A Clearer View, a documentary by Al Mayberry. The film shows Marin County high school students eloquently making their case for an upgrade from the current, purely academic, competitive, school system. It goes on to showcase a model school in Colorado where the changes the students are requesting are already developed and proven. Students in the Jefferson County Open School learn by a self-directed, open system that focuses on education as a form of personal growth. The open school system helps build confidence in students because they are able to direct their energies in areas that personally interest them. The process encourages self-direction, which prepares students to excel in the real world. This film is a must see for those interested in state of the art education for our kids.

This was an evening of film, song, stories, and a bird-calling contest as we learned how to create and protect songbird habitat in Marin. The evening featured Melissa Pitkin, Pt. Reyes Bird Observatory’s Education & Outreach Director, who taught about the songbird-breeding season and explained why it is such a critical time in a bird’s life. In addition, she outlined simple ways individuals can help birds at their homes, schools, ranches, and public lands. Also on hand was writer & director Claire Blotter, who screened her video documentary, Wake-Up Call: Saving The Songbirds. Her film celebrates migratory birds and their beautiful, complex songs. It also shows why songbirds are rapidly disappearing throughout the world and how both children and adults can help to preserve them by working in their "own backyards." Includes humorous footage of acclaimed Piedmont High bird callers. We were also treated to a performance by singer and storyteller Sheilah Glover. 

This was the third film in our Summer Permaculture Series! Guest speaker Erik Ohlsen is a permaculturist and co-founder of Planting Earth Activation (PEA). PEA is a non-profit collective of gardeners, permaculturists and activists that work to build community, save seeds, educate about ecological design systems, and activate cultural renewal towards sustainability. Erik will talked about how permaculture can create ecologically sustainable systems appropriate to the scale of our communities, solve communal and individual problems, and serve as a guide to a more sustainable lifestyle. His presentation included practical and easy steps to community self-reliance, involving food, water, shelter & other community needs.

This was the second film in our Summer Permaculture Series! Guest speaker Trathen Heckman is a permaculturist who presented a slide show chronicling the transformation of his hillside home in Sonoma County. Topics included use of local and recycled materials to build retaining walls, erosion control on steep hills, and growing in mixed light conditions. Trathen also publishes a ‘zine, Ripples, as part of Daily Acts, an organization promoting greater awareness of how choices we make each day can be used to “speak truth to our values.”

This was the first film in our Summer Permaculture Series: Global Gardener, featuring practical visionary, Bill Mollison, known as the father of Permaculture. In this series we learned how Permaculture uses principles of sustainability to go beyond the garden and create a closer sense of community! Guest speaker Capra J’neva, of the Permaculture Institute of Northern California, was on hand to talk about Urban Permaculture - designing integrated home systems to provide food, water, and energy. Topics discussed included solar design and alternative fuels.

This month, our Sustainability Film Series hosted the Circle of Life Midwifery Center for an evening focused on home birth. The program included 2 videos: Giving Birth: Challenges and Choices & Birth Day. 

This was the first film of 2002 – the Green Peace film: Arctic Meltdown shown as part of our Local Solutions to Global Problems! presentation. Fairfax Mayor Lew Tremaine hosted Sustainable Fairfax in an evening focus on local solutions to global climate change at the Fairfax Women's Club. We learned more about what we can do to help! Featuring: Abby Young, US Director, Cities for Climate Protection Campaign; Lew reporting back from the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign 2002 International Workshop for Local Governments; plus the film. 

Due to the many requests we had a third showing of PUBLIC EXPOSURE: DNA, Democracy & the "Wireless Revolution"

PUBLIC EXPOSURE takes a cutting-edge look at the science, the economics, the politics and potentially irreversible health effects of the so-called wireless revolution. International in scope, like the escalating problems it portrays, PUBLIC EXPOSURE unfolds through the Individual, local stories of diverse scientists, activists and concerned public decision-makers. It is the only educational documentary on the subject at the moment made in English, and one of the few which exists globally in any language. A timely and provocative 58 minute film, co-produced by Libby Kelley, Council on wireless Technology Impacts, and EON International, Public Exposure portrays public health issues related to the emerging "wireless age" from a citizens rights and consumer advocacy perspective.

