Free films for private viewing were available for event registrants during the Regnerative Communities Summit, September 24 – October 10.

Now anyone can access the films on demand and for free, as well as enjoy the playlist of recorded sessions.

Themes

Just Transition
Crisis as a Catalyst for Transformation
Indigenous Food Sovereignty / Local Food Webs
Co-ops / Local Economies
Disaster / Climate Change and Trauma
Native Wisdom Keepers
Inner Resilience
Deep Adaptation

Film Series at a Glance 

The Response: How Puerto Ricans Are Restoring Power to the People FREE Virtual Screening
Discussion with filmmaker Tom Llewellyn

One Word: Sawalmem FREE Virtual Screening (sign up for one week)
Discussion with Michael “Pom” Preston and filmmaker Natasha Deganello Giraudie

Dancing with the Cannibal Giant: Five New Stories for the Great Transition
Watch on-demand on Films for the Planet anytime
Discussion with filmmaker, Chris Wood of BALE (Building A Local Economy)

GATHER FREE Virtual screening Sept. 28 – Oct. 7
Watch on-demand on Films for the Planet anytime
Ken Meter, author of Building Community Food Webs and Nate Kleinman of Experimental Farm Network 

The Sequel: FREE Virtual Screening Oct. 3- 5
Watch on-demand on Films for the Planet anytime
Watch corresponding workshops

Food Forest Farmers FREE Virtual Screening

Seeding Change: The Power of Conscious Commerce
Watch on-demand on Films for the Planet anytime
Watch corresponding workshops

Shift Change
Watch on-demand on Films for the Planet anytime
Watch corresponding workshops

A New Economy
Watch on-demand on Films for the Planet anytime
Watch corresponding workshops

Watch FREE films at your own pace from April 16 – 23

CLICK HERE to register for the main Freshwaters Summit

Join the film discussions via Zoom or live-stream
on Films for the Planet’s Facebook page

Themes
Monday, April 19 | State of the River
Tuesday, April 20 | Governance
Wednesday, April 21 | Protecting the River
Thursday, April 22 | Food and Agriculture
Friday, April 23 | Lifestyles in Harmony with Nature
River Stories
Resources

Film discussion: Cultivating Indigenous Food Sovereignty and Local Food Webs

Moderated by Thea LaGrou with Ken Meter, author of Building Community Food Webs and Nate Kleinman of Experimental Farm Network 

Corresponding Workshops

Regional Food Systems: Essential for Resilience 

Awakening to our Indigeneity and Decolonizing

“Gather” outlines the revitalization and re-creation of Indigenous food systems in North America.

“Gather” follows the stories of Native Americans on the frontlines of a growing movement to reconnect with spiritual and cultural identities that were devastated by genocide. An Indigenous chef embarks on an ambitious project to reclaim ancient foodways on the Apache Reservation; in South Dakota, a gifted Lakota high school student raised on a buffalo ranch is proving her tribe’s Native wisdom through her passion for science; and a group of young men of the Yurok tribe in Northern California is struggling to keep their culture alive and rehabilitate the habitat of their sacred salmon. All these stories combine to show how the reclaiming and recovery of ancient foodways is a way forward for Native Americans to bring back health and vitality to their people.

The film discussion outcomes and calls to action:  

• “From What is to What if”. Understanding the connection between food sovereignty, community food webs and economic resilience. What’s next?  
• Community: The table is where we come together  
• Honoring Indigenous knowledge and developing communities of trust for future success   
• Seed Stories: Cultivating a culture of seed sovereignty and stewardship 
• Volunteering with your community garden
• Hosting a traditional cooking class or foraging event to gather traditional foods.

Seeds are a vibrant and vital foundation for food sovereignty, and are the basis for a sustainable, healthy agriculture.  We understand that seeds are our precious collective inheritance and it is our responsibility to care for the seeds as part of our responsibility to feed and nourish ourselves and future generations.

The mission of the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network (ISKN) is to nourish and assist the growing Seed Sovereignty Movement across Turtle Island ( North America). As a national network, we leverage resources and cultivate solidarity and communication within the matrix of regional grass-roots tribal seed sovereignty projects.  

Film discussion: Restoring Power – Crisis as an Opportunity for Community Resilience
Moderator Thea La Grou with filmmaker Tom Llewellyn

Corresponding Plenary
Crisis as Catalyst for Transformation   

In the wake of Hurricane Maria, a quiet revolution has been percolating on the island of Puerto Rico. What began as an impromptu community kitchen meant to help feed survivors in the town of Caguas quickly grew into an island-wide network of mutual aid centers (Centros de Apoyo Mutuo) with the ultimate goal to restore power — both electric and civic — to the people.

Film discussion moderated by Ruah Swennerfelt with 
presenters: Michael “Pom” Preston and Natasha Deganello Giraudie 

In his uplifting and internationally-acclaimed short film One Word Sawalmem, co-director Michael “Pom” Preston of the Winnemem Wintu tribe of Mt. Shasta, California gives us a rare look into the life of local Native wisdom keepers – people who hold humanity’s most intimate knowledge about how to live in balance with the Earth and how to thrive with the natural world. The film invites us to consider how the healing of the planet could be facilitated by shifting our relationship with the Earth – from the current mainstream economic one based in exploitation and domination, to the type of relationship that human beings have held dear for tens of thousands of years – a sacred one that is based in respect and reciprocity.

