Nominated for an Academy Award, this film chronicles the hard-fought campaign for mayor of Newark, New Jersey, by Corey Booker, a young community activist and City Council member, against a 16-year incumbent with a powerful political machine.
In South Minneapolis, eight family have declared their community an Eviction Free Zone. Support them by signing their petition at: http://start2.occupyourhomes.org/ We, the residents of the Central and Powderhorn neighborhoods of Minneapolis, want stable and affordable housing accessible to everyone who lives in our neighborhoods. Take Action: START AND WIN LOCAL CAMPAIGNS...
Wellesley Institute's Michael Shapcott: Toronto used to have racist laws that forbid aboriginals from congregating together, therefore atomizing the native population in the urban area. SUBSCRIBE and check out our other videos! http://www.operationmaple.com http://www.facebook.com/operationmaple http://twitter.com/#!/operationmaple
Youths in Canada and the U.S. are finding it increasingly difficult to find employment after they finish their post-secondary education. And a growing portion of the jobs they can find are low-skilled, low-paying temporary or part-time jobs. Here is the story of two young people who are struggling to find meaningful employment in Hamilton, Ontario. SUBSCRIBE and check out our other...
Geoff Lawton ventures into the cities and towns of the small Urban Garden. Urban Permaculture. What are the creative Permaculture strategies that people use in small scale garden design? Watch Geoff Lawton in action on a real Permaculture consultancy. If you live in the city with a tiny courtyard or even a larger suburban backyard, this DVD is packed with useful examples for you to learn and...
In a solidarity economy, our needs are met by exchanging goods, services, resources, and knowledge in ways that advance core values of justice, democracy, cooperation, and ecological sustainability. Portraits of the Solidarity Economy is a film series exploring the stories and motivations of New York City's solidarity economy leaders. You can view a map of solidarity organizations and...
Big cities have serious errors that affect our quality of life. Over half of our world's population is now living in cities. Life in a City Full of Errors is an online short documentary series about those who dig out, record, share but also go out and fix the errors of their big city. The series is part of a cross-media platform called City of Errors. City of Errors is a mobile and...
Bookchin was an American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement, Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within anarchist, libertarian socialist, and ecological thought. “Until society can be reclaimed by an undivided humanity that will use its collective wisdom, cultural achievements, technological innovations...
Host David Brancaccio tackles one of the toughest challenges facing Americans today: How does our country create jobs that pay well and build prosperity? Brancaccio travels across America uncovering innovative community and small business projects pioneered by inspirational personalities. Want to host a screening of this film? If your city is not listed on our screening list , and...
The film deals with one of the most dramatic societal trends happening today: urbanization. The world population is expected to soar to more than 9 billion people by 2050, with roughly 70 percent living in cities. At the same time, Information Communications Technology is extending its reach. These parallel trends are intersecting at a time in which the world faces serious economic...
This video introduces the Token Exchange System, a local monetary/financial system being developed by the Principled Societies Project, based on the book "Creating Sustainable Societies" by John Boik. The token system is an advanced form of local currency. It is designed to help urban economies become stronger, greener, more resilient, more diverse, more self-sufficient, and more fair.
An unprecedented look into the underworld of Vancouver’s downtown east-side ghetto. This 65 minute documentary follows one man’s 30 day experiment of joining the thousands of homeless, ill, and addicted, who survive the streets of Vancouver’s cold, wet December. He starts off with nothing but a pair of underwear. Where he ends up is a place he never knew existed, even...
Before freeways, traffic congestion and air pollution, public transportation was a vital part of the American landscape. Jim Klein and Martha Olson weave investigative journalism, urban history and social commentary to uncover General Motors' role in dismantling street car transportation in the 1930's, and in catapulting the automobile to the center of our national culture.
Gimme Green is a humorous look at the American obsession with the residential lawn and the effects it has on our environment, our wallets and our outlook on life. From the limitless subdivisions of Florida to sod farms in the arid southwest, Gimme Green peers behind the curtain of the $40-billion industry that fuels our nation's largest irrigated crop-the lawn. Want to own GIMME GREEN?...
Book trailer for "Creating Sustainable Societies: The Rebirth of Democracy and Local Economies," by John Boik. This video introduces the concept of Principled Societies, which are local, volunteer membership clubs designed to boost local economies, create jobs, fund schools and nonprofits, strengthen communities, and improve quality of life.
This film tells the story of three people and their relationship with water in the towns and villages on the edge of Delhi, India. The landscape of these "peri-urban" zones has changed dramatically in the past 15 years. Poor people often do not have good enough access to water, and have to find different ways of getting and using it. This film shows the ingenuity and determination of three...
