The United Film Festival opens up this Friday and it has something for everyone. From relationships, the rise and fall of the pinball machine, road trips, to animal rights and not to mention midnight screenings of classics such as The Fly (free).

 

The San Francisco United Film Festival, is about bringing art and creativity together to create a united film community, is excited to be returning to the Bay Area for its second year at the historic Roxie Theater, right in the heart of the thriving Mission district June 11th - June 17th. The festival's focus is to bring together talented filmmakers from~ diverse backgrounds, thus creating a "United" showcase of creative energy and talent.

 

What is really interesting in addition to Animal Rights, is Saturday is devoted to movies that deal with the environment. Will we start to see a new film movement here? Especially in the wake of what is happening with the Gulf Coast and BP? There are some really great films lined up and I am really looking forward to seeing them (well most). The movie Dive! really hits home because of the excess food that is discarded by both restaurants and grocery stores here in the Bay Area.

Take a look at some of the Environmental films being shown with Homegrown being the Premiere Film.

HomeGrown The inspiring true story of a family "living off the grid" in the heart of urban Pasadena, California. They harvest over 6,000 pounds of produce on less than a quarter of an acre, while running a popular website that is known around the world.

Dive! Follows Jeremy Seifert and his friends as they dumpster dive in the back alleys and gated garbage receptacles of L.A.'s supermarkets. In the process they salvage thousands of dollars worth of good food and uncover a disturbing truth about waste in America. The goal quickly becomes finding out why so much edible food is thrown away instead of being given to those who need it. The result is equal parts entertainment, guerrilla journalism and call to action.

Beyond The Pole A mockumentary film crew follows the first carbon neutral, organic, vegetarian expedition ever to attempt the North Pole. Brian and Mark hope to simultaneously save the planet and get into the Guinness Book of Records- unfortunately, they have never done anything like this before.

So come on out with the family and support these films at the Roxie. Here’s a link to their schedule and to learn more: http://www.theunitedfest.com/sanfrancisco/schedule.htm

A Day in the life of an Ecopreneur March 25th, 2010

Good Morning Portland!  I step foot outside the front porch ready to brave the unpredictable weather; listening to the stories of the Radio Cab night crew about to clock out of their shift.  They seem anxiously ready to go home to their families, or go feel like men after a hard nights work sharing a beer at a local brew pub.  I walk down the steps of an old historical, Slab town home;   grinning to the new day ahead.  My morning walk I appreciate.  One mile to the office, plus or minus of course.  I get to take into account the city grid offering so many daily whimsical routes.  My free transportation, exercise, meditation, and my community connection are all completed before I even start my routine day. 

“A Day in the Life of an Ecopreneur,”  Good Day 

Social change happens when a conversation takes hold and captures the attention of people. Throughout the history of the social change movement, usually only a small minority of people end up creating the biggest shifts and change the course of history.

 

Marianne started her talk (in San Francisco on September 22nd) by sharing examples of big change by groups that started out small but then grew to become mainstream. For example, only a minority of people wanted to break from England and create a new republic; only a minority of women fought for the right to vote. These two issues were easy to make fun of, at first. As time went on and progress was made, people saw that these issues and changes as self evident: of course it makes sense to create the United States; and of course it makes sense that women have the right to vote. She stated, "It's never the status quo who wakes up and says, "let's do something differently." It always has to do with a relatively small group of people, usually considered outrageous radicals."

 

I think that in certain parts of the world, many of us sitting in the room would be considered "outrageous radicals" because of how deeply we care about changing the planet's current course. In the future, perhaps this "outrageous radicalism" will become self-evident to all.

 

Marianne compared the recent increased focus on sustainability and the goal of EcoTuesday as a social change movement (thank you!) by describing the impact that minority groups have on creating shifts in culture. "Whenever you take a certain impulse, and you have a lot of people at one time, the news media says that this is a big deal. But what's a much bigger deal is that there are a few people doing here, doing it there, and if you counted up all the people doing it everywhere, you'd see what a tremendous impulse you have."

 

She described the urgency that humanity must take to change our current trajectory. "It can be argued that our species now demonstrates patterns of behavior that make us less adaptable for the survival of the species...there's a limit past which you can't treat the earth this way. As we go toward the direction of a non-sustainable future, the level of human suffering involved in that scenario is so immense, it's almost beyond conception."

 

She urged everyone in the room to embrace their own "Personal Armageddon" that relates to sustainability and use their own positive forces of good to battle the less positive forces that might harm people and the planet. Participants stayed longer at this event than at any others in the past. Marianne was gracious enough to talk to all those who stood in line to speak with her.

Marianne ended the presentation with a prayer, which was an EcoTuesday first.

 

For those of you who missed John Viera, Director of Sustainability for Ford Motor Company, you missed a great discussion. John provided an engaging overview of sustainability efforts at Ford. Ford made a commitment to being a corporate leader in sustainability a number of years ago, and much of that commitment is starting to pay off. John mentioned that there were at least three areas that Ford maintains on sustainability efforts: product, manufacturing, and social responsibility. 

  While much focus is placed on all three areas, if there is any one area where more current resources are being placed its in their products. For example, Ford is creating multiple fuel and energy platform by readying various operations throughout the world. Rather than second guess the most viable source of fuel or energy in the future, Ford has a cross-platform strategy will allow the automaker to make relativity quick adjustments to vehicle manufacturing. As a result of this sort of plug and play approach, Ford anticipates it will be ready to leverage the right vehicle fuel and energy sources when and where they are needed in the future. Of course Ford products are designed with other positive sustainable features in mind. Fuel economy is among these – and the company continues to find ways to provide best-in-class fuel economy without sacrificing comfort and performance. Ford sustainability efforts also permeate many other facets of their operations from vehicle materials acquisition and disposal, plant operations, waste management, energy conservation and much more.   For more information about Ford’s blueprint for sustainability, check out the following link:   http://www.ford.com/about-ford/company-information/corporate-sustainability