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."
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.
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.
‘The Age Of Stupid’ is the new documentary-drama-animation hybrid from Director Franny Armstrong (McLibel, Drowned Out) and Oscar-winning Producer John Battsek (One Day In September, Live Forever, In the Shadow of the Moon). Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off, The Usual Suspects) stars as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055. He watches 'archive' footage from 2008 and asks: Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?
Runaway climate change has ravaged the planet by 2055. Pete plays the founder of The Global Archive, a storage facility located in the (now melted) Arctic, preserving all of humanity's achievements in the hope that the planet might one day be habitable again. Or that intelligent life may arrive and make use of all that we’ve achieved. He pulls together clips of “archive” news and documentary from 1950->2008 to build a message showing what went wrong and why. He focusses on six human stories:
- Alvin Duvernay, is a paleontogolist helping Shell find more oil off the coast of New Orleans. He also rescued more than 100 people after Hurricane Katrina, which, by 2055, is well known as one of the first “major climate change events”. - Jeh Wadia in Mumbai aims to start-up a new low-cost airline and gets a million Indians flying.
- Layefa Malemi lives in absolute poverty in a small village in Nigeria from which Shell extracts tens of millions of dollars worth of oil every week. She dreams of becoming a doctor, but must fish in the oil-infested waters for four years to raise the funds. - Jamila Bayyoud, aged 8, is an Iraqi refugee living on the streets of Jordan after her home was destroyed - and father killed - during the US-led invasion of 2003. She’s trying to help her elder brother make it across the border to safety. - Piers Guy is a windfarm developer from Cornwall fighting the NIMBYs of Middle England. - 82-year-old French mountain guide Fernand Pareau has witnessed his beloved Alpine glaciers melt by 150 metres.
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 27 7:00 - 9:30pm free event, donations appreciated
Synopsis
FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.
Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.
Total running time: 72 minutes Production year: 2009
Come join us at our next Transition Sebastopol Movie Night at the French Garden Restaurant. Come early and enjoy dinner and conversation.
Flow Synopsis
Water is the very essence of life. It sustains every living being on this planet and without it, there would be nothing...
FLOW - Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.
Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.
Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question ‘CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?’
Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.
Here's hoping for a joyous holiday season for you and your family.
Please join Transition Sebastopol as it celebrates the completion of its first year with a holiday mixer on Wednesday, December 16, 5:30 – 7:30 PM, at 707 Pizza Vino, on the Sebastopol Plaza at 6948 Sebastopol Ave. (the old "Lucy's" and "West County" restaurant location). 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. This is an informal meeting without an agenda other than just having fun. We might make a (very) brief presentation of where things stand with Transition Sebastopol after it's first year.