Watch an animation that shows how to turn a conventional community into an edible city. Learn how to transform unproductive spaces into agricultural landscapes that help fight obesity and reduce food deserts. A couple resources: http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/ http://growninthecity.com/
Edible City, a 60 minute documentary film, tells the stories of the pioneers who are digging their hands into the dirt, working to transform their communities and do something truly revolutionary: grow local Good Food Systems that are socially just, environmentally sound, economically viable and resilient to climate change and market collapse. Part 2 is the trailer. Please share it freely...
By 2006, thousands of new electric cars were purposely destroyed by the same car companies that built them. Today, less than 5 years later, the electric car is back... with a vengeance. In Revenge of the Electric Car, director Chris Paine takes his film crew behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM, and the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors to chronicle the story of the global...
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is a feature length documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Burtynsky makes large-scale photographs of ‘manufactured landscapes’ – quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines, dams. He photographs civilization’s materials and debris, but in a way people describe as “stunning” or “beautiful,&rdquo...
Get ready for YERT: The Film. We've finished our feature film based on our eco-adventures to every state of the USA! Please spread the word to all of your friends and family - we want this film to travel around the world. Find or arrange a screening near you by clicking on this page: http://www.yert.com/screenings.php . You can also check out the full synopsis and additional...
What are the consequences of a childhood removed from nature? At a time when children play more behind screens than outside, PLAY AGAIN explores the changing balance between the virtual and natural worlds. Is our connection to nature disappearing down the digital rabbit hole? This documentary follows six teenagers who, like the average American child, spend five to fifteen hours a day behind...
Describes the goals, process, and philosophy of an experiment in community-building. A movement of people interested in defining, nurturing, and celebrating Eugene as City of Peace are building a new common story, definition and understanding of who is valued: each and every one of us.
FIRST EARTH is a documentary about the movement towards a massive paradigm shift for shelter -- building healthy houses in the old ways, out of the very earth itself, and living together like in the old days, by recreating villages. It is a sprawling film, shot on location from the West Coast to West Africa. An audiovisual manifesto filmed over the course of 4 years and 4 continents, FIRST...
Sprawling From Grace is a documentary feature film about the unintended consequences of suburban sprawl. It illustrates the importance of altering the course of how we develop our nation’s cities. It communicates the dangers of continuing to invest in the inefficient horizontal growth patterns of suburban communities, and details how they threaten to bankrupt the remaining wealth of...
Bogota: Building a Sustainable City ´ documentary by PBS e2 series. Narrated by Brad Pitt. During his tenure as mayor of Bogota, Colombia, Enrique Penalosa was both revered and scorned for his urban planning and transportation policies. His public works projects, which largely favoured the pedestrian experience, were unlike anything previously built in Bogota. Penalosa describes the...
Rainey Hopewell's crazy idea has ended up feeding a neighborhood and creating community. She and Margot Johnston planted vegetables in the parking strip in front of their house. They offer them free for the taking ? to anyone, anytime ? with messages chalked on the sidewalk noting when particular vegies are ready to pick. Neighboring children and adults are joining in to work on the garden...
Directed by Franklin Lopez, END:CIV examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame , the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END: CIV asks: If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air...
Tensions mount in Williamsport when residents resist an influx of recovering drug addicts from urban areas. This in-depth documentary follows the resulting controversy, examining dynamics of racial and immigration politics that remain pertinent today. An older documentary, but relevant and very balanced. Subject(s): Drugs, Immigration, Race
"We're literally stuck up a cul-de-sac in a cement SUV without a fill-up" - James Howard Kunstler Global oil peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of the future? This is a short version of "The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream", a documentary about the end of the age of cheap oil...
Once the fourth-largest metropolis in America—some have called it the Death of the American Dream. Today, the young people of the Motor City are making it their own DIY paradise where rules are second to passion and creativity. They are creating the new Detroit on their own terms, against real adversity. We put our boots on and went exploring.
Cities should be a solution not a problem for human beings. The city of Curitiba has demonstrated for the past 40 years how to transform problems into cost-effective solutions that can be applied in most cities around the world. A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil is an informative, inspirational documentary aimed at sharing ideas to provoke environment-friendly and...
A weekly free bike coop where you can use mechanics’ tools and expertise to fix your bike? Free clinics where schoolkids or neighbors learn to maintain or build their own bikes from used parts? Chauncey and Dash Tudhope-Locklear make a living repairing bicycles, but volunteer projects support their mission of empowering “social change through bicycles.” With an eye to local...
