Films of Vision and Hope

Film Series and Community Building

Series: Food Issues

May 14 – June 18, 2010

May 14 – Power of Community - When the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba couldn’t export its sugar or import oil . This film shows how Cuba weathered the crisis. Powerful, insightful, and uplifting. Don’t miss this one!

May 21 – King Corn – A feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.

May 28 – Two Angry Moms – What’s wrong with school lunches? Strategies for overcoming roadblocks and getting healthy, good tasting, real food into school cafeterias.

June 4 – Establishing a Food Forest – How to establish and maintain a food forest, one of the main sustainable systems that will allow us to inhabit this planet indefinitely.

June 11 – In Transition – How local communities, like ours, can respond to peak oil and global warming while building community and enjoying life.

June 18 – Potluck (Let’s share food that’s been grown within 100 miles !)

Lively discussions will follow each film.

Sponsored by Acterra, Silicon Valley Action Network, Slow Food South Bay, Transition Palo Alto, Transition Silicon Valley, and World Centric

Series:  Community, Connection and Sustainability

February 19 – March 19, 2010

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 series of films that focus on hopeful and positive solutions to problems affecting our world. Dates: Feb 19 – March 19. Five Fridays. Time: 7:30 – 9:30 pm Place: Acterra 3921 E Bayshore Rd., Palo Alto Directions No charge for this event.

Feb 19: The Power of Community

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. (post-film discussion “map”, PDF)

Feb 26: The Yes Men

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. (post-film discussion “map”, PDF)

March 5: What’s the Economy for, Anyway?

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. (post-film discussion “map”, PDF)

March 12: In Transition

‘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 humor, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun. (post-film discussion “map”, PDF)

March 19: Follow-up

World Cafe discussion of themes from the movies, particularly around ideas of “community”. Flyer for the film series (PDF)

Sponsored by Acterra, Silicon Valley Action Network, Transition Palo Alto, and Transition Silicon Valley