Blog
Oh, I'm so happy to report that we had two successful screenings last week. Both were well attended (the rooms were dark, hence the lack of photographic evidence this time around) and people had a lot of things to say at the end!
We are proud of the progress of the rough-cut. It was very gratifying to watch the film with an audience and see what people responded to and what they didn't. (Special shout-out to Martin Litton!!) We have worked long and hard on this cut, no one more than Mark. He was pleased, as he should be, with the film. There are still some major hurdles to cross, a beginning and an ending to say the least. The first four acts have had two go-rounds, whereas the fifth act only has one pass as of yet. This was apparent to the audience, and it was indeed important for us to be able to get the feedback that we did! So thanks to all that came, supported and offered opinions!
Here are some excerpts from some of my favorite comments:
David says: "you have a problem with the last act being totally depressing. And I assume you'll be adding the oil-spill, another very depressing tale. I'm sure you agree that you don't want a depressing, demoralizing, hopeless, "we're really totally fucked" ending."
Powerful images from the recent oilspill in the Gulf Coast
Written by Tamara AlexaThese images really bring home the recent disaster in the Gulf Coast.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html
We had our first screening of the film in public last Sunday at the Green Festival in San Francisco. Despite heavy rain it was well attended. The sound was a bit of an issue, but all in all it was fun to show some snippits of the film.
Here is some photographic evidence!
The Obama administrations announcement on Tuesday that more reserves will be open to more offshore drilling have hit me personally quite hard. I find ii very difficult to stomach that we will be not only spending resources to research avenues that are unsustainable but that if more reserves are discovered it simply means more emissions. What is the other side? Is it simply a compromise that will result in an easier passage of the energy bill? I hope so, but doesn't seem likely.
"But while Mr. Obama has staked out middle ground on other environmental matters — supporting nuclear power, for example — the sheer breadth of the offshore drilling decision will take some of his supporters aback. And it is no sure thing that it will win support for a climate bill from undecided senators close to the oil industry, like Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, or Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana."
New studies show that perhaps it does make a difference where CO2 is emmited.
But a new study just published in Environmental Science and Technology by Stanford's Mark Jacobson adds a slight twist to this standard view. Older research has found that local "domes" of high CO2 levels can often form over cities. What Jacobson found was that these domes can have a serious local impact: Among other things, they worsen the effects of localized air pollutants like ozone and particulates, which cause respiratory diseases and the like. As a result, Jacobson estimates that local CO2 emissions cause anywhere from 300 to 1,000 premature deaths in the United States each year. And presumably the problem's much worse in developing countries.
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-03-17-if-it-does-matter-where-co2-is-released-cities-are-in-trouble
There is much debate on the efforts of Wal-Mart's attempt to "green" itself.
First there is good news:
"Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, announced on Thursday that it would cut some 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain by the end of 2015 — the equivalent of removing more than 3.8 million cars from the road for a year."
and the mixed news:
"One of the significant consequences of Wal-Mart's rise and radical reshaping of the global economy has been a steep decline in the life span of many products. We wear out clothing, toasters, DVD players, and even furniture at a pretty rapid clip these days. It's part of the reason Americans are now creating twice as much trash as we did twenty years ago."
http://www.grist.org/article/putting-wal-marts-green-moves-in-context
A recent artivle in the New York Times highlighted the pollution problems in California:
"Air pollution led to almost 30,000 hospital admissions and emergency room visits for asthma, pneumonia and other respiratory and cardiovascular ailments from 2005 to 2007. Three quarters of the complaints were related to fine particulate pollution, or small pieces of soot that get trapped in the lungs, and the remainder were caused by ozone."
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/health-costs-of-california-air-pollution/
Yes I'm in Berlin, just shot the last interview of the trip tonight, went to midnight. With Wolfgang Sachs, who's as German as they come, a brilliant intellectual. What got him started was coming to California and seeing modernity and deciding against it. Hah!
We talked thru Greenpeace -- he was an early member of it in Germany, led me thru its evolution here. Interesting stuff about how it had to get beyond whales and confrontation, grow up and consolidate or die. WS was never much into whales, did a funny bit about the PR involved in making whales like humans. Talked of how Greenpeace had to keep going back to the whale issue because of the kids and the money it brought in. But it had a downside too. WS wasn't much help on the long battle to get the IWC moratorium. So I strike out again -- may have to just narrate that part.
WS was very good on development and equity, which are his signature issues; he edited the Development Dictionary, a series of essays from the anti-development radicals. WS made a passionate case for ecology and equity being inextricably linked. Then we went on to sustainable development, for which he did a great bit about the bastardization of sustainability by linking it to development -- as if the purpose of sustainability was to save this economic paradigm rather than the biosphere that supports it. Then we jumped into Act 5 and I made him do sustainability.
He and his cohorts at Wuppertal institute did a study, Greening the North, that actually took the promises of Rio and tried to figure out how to make them real. I put it to him that way and he responded well, hit the right notes about efficiency and sufficiency, doing things right and doing the right things. We talked of Factor Ten (a tenfold reduction in resource use) and he told how he and his fellow academics laid out this vision and now it has become official policy. Talked of 25% of the world consuming 75% of resources, how much trouble that is, not just for blue-eyed moralists but all the havoc that will wreak in time.
We went on into the specifics of sustainability, what changes need to happen, reinventing the way we do everything, then concentrating on energy. He did a nice recurring bit about how radicals posed wind turbines against nuclear power and how it has come to pass that they are now officially embraced, the mainstream. I challenged him on sustainability, whether we're going to make it. He did a great bit in here, saying yes, but not without shocks and disruptions and people failing to make the change until they wake up! (great eyes he has, love the way they can shoot open for emphasis.)
He went on to talk of two crises -- climate change and fossil fuels running out, how the latter will happen before the former -- and how it may be fortunate that they are coming together, to ease the way and bring home economically the reality of climate change. Then he closed with a great bit about the movement, essentially preparing the alternatives for the time when crisis hits and people wake up and look around for alternatives -- proven and ready to go.
Tomorrow is Wolfgang Sachs. Then done with this round of interviews except for a couple at home in February. Tom Burke went well. Probably at least half of the interview is unusable for being off-topic. But he gave us excellent stuff to use for opening of Act 4, about how enviro issues went from easy to hard, rise of global systemic issues, US losing lead to Europe. Also good stuff on campaign to ban whaling -- Friends of the Earth was in the lead on that issue.
Blog
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Screenings!
Oh, I'm so happy to report that we…
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Powerful images from the recent oilspill in the Gulf Coast
These images really bring home the recent disaster…
Read more...
-
Green Fest Screening
We had our first screening of the film…
Read more...
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off-shore, what will it mean?
The Obama administrations announcement on Tuesday that more…
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Pollution: are cities more at risk?
New studies show that perhaps it does make…
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