Friends,
Thanks so much for your encouraging responses re/ the documentary,
"An Inconvenient Necessity". My next task is to create the Treatment
document, and find a way to bring it to the attention of an
appropriate producer. This needs to be a first-rate production, with
adequate funding for worldwide shooting sites, a top-quality
production team and director, and good promotion. I believe the key
to achieving this is to find an established producer who is
enthusiastic about the project, and who has a strong contact base and
access to friendly investors. Alternatively, if I can get a film star
interested, he or she could probably recruit a producer. Suggestions
in this regard, or better yet contacts, will be welcome.
rkm
____________________
* re/migration
A good number of you have migrated to yahoo already, but most
haven't. We do need to migrate the lists, so please take a moment and
do so when you get a chance. Once again, here are the new subscribe
addresses:
•••@••.•••
newslog •••@••.•••
and here are the unsubscribe addresses:
•••@••.•••
•••@••.•••
•••@••.•••
One of the unsubscribe addresses in the previous posting had an extra
space, as someone pointed out. That is fixed above. One person wrote
in and said they had complaints against Yahoo, but I've had no
problem with them myself and their service offers the features we
need. If any problem does arise, we can migrate somewhere else. Our
website and archives remain on our own server; it is only our email
distribution that we are entrusting to outside services.
____________________
* re/documentary
--------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 03:56:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: WellDunn/Tacenda <>
Subject: Re: * rkm - ANNOUNCEMENTS *
To: Richard Moore <•••@••.•••>
glad I noticed this one way back there..great idea on this film. I
will forward the film section to a few people, and see if they
'bite'..Of course, Humboldt Country has many, many organic growers
here...
I note that Sean Penn narrated Neal Simonson's documentary Amy
Goodman Played today on Democracy Now...I thought he sounded real
good. He must like to help that way, and of course Leonard DiCaprio
is someone to write...I will ask a couple people who know people. I
signed up for the cyber journal one, should I do all of them? I got a
bit confused , must be the 4 am woozies,
peace and love, Penny Lynn Dunn
____________________
Hi Peggy,
Very nice to hear from you. Many thanks for your outreach to
contacts, and I look forward to hearing back about those. I've now
got four candidates for narrator:
Bruce Willis
George Clooney
Sean Penn
Leonardo DiCaprio
As regards the lists. •••@••.••• is the
continuation of this list, our discussion forum, which is relatively
low traffic. •••@••.••• is a high-traffic list where I
post lots of news items, sometimes with comments. newslog also
receives the cyberjournal postings, so if you subscribe to that you
get everything, and lots of it. I've noticed that several people are
subscribed to both lists, and that collects the cyberjournal postings
nicely into a separate folder.
cheers,
rkm
--------------------------------------------------------
From: "Joanna Santa Barbara" <•••@••.•••>
To: <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: * rkm - ANNOUNCEMENTS *
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 10:11:02 -0400
Dear Richard,
This is a wonderful concept, both in terms of the topic and the
framing you've conceived.
I hope you'll receive lots of suggestions for sites. Cuba should be
on the list, for its development of urban agriculture with
post-carbon technology, using science and permaculture concepts.
If you were interested in any footage of the 'new relocalizers', I'm
joining such an endeavour in New Zealand later this year, beginning
with bare (deforested) land, and aiming for a high level of
sustainable self-sufficient food production among other goals.
Incidental to the film's purposes, I plan to look hard at your ideas
on governance as I enter this beginning community.
Warm wishes,
Joanna Santa Barbara, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
____________________
Hi Joanna,
Thanks for your encouragement. Yes, the developments in Cuba are
extraordinary. Indeed, the Community Solutions film was an
inspiration for this project. I'm doubt if I'll use Cuba in the film
however, because of the knee-jerk negative response many would have
to the mere mention of Cuba. No need to create unnecessary barriers
to the film's success. Fortunately, there are plenty of other places
where we can find the subjects we want to film.
Please keep me informed about you relocalization adventure. Sounds exciting.
Intentional communities are a special case as regards governance.
You've typically got a combination of community dynamics and family
dynamics. Often there is a 'father' or 'mother' figure who plays a
role in initiating and bringing energy into the endeavor. I visited
an ecovillage in Eugene and I found it wasn't run in a way I
considered to be democratic, and I found that this was completely OK
in that context. The 'mommy & daddy' couple were running a very good
operation, bringing in other people in a fair and respectful manner,
and their 'ownership energy' was critical to the overall success of
the venture. The one thing I would suggest for all intentional
communities is that they have regular meetings (including children
over a certain age),use a good dialog process, and develop their
facilitation skills.
cheers,
rkm
--------------------------------------------------------
From: "Steve Feast" <>
To: •••@••.•••
Subject: RE: * rkm - ANNOUNCEMENTS *
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 11:46:25 +0800
Hi Richard,
What a great idea! I can just see people sitting in the cinema
watching the film, and the screen pauses - like on a vieo or dvd -
and after a couple of seconds a voice-over says something like "what
a load of rubbish", another pause, then another voice-over "why do
you say that?", cut to the DF group and the dialog is away... Or
something like that.
All the best.
STeven
____________________
Hi Steven,
That's a great concept! Here's how I'd describe it...
Audience comes in expecting to see a documentary. It begins, goes on
for an indefinite period, until someone in the dialog group feels
moved to interrupt with a comment. The sound track then shifts to the
dialog room, PAUSE appears on the screen after a second, and we pan
back to the room. The facilitator follows up on the interruption and
encourages people to comment on what they've just seen. This is a key
dramatic moment, and needs to be presented so that the audience is
intrigued by the unexpected innovation, and begins to identify with
the dialog process.
thanks,
rkm
--------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 May 2007 22:09:05 -0700
To: •••@••.•••
From: Molly Morgan <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: * rkm - ANNOUNCEMENTS *
Hi, Richard -
rkm> It will be important to have a well-known personality /
star to narrate. That is what can bring in big audiences,
and hence it also enables getting the financing. I'm
thinking of someone like Bruce Willits
This is a very funny typo to me! Most people have probably never
heard of Willits, but it's a lovely irony that some of the best
sustainability work in the US is happening there (WELL, John Jeavons,
etc.). I wonder if Sean Penn is a candidate for this? He's been very
vocally opposed to the war, but I don't know where he is on
solutions. He is so intelligent that I would like to think he's a
deep thinker on this.
What occurred to me as I read your description of the inner and outer
version of the movie is that people in the audience watching the
finished film will be having a kind of fishbowl experience, except
there is no opportunity for them to get into the fishbowl and be in
the discussion that's happening on film -- but they'll get to listen
in on the group that's in the film. I presume you are familiar with
this form of discussion, and maybe there's some way to take
facilitators' fishbowl experience into the design of the film.
Very exciting stuff!
cheers,
molly
____________________
Hi Molly,
Thanks for the fishbowl observation. Rosa Zubizarreta, who is
experienced with many kinds of facilitation, has agreed to be our
facilitator. She'll be involved in the participant selection process,
the design of the room, the editing of the dialog sequences, etc. The
film should be an excellent vehicle to familiarize large audiences
with the potential of dialog, and awaken them to the notion that we
the people are capable of tackling the problems that face humanity.
please stay in touch,
rkm
--------------------------------------------------------
From: •••@••.•••
Date: Mon, 28 May 2007 23:01:41 EDT
Subject: Re: * rkm - ANNOUNCEMENTS *
To: •••@••.•••
hi. great idea. actually, it's bruce willis.
leo di caprio is big on sustainability, too.
have you ever done film? mlp
____________________
Hi Marilyn,
I've never done film, and I'll depend on the producer and director to
make things happen. The roles I want are to write the 'screenplay',
help choose the locations, do the interviews, and participate in the
final editing. Thanks for suggesting Leonardo.
rkm
--------------------------------------------------------
From: "David Lewit" <•••@••.•••>
To: <•••@••.•••>
Subject: RE: * rkm - ANNOUNCEMENTS *
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 03:21:57 -0400
Hi, Richard
Wonderful! Your plan sounds wonderful. So where do you think you'll
shoot the dialog group? Where is it needed most? Probably in the
USA, where middle class people at least need to break through the
bubble of propaganda and complacency. Then there are the less
privileged---how will you include them? And then there are the
specially privileged---like congress members, or ex-members. Or
Republicans of the Gingrich variety. Will you do them? Might there
be two dialog groups?
____________________
Hi David,
The dialog group will be in a studio, not associated with a location.
The people will be from different parts of the world, making it a
microcosm global gathering. Some from the North, some from the South,
old & young, left & right, male & female, dark & light, Muslim, Jew &
Christian, etc. They'll be ordinary people, not officials or leaders.
we'll do our best on diversity but we can't cover every imaginable
category. I'm confident everyone in the audience will find at least
one person they can identify with.
rkm
--------------------------------------------------------
From: "David Lewit" <•••@••.•••>
To: "'Richard Moore'" <•••@••.•••>
Subject: RE: * rkm - ANNOUNCEMENTS * Might there be two dialog groups?
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 10:59:54 -0400
So, a virtual group. Because they will each be sitting in a studio
somewhere, they will all or most be urban dwellers, which is a
limitation. I'd hope you could bring in an Indian farmer, and a
Chinese food market manager---a daunting task. But so wide a
diversity poses serious problems. One is simply language
translation. Another is discomfort in talking with others so
different. Along with this is concern about being watched by
authorities and worry about being politically incorrect for the
regime you live with...
Seems to me you'd be best off sticking with your original way of
mixing---more moderate heterogeneity: folks from a single community,
in a face-to-face group. Thus you might reconsider and have two
groups to provide between-group diversity. For example, one from
India, and another from Indiana---or Ireland.
____________________
Hi again,
Many thanks for your creative thinking! What I've got in mind is a
face-to-face group in a studio, where the participants are brought in
from around the world, paid well for their time, and given
comfortable accommodations for the filming period. Good English will
be a requirement (to support the dialog), and I don't see that as
limiting our ability to achieve desired diversity. 'Indian farmer'
and 'Chinese food market manager' are very much the kind of people
we're looking for.
We're not looking for activist leaders (that would be a different
film), so I'm not overly concerned about 'fear of authorities'. As
for 'discomfort', overcoming that is part of a good facilitation
process. For this film, dealing with global issues, I think it is
appropriate to have a dialog group that serves as a microcosm of the
global society. A local community group would be appropriate for a
film promoting community empowerment, and that could be a very good
follow-on project.
cheers,
rkm
--------------------------------------------------------
From: "Howard Switzer" <•••@••.•••>
To: <•••@••.•••>,
<•••@••.•••>,
<•••@••.•••>
Subject: on the film
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 13:37:06 -0500
Great idea Richard! I like this approach very much. I want to do
some dynamic facilitation in our community too but haven't had the
time to pursue it lately. this could be a great way to introduce it
to folks.
Not sure how we can help but we do know a really good video editor
here in Nashville, my brother-in-law. He won an award for his work
on Emmy Lou Harris's documentary music video, Wrecking Ball.
We have been doing a PPT presentation we created called "The Paradox
of Green Building" in which we identify two major paradoxes with
small ones throughout. The 2 major ones being, "Our ancestors did it
and we don't" and "Much of what is called Green isn't." That is if
green = sustainable. With that we can talk about low impact building
and the future of building. In the natural building courses I teach
at ETC I like to refer to it as post apocalypse building. :-)
Howard Switzer
<http://www.earthandstraw.net>
931-589-6513
____________________
Hi Howard,
Yes, I'm hoping the film will provide a significant boost to all
sorts of dialog efforts everywhere. Effective dialog does not exist
as a notion in the general public consciousness, and this needs to
change.
When I finish my Treatment, perhaps you could pass it by your
brother-in-law for comment. Perhaps also he has contacts that would
be useful. I imagine we'll need to use an editor that is already
familiar to our production team, but who knows?
I went to your website -- very impressive. I saw lots there that
would be candidates for N America locations. I'd like to see your
power point presentation.
"Much of what is called Green isn't" -- this is a very important
observation. Rather than suppressing Green energy, the establishment
is using Aikido against it: shifting energy into endeavors that are
non-systemic, non-threatening -- and beneficial to the establishment.
Many activists and citizens fall into the trap, supporting things
that 'seem to have momentum'. That perceived momentum can be provided
by grants, and by media coverage. The best current example is of
course global warming, which has been totally sidetracked and
co-opted.
The same thing applies to 'ending world hunger and poverty'. I'm
thinking of NGOs like Oxfam, who sponsor ads on TV showing starving
children, and asking you to donate a small amount each month. I'm
sure the NGO people are sincere and are really helping people where
they can. But in the overall picture, the net effect of such NGOs is
to perpetuate imperialism and suffering in the third world. They do
this by (1) never talking about the systemic causes of the problems,
(2) creating the impression individual contributions are the answer,
and (3) creating the impression that the problems are being dealt
with as best they can be. Altogether this diverts mass energy away
from struggling against the machinery of imperialism
best wishes,
rkm
--------------------------------------------------------
From: "Jerry Gutenschwager" <•••@••.•••>
To: <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: * rkm - ANNOUNCEMENTS *
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 17:11:58 +0300
Richard,
I applaud the use of dramatic form to communicate important messages.
This is much of what I was arguing for in my book as the
sociodramatic approach to social science and planning (last part of
chapter 3 and chapter 9). It
occurs to me that your outer film acts in much the same way as the
chorus acted in ancient Greek drama. I don't know if you have ever
seen a performance as enacted in one of the ancient theaters in
Greece, but the effect of the chorus is quite dramatic. In a
combination of sound and dance the chorus leads the audience in its
emotional response to the dramatic action taking place on the 'inner
stage'. In that sense, you might want to think of the outer film not
only in cognitive but in emotional and moral terms as well. All three
of these dimensions are present in the social construction of the
reality which we all occupy, though the emotional and moral aspects
tend to be downplayed in the hyper-rational world created by the
onslaught of science in the past century or two.
I have renewed my efforts to have you speak here at the University of
Thessaly. This has been something of a lost year because the students
were on strike and/or protesting most of the year in opposition to
the efforts of the right wing party in power to legalize private
higher education in Greece. I will keep you informed if and when
there is any progress on your visit.
Jerry
____________________
Hi Jerry,
Yes, the Greek Chorus does seem to be a precedent for this approach.
The difference is that our group won't be scripted, and what it
evokes in the audience will depend on what spontaneously emerges in
the dialog. I have no doubt that cognitive, emotional, and moral
dimensions will be in evidence.
Thanks for your efforts re/ an appearance in Thessaly. If that works
out, I'd need some briefing on local attitudes and initiatives, so I
could relate that to what I have to say. You've already started that
briefing with your comments on the student protests. Privatization
seems to be everywhere the leading edge of the neoliberal assault on
civil society and responsive governance.
Your message reminds me that the film will need to budget for
subtitles in all the major languages.
all the best,
rkm
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