About the Filmmakers: Mary Beth Brangan and Jim Heddle, partners for eighteen years in Options 2000 International, are documentary video and radio producers, educators and community and international campaign organizers. They are the award-winning producers of 15 social/environmental issue documentaries which have been broadcast and toured nationally and internationally, aired in Congress, the United Nations, PBS, CNN, ABC, cable and used in Parliaments, universities and libraries worldwide. Successful human rights and environmental issue campaigners, they are cofounders of the Nuclear Democracy Network, the Bay Area Nuclear (BAN) Waste Coalition, the Council for Alternative Security in the Asia Pacific and EON, the Ecological Options Network. (415)868-1900; This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Mary Beth Brangan was present to speak to the issues raised in the film.

For more general information on the impact of wireless technology in our communites, contact the Council on Wireless Technology Impacts at 415 892-1863 or the EMR Network Website.

Taken for a Ride

Why Does America Have the Worst Public Transit in the Industrialized World, and the Most Freeways?

Taken for a Ride reveals and little known story of an auto and oil industry campaign, led by General Motors, to buy and dismantle streetcar lines. Across the nation, tracks were torn up, sometimes overnight, and diesel buses placed on city streets. The highway lobby then pushed through Congress a vast network of urban freeways that doubled the cost of the Interstates, fueled suburban development, increased auto dependence, and elicited passionate opposition. Seventeen city freeways were stopped by citizens who would become the leading edge of a new environmental movement.

With investigative journalism, vintage archival footage and candid interviews, Taken for a Ride presents a revealing history of our cities in the 20th century that is also a meditation on corporate power, city form, citizen protest and the social and environmental implications of transportation. By Jim Klein and Martha Olson.

Wendi Kallins from Go Geronimo and Safe Routes to School and Debbie Hubsmith from Marin County Bicycle Coalition were our guests to discuss solutions to Marin’s Transportation issues .

We All Live Downstream

America's most historic river, the Mississippi, has become a 2,300 mile toxic waterway. Over half the industrial toxic waste discharged into our lakes and streams is dumped directly into the Mississippi. Cancer and mortality rates are among the highest in the nation along the chemical corridor stretching from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. Entire towns have been shuttered as the direct result of unchecked air and ground water pollution. Meanwhile, the debate rages between environmentalists and government officials over how dangerous the pollutants are and what regulations should be put in place or enforced. We All Live Downstream explores the problems and the stories of people who live along the river, many of whom are now fighting to save the Mighty Mississippi. Produced by A.C. Warden and Karen Hirsch / 30 Min.

Guest speaker Kelly Campbell from California Pesticide Reform gave an update on Fairfax's Pesticide Neighbor Notification Ordinance . Mitzy Staley from Marin Master Gardener's was also  present to demonstrate alternatives to toxic pesticides. 

Thinking Like a Watershed

A small, coastal community in Northern California has been restoring its watershed for the past twenty years. Originally determined to save the nearly extinct native salmon, they realized that "salmon don't just live in streams, they live in watersheds." Through trial and error, the residents learned how to hatch thousands of salmon in homemade hatchboxes. They convinced the Fish and Game to close their river to salmon fishing and began restoring the river, planting hillsides, removing old logging roads. They wrote and performed a hilarious musical comedy "Queen Salmon" which highlighted the cooperative spirit required to reverse a deteriorating situation.

They have rediscovered what our grandparents took for granted: a community that works and plays together with common goals is a more satisfying place to live. Now sustainable timber harvesting is being practiced, watershed education is practiced in the schools and the salmon have returned to the Mattole River. Environmental restoration is explained and demonstrated in this inspiring model of citizen initiative. A guest speaker from Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed was present to update us on local creek restoration efforts. Produced by Johan Carlisle * 27 minutes · 1998

ENCORE PRESENTATION!
Public Exposure: DNA, Democracy & the Wireless Revolution

This was the second local screening of this very timely film. Public Exposure is a timely and provocative 58 minute film, co-produced by Libby Kelley, Council on Wireless Technology Impacts, and EON International, portrays public health issues related to the emerging “wireless age” from a citizens rights and consumer advocacy perspective. Libby was also there to answer questions about the film and participate in a discussion about local concerns surrounding this issue.

Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report

In Trade Secrets, correspondent Bill Moyers and producer Sherry Jones report on how the chemical revolution of the past 50 years has produced thousands of man-made chemicals that have not been tested for their effect on the public's health and safety. The report is based on documents that have never been published and on interviews with historians, scientists and physicians who are exploring how chemicals affect the body.

Alise Cappel was with us to speak on the film and answer questions . She is the former research director for the Louisiana law firm whose legal case brought to light the chemical industry papers which lead to the Moyers Documentary. She is currently doing toxics research for the Center for Environmental Health, in Oakland.

Residential Solar Electricity with Johnny Weiss

At Solar Energy International in Carbondale, Colorado, Johnny Weiss and his partner, Ken Olson, teach the practical use of renewable energy technologies to students from all over the world. Johnny has been teaching, designing and installing solar electric Photovoltaic systems for over fifteen years. In this video, Johnny gives and demonstrates practical answers to the questions most asked by homeowners as they consider the purchase and installation of their own solar electric system.

Public Exposure: DNA, Democracy & the “Wireless Revolution”

Public Exposure takes a cutting-edge look at the science, the economics, the politics and potentially irreversible health effects of the so-called wireless revolution. International in scope, like the escalating problems it portrays, Public Exposure unfolds through the individual, local stories of diverse scientists, activists and concerned public decision-makers. It is the only educational documentary on the subject at the moment made in English, and one of the few which exists globally in any language. Filmmaker Mary Beth Brangan was present to speak about the film and answer questions. 

Ecological Design: Inventing the Future

An illuminating film on the emergence of ecological design in the 20th century .The film features the ideas and prototypes of pioneering designers who have trail blazed the development of sustainable architecture , cities , energy systems transport and industry. Beginning in the 1920’s with the work of R. Buckminster Fuller , moving through the 1960’s and the counter culture and ending on the doorstep of the 21st century : the film follows the evolution of ecological design from the visions of a few independent thinkers to the powerful movement it is becoming.

The Greening of Cuba

When trade relations with the socialist bloc collapsed in 1990, Cuba lost 80% of its pesticide and fertilizer imports and half of its petroleum - the mainstays of its highly industrialized agriculture. Challenged with growing food for eleven million people in the face of the continuing US embargo, Cuba embarked on the largest conversion to organic farming ever attempted. Told in the voices of the women and men - the campesinos, researchers, and urban gardeners who are leading the organic agriculture movement.

Building Sustainability with The Natural Step

Guided by the scientific principles of The Natural Step, the University of Texas, Houston’s Health Science Center is designing one of the most ecologically friendly large scale buildings ever constructed. This film shows the amount of care being put into planning and collaboration between the nursing faculty, students, architects, and engineers. Experts in lighting, renewable resources, life cycles, climate control, recycling, composting and energy conservation are also involved. University of Texas, Houston’s Journey Brian Yeoman, UTH, Patsy Northcutt Productions. Honorable Mention - Earthvision ‘99 Film & Video Festival.

The Barefoot College: Knowledge Demystified

Situated in the state of Rajasthan, India The Barefoot College trains "barefoot" teachers, doctors, solar engineers, hand pump mechanics, designers, chemists, communicators, construction engineers and accountants. It has created a non -formal education process for children, youth, and adults that assist students to develop and maintain sustainable communities. The video illustrates each of the areas in which they have been so successful and interviews formerly uneducated men and women who are now directing major programs for community sustainability. (A UNESCO-Opeongo Line Co-Production)

Greenplans

Hosted by CNN’s Jack Hamann, Greenplans presents a hopeful look at how two countries have moved beyond the usual environmental conflicts to develop widely supported national plans for sustainable development. Competing interests in the Netherlands and New Zealand were brought together to hammer out a comprehensive national environmental policy - or Green Plan - aimed at creating both a sustainable environment and economy within one generation’s time. Greenplans travels to these two countries to profile how this new approach works, and also looks at efforts underway in the United States and in other countries to adopt Green Plans. (Produced by John de Graaf & Jack Hamann)

The Natural Step: Overview & Discussion
featuring Karl-Henrik Robert, Founder & Chair

The Natural Step (TNS) is both the name of an international nonprofit educational organization and a scientifically approved process for determining whether the actions of individuals, organizations, or corporations are sustainable. TNS was first developed by Dr. Karl-Henrik Robert in Sweden and approved by the scientific community at large. He skillfully presents the key concepts of TNS showing its affect on companies, its application in schools and universities, its compatibility with economic models and its relationship to the Swedish Government.