Film discussion: Moving beyond disempowerment towards wisdom in the face of climate adversity – Moderator: Ruah Swennerfelt with Chris Wood of BALE (Building A Local Economy)

“Dancing with the Cannibal Giant: Five New Stories for the Great Transition” film was created as an educational tool that can be used to move us beyond disempowerment, in order to enact real change in a changing world.  Chris Wood was inspired to create a film that would answer the question: “Will we have the wisdom to survive climate chaos and planetary destruction?” – after he had seen Old Dog Documentaries’ film:  THE WISDOM TO SURVIVE: Climate Change, Capitalism, and Community.

Dancing with the Cannibal Giant: offers five stories that answer this very question, and invite its viewers to ask themselves: what am I doing and what are we doing, together, to put the giant back to sleep?

Corresponding  Workshops:
Learn about the international movement – its purpose, projects and impact around the world

Catalyzing Local Economic Transformation

Bioregionalism and Regional Organizing

National Movement Building

Opening with a powerful ‘deep time’ perspective, from the beginning of the Earth to our present moment, The Sequel recognizes the fundamental unsustainability of today’s society and dares to ask the big question: What will follow? The documentary draws upon the inspirational work of historian, economist, ecologist and grandfather of the Transition movement, Dr. David Fleming.

In the film, we encounter extraordinary people and projects from four continents that are cultivating a resilience not reliant on the impossible promise of eternal economic growth: renegade economist Kate Raworth, conservative philosopher Roger Scruton, Gaian ecologist Stephan Harding, localization revolutionary Helena Norberg-Hodge, inspirational practivist and Transition Network co-founder Rob Hopkins, eco-pioneer and Forum for the Future co-founder Jonathon Porritt and philanthropist/composer Peter Buffett, among many others.

As we discover, all were inspired by a work of rare depth that is rekindling optimism in the creativity and intelligence of humans to nurse our communities and ecology back to health.

The Sequel recognizes the fundamentally unsustainable framework of today’s society and dares to ask the big question: What will follow?

Corresponding Workshops

Cultivating Indigenous Food Sovereignty and Local Food Webs 

Regional Food Systems: Essential for Resilience 

Syntropic farming is a new and ancient regenerative agriculture practice that can be implemented in any region, in any climate, in limitless ways – even in your own back yard. For over a decade the Lotz-Keegan family have been implementing permaculture practices to regenerate a degraded hillside into an abundant food forest of native and exotic trees that feed their family, their community, the wildlife, the soil, and their souls.

Combining the practices of syntropic agroforestry with the principles of permaculture and their own deeply thoughtful approach to land regeneration, food growing, and lifestyle, this family is partnering with nature to create a humming diversity on the land and a positive story about the role of humans in an ecosystem.

Corresponding Workshops

 Catalyzing Local Economic Transformation

The ABC’s of Local Investment 

”Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work” tells the little known stories of employee-owned businesses that  provide secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces.

With the long decline in US manufacturing and today’s economic crisis, millions have been thrown out of work, and many are losing their homes. The usual economic solutions are not working.  There is growing interest in firms that are owned and managed by their workers. Such firms tend to be more profitable and innovative, and more committed to the communities where they are based. Yet the public has little knowledge of their success, and the promise they offer for a better life.

Corresponding Workshops

 Catalyzing Local Economic Transformation

The ABC’s of Local Investment 

20 years ago, a young group of social entrepreneurs started a company to sustainably harvest açaí berries in the Brazilian Amazon. They joined a movement of purpose-driven companies looking to change the world through an alternative economic model. These “triple bottom line” businesses measure success not only financially. But also socially and environmentally. Their practice of “conscious commerce” offers solutions to some of today’s most pressing social and environmental issues. This award-winning documentary empowers viewers to be part of the solution by “voting with their dollars” and supporting brands and products that make positive changes for the planet.

Corresponding Workshops: Starting a Cooperative, Catalyzing Local Economic Transformation

What if working together for the good of all was the most common business model? 

A New Economy features six cooperatively owned businesses, markets and social enterprises, urban farms and open value networks using commons-based production methodologies. By putting humanity before the bottom line, they are finding their place in a new economy no longer dominated by profits and big business.

This documentary features commentary by Gar Alperovitz (co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative and co-chair of its Next System Project); Richard Sennett (whose background is in ethnography, history and social theory) and John Fullerton (author of Regenerative Capitalism: How Universal Principles and Patterns Will Shape the New Economy)

Films for the Planet is a project of Compathos Foundation, a 501(c)(3) arts and media nonprofit. Thank you for your kind support which helps us expand our library of educational films and continue to produce our streaming film events free of charge. Our media-rich learning journeys contain timely interviews and a wealth of solution-oriented educational and take action resources. We hope you have enjoyed ReGenerative Communities Film Series in partnership with Transition US.  We look forward to sharing more enlightening films in the future!

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