness the beauty and power of a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with soil.

DIRT! the Movie is simply a movie about dirt. The real change lies in our notion of what dirt is. The movie teaches us: "When humans arrived 2 million years ago, everything changed for dirt. And from that moment on, the fate of dirt and humans has been intimately linked." But more than the film and the lessons that it teaches, DIRT the Movie is a call to action.

"The only remedy for disconnecting people from the natural world is connecting them to it again."

What we've destroyed, we can heal.

Movie trailer:

Great screening, this time with a theme of "What is Transition?"  We first saw briefly the challenges we face, then saw ways people are adapating, in rural, suburban and urban areas.  We had a lively discussino afterwards, as always.

Harland Family Farm (3:18)
Hippie Gourmet - Off-The-Grid Mansion  (3:57)

Come join us at our next Transition Sebastopol Movie Night at the French Garden Restaurant!

Transition Sebastopol is proud to present, "Transition Movie Shorts".   

We have put together an informative and entertaining collection of short films relevant to

• Food security and production

• Water conservation

• Transition Town Movement

• Energy production and savings.  

Afterward we will gather together to discuss the films and explore our local resources.  We look forward to seeing you there and hearing your voice!:
 

Transition Sebastopol Heart & Soul group invites you to a special evening of Joanna Macy's "The Work that Reconnects."

The Truth Mandala

Community ritual for supporting the transformation of grief into compassion, fear into love and separation into celebration! with Kari Stettler and Stefanie Schulte

Truth-telling is like oxygen: It enlivens us. Without it we grow confused and numb. It is also a homecoming, bringing us back to powerful connection and basic authority - Joanna Macy
Emotions can be a trap, and they can be potent energy for new creation!

Come join us at our next Transition Sebastopol Movie Night at the French Garden Restaurant!

About the Movie:

Colin Beavan decides to completely eliminate his personal impact on the environment for the next year.

It means eating vegetarian, buying only local food, and turning off the refrigerator. It also means no elevators, no television, no cars, busses, or airplanes, no toxic cleaning products, no electricity, no material consumption, and no garbage.

No problem – at least for Colin – but he and his family live in Manhattan. So when his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife Michelle and their two-year-old daughter are dragged into the fray, the No Impact Project has an unforeseen impact of its own.

Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein's film provides an intriguing inside look into the experiment that became a national fascination and media sensation, while examining the familial strains and strengthened bonds that result from Colin and Michelle’s struggle with their radical lifestyle change.

Watch the trailer here:

FREE EVENT
~donations appreciated

Come join us at our next Transition Sebastopol Movie Night at the French Garden Restaurant. Come early and enjoy dinner and conversation. 

 You are invited to the second Transition Sebastopol "Spotlight" happy hour mixer––

Thursday, February 18, 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Pizzavino707, (the old "Lucy's" and "West County" restaurant location just off the town square) 
We will be gathering in the upstairs area near the entrance. 

Please feel free to drop in, have a glass of wine (or two) and chat with other people interested in Transition. 

At each mixer we will feature a brief presentation from someone or some group in our community who is doing important work related to Transition. For this mixer our special guest is Paula Shatkin from Slow Food Russian River who will talk about some of the great things the Slow Food movement is doing in our area. We will also hear from Portia Sinnott from Lite Initiatives with some news related to Transition Sebastopol. The guest appearances will happen around 6:15-6:30 pm. 

We hope to see you there.

Transition Sebastopol Initiating Team
Transition Sebastopol | building community resilience

For more information contact connect@transitionsebastopol.org

Co-sponsored by the Pachamama Alliance and Transition Sebastopol

"This has given me the purpose and drive to change my life. Everyone working for or wanting a better world must see this."
-- JS, Concord, CA

Creating a bold new future.

The Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium is a profound inquiry into a bold vision: To bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on Earth.

You will gain fresh insight about our world, meet like-minded people, find hope and inspiration and leave with clarity how you can help create a new future. If you are ready to explore what this vision means for you, we invite you to attend.

Through dynamic group interactions, leading edge information, and inspiring multimedia, participants of this half-day event are inspired to reconnect with their deep concern for our world, and are empowered to make a difference.

Designed with the collaboration of some of the finest scientific, indigenous and activist minds in the world, the Symposium explores the current state of our planet from a new perspective, and connects participants with a powerful global movement to reclaim our future.

It is an exploration of four questions:

Where Are We? - an examination of the state of environmental, social and personal well-being
How Did We Get Here? - tracing the root causes that lead to our current imbalance
What's Possible for the Future? - discovering new ways of relating with each other, with the Earth and looking at the emerging Movement for change
Where Do We Go from Here? - considering the stand we want to be in the world and our personal and collective impact

If you are ready to be disturbed, inspired and moved to action, and to be introduced to a thriving community of committed cohorts, then join us in exploring the most critical concerns of our times, and discover new opportunities to make a real difference in accelerating the emergence of an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just human presence on this planet!

The New Dream
The Old Dream is dying. Its demise becomes inevitable as we discover the devastation we’ve caused to our own planet home, as we count the rising cost of our inhumanity to each other and as we see how our current way of living fails to deliver lasting happiness. All of these are the inevitable conclusions of an old dream rooted in acquisition, consumption and putting personal gain above communal good.

The New Dream is emerging! It's community, collaboration; it's life-enhancing and earth-honoring; it's together and for our grand-children, rather than Supersize me Now! So we’re seeing the largest social movement of all time, millions of people and organizations working forenvironmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual fulfillment, three facets of a new dream for humanity and planet Earth.

 Transition Movie Series Night

Fresh the Movie