Resist 2010: 8 Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics, is a short, fast-paced documentary focusing on the negative impacts of the 2010 Games to be held in Vancouver, Canada, and the ongoing resistance by Indigenous & other social movements. Produced by No2010.com & BurningFist Media, May 2009
Richard Register discusses the concept of the Ecocity: an Ecocity is a human settlement that enables its residents to live a good quality of life while using minimal natural resources. It is threaded with natural habitat corridors, to foster biodiversity and to give residents access to nature for recreation. Its food and other goods are sourced from within its borders or from nearby. The...
Richard Heinberg, author of “Peak Everything”, reviews the accelerating events since mid-2007, including the credit crunch and fossil fuel price volatility, noting that we’ve missed most of the best opportunities to manage collapse. He asks, “how far down the staircase of complexity will our global civilization have to go until we’re sustainable?” His answer: when managed properly, with...
How much energy does a town consume? Brian Corzilius sleuthed that out for Willits, California, and got a big surprise: in this community of 13,000 people, nearly 25% of personal after-tax earnings (about $30 million annually) leaves town to pay for energy - gasoline, diesel, electricity and natural gas. His inventory grew into an energy independence report which identified opportunities for...
Daniel Lerch, author of Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty, speaks to an audience in Hamilton, Ontario about some short and long term challenges that peak oil will cause for local governments. Global crises can have very local repercussions - but prompt planning can take the edge off of some of the negative effects. For more go to: www.postcarboncities.net.
In James Howard Kunstler's view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what we have in America is a nation of places not worth caring about. Reengineering our cities will involve more radical change than we are prepared for, Kunstler believes, but our hand will be forced by earth crises stemming from our...
Santa Barbara is serious about lowering carbon emissions. Guided by a comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions study, they’re adding solar panels to city buildings, requiring lower energy usage for new buildings, switching to biodiesel and hybrid vehicles, and giving free bus passes to downtown workers. City councilmember Das Williams urges citizens to push officials to make substantive (i.e...
Freiburg is currently the ecological capital of Germany. This is a German TV news clip spotlighting the city's solar innovations. Again, this in comparison to the media in America? The mind boggles at how much the mainstream media in our country has kept us behind the curve. There's so many amazing innovations happening in sustainable design all around the world, and we hardly benefit from any...
City Councilor Scott Walker of Port Townsend, Washington is working to build a walkable, bikeable community where the car is not essential. As a result, the town has designated many undeveloped streets and "connectors" as non-motorized routes. He says, "Build safe, convenient facilities for walking and biking, and they sprout people." Watch Janaia test ride Scott's electric bike, which...
San Francisco is the first American city to formally address the challenges of oil depletion. Dennis Brumm and Alyse Heartwell recount how members of SF Oil Awareness envisioned, wrote and presented to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors a Peak Oil resolution, which they passed unanimously in April 2006. They explore next steps: public hearings and plans to create a task force to assess the...
China is banning shops and supermarkets from handing out free plastic bags, and calling for a return to the cloth bags of old. The ban, which was posted on a government website on Tuesday, January 8th, takes effect in June. It is part of the government's effort to cut waste and conserve resources.
Tam Hunt of the Community Environmental Council in Santa Barbara, California outlines a strategy for regional independence from fossil fuels -- and it centers around electricity. Start with efficiency & conservation, add renewables to replace fossil fuels for electricity, then add more renewables to electrify transportation such as plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.The result? A program...
A closed landfill in Santa Barbara county is not just being restored with native plants. It also has a pilot project growing oil-rich jatropha for biodiesel. Restoration horticulturists Karen Flagg and Don Hartley of Growing Solutions do restoration education and remediate damaged landscapes -- bringing them back to life.
Smart municipalities are planning and preparing for energy vulnerability and climate change. Daniel Lerch, manager of the Post Carbon Cities project, has prepared a guidebook including case studies of cities large and small planning how to maintain essential services in the face of energy and climate uncertainty.
Cal Broomhead and Melissa Capria of the Energy & Climate Program discuss the rationale, aggressive plans, and activities for city-wide energy self-reliance and greenhouse gas reduction. Tools include energy efficiency in buildings, transit alternatives, alternative vehicle fuels, generating electricity with renewable energy, and solid waste reduction.
What happens when citizens apply permaculture principles to a city grid? They create friendly places within the grid that invite people to come together. Mark Lakeman, co-founder of Portland, Oregon's City Repair Project describes these "creative intervention" projects as placemaking at its best. People learn to work together, build trust and have fun. The results, from painted intersections...
Developer Steven Ribeiro is re-creating traditional towns, that put "waste" resources to good use. A mixed-use three-story building augments power from its solar panels (which provide shade and collect rainwater) with a tugboat engine (running on local biodiesel), using engine heat to warm the building. Cars are secondary in a 68-acre village, whose dwellings of all sizes are walkable to...