Women Around the World Creating Healing and Respect for the Earth

On every continent, women are taking the lead to protect and restore the natural environment, and are empowering others to respect the earth. Their inspiring stories are featured in Arise, this month’s Conscientious Projector presentation on Thursday, July 10, 7:00 p.m. at Armory Center for the Arts.

Acclaimed writer-producer-director Lori Joyce focuses on a diverse group of 13 women in five countries who have initiated solution-oriented environmental projects in their communities, towns and villages. Their efforts offer hopeful examples and new models, challenging our current way of thinking about the environment, and encouraging a shift in values to find a different, healthier way to view our relationship to the earth. The Idanha Films production weaves together their heartening tales with stunning images, poetry and music by well-known writers and musicians, including Alice Walker and Michael Franti. Narrated by Daryl Hannah.

A community discussion follows the film, which is being included in this year’s Old Pasadena Film Festival. The Armory is located at 145 N. Raymond in Old Pasadena. Admission is free and the facility is accessible to disabled persons.

The Wisdom to Survive

“Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present.” So said the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s May release of its National Climate Assessment. Will we, as a species, find the strength and will within ourselves to finally respond? Will we be able to redirect our behavior and our economic practices in order to salvage the life systems of our planet and create a durable future? These are crucial questions asked in The Wisdom to Survive: Climate Change, Capitalism & Community.

Producer/directors John Ankele and Anne Macksoud bring clarity and compassion to their subject, enlisting counsel from leading figures such as Buddhist scholar and eco-philosopher Joanna Macy, 350.org founder Bill McKibben, Natural Resource Defense Council co-founder Gus Speth, and The End of Growth author Richard Heinberg, among others. Tom F. Driver, Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary says, “This is a starkly prophetic film. It combines the direst of warnings with deep love of life. Better than any other film I know, it makes clear that our profit-oriented growth economy has caused the climate catastrophe and cannot itself rescue us from disaster. We need new thinking and a new way of life.”

 

January Nordman and Qrys Cunningham of Transition Pasadena lead a community discussion following the film. Admission is free and the facility is accessible to disabled persons.