I highly recommend it. I gave out a lot of copies. There's a sequel coming. I'm not in it, but I bet I know some of the people who are.
Willits to star in international film: Town plays key role in localization storySubmitted by seandeau on Fri, 2006-03-03 12:24. Author, Affiliation, Date: Claudia Reed, The Willits News, 1 March 2006 Teaser: A sequel to [The End of Suburbia], Escape from Suburbia, Beyond the American Dream, will place an emphasis on events in the small town of Willits, California. Body: The End of Suburbia, a Canadian film documenting the expected demise of an oil-based, global economy, has sold more than 30,000 DVDs around the world and grossed more than $1 million. A mutual interview takes place between TWN reporter Claudia Reed and Canadian filmmaker Gregory Green (right) in town to create a sequel to The End of Suburbia. Local video artist Lanny Cotler records the exchange. TWN photo/David Courtland A sequel to that film, Escape from Suburbia, Beyond the American Dream, will place an emphasis on events in the small town of Willits, California. It will also include footage from Paris, Dubai, Lisbon, Montreal, Ottawa, Havana, Toronto, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. Willits showed up on my radar first as a place where The End of Suburbia was playing and a citizens group had formed, said Toronto-based film writer and director Gregory Green. But then Willits kept popping up. It was evident about five or six months ago that Willits was really serious (about localizing the economy) and a lot of people look to Willits for leadership. If nothing else, Willits appears to have been one of the first communities to not only recognize the coming end of a readily available and affordable oil supply, but to begin making serious plans for a post-oil economy. In late 2004, after repeated showings of The End of Suburbia, the organization Willits Economic LocaLization (WELL) was created. Subgroups on various aspects of localization began to form. City officials attended WELL presentations and one stayed on to work with the energy subgroup. Two related articles in The Willits News were picked up by the national website www.energybulletin.net. In February of 2005, the City of Willits formed an ad hoc committee to look into renewable energy sources for city operations. In August, the city passed a resolution on the need to localize the economy. In September, representatives from North Coast Opportunities, Willits Action Group, the Mendocino County Youth Project, the Workforce Investment Board, and WEST CO signed on to the resolution. Later in October, WELL sponsored a regional localization workshop, bringing hundreds of people to Ridgewood Ranch to hear Michael Shuman, author of Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age. It became clear that other communities in the county, inspired by WELLs example, had launched their own localization efforts. In November, Congressman Mike Thompson had a private meeting with Willits-area groups and citizens supportive of the localization effort. Congress has a responsibility to take the U.S. away from foreign (fuel) dependency, Thompson said. He recommended federal incentives aimed directly at establishing renewable energy cities. Madelyn Holtcamp offered the assistance of the Economic Development and Financing Corporation. Kevin Erich, president of Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital, announced plans to build the first rural green hospital in the country. In December, the school board agreed to consider use of school land for a community garden of at least an acre that would supply students with both food and gardening skills. In January of 2006, the City of Willits authorized the installation of solar equipment able to generate up to 700 KW of energy and, through running the PG&E meter backwards, to cover nearly all of the citys energy costs. In February, WELL hosted a county meeting in which localization groups from Ukiah, the coast, Laytonville, and Anderson Valley exchanged information and progress reports. On February 24, the Canadian film crew arrived to document the work begun and inspired by WELL for its new international film. Whats happening in Willits were (now) seeing in communities across the U.S. and Canada, Green said. Theres a similar group in Los Angeles, a number of groups in Toronto. Theyre organizing subcommittees with tremendous similarity. Green said the concept of reaching peak oil, that is, of having already extracted the greatest amount of readily available and affordable oil, has moved from left field to mainstream in a three-year period. In that time, the concept has spawned global community efforts. Greens personal experience is a case in point: I was deeply skeptical, he said, after having been hired to film a Paris conference on oil depletion. I had never heard of peak oil. No one had heard of peak oil. Barry Silverthorn, editor of Vision TV, Canadas multi-faith religious network and producer of what became The End of Suburbia, told Green he was covering the story of the era and gave him articles to read. I thought when I first met (Silverthorn) he was a conspiracy nut. If it was such a big thing why hadnt I heard about it? Since then Green has heard the same thing from such centrist and right-wing figures as Republican Congressman Roscoe Bartlett and former CIA director and neo-conservative James Woolsey. Theyve been meeting with (President) Bush behind the scenes to articulate the danger, Green said. In his recent address to the nation, President George Bush warned America to kick its oil addiction. He advocated support for the coal industry and for clean, safe nuclear power. The energy bill drafted by the president and passed by Congress, however, allocates $1.5 billion to subsidize the increasingly expensive extraction of oil and only about $800 million for development of alternate energy. Green says its too late for such top-down remedies to work: The American dollar and economy are extremely vulnerable to oil supply problems. A small disruption causes huge price increases. There is not enough time to build enough nuclear reactors (to maintain the current economic system). He believes the American public has reached a similar conclusion: Citizens are really skeptical when the president tells them not to worry. People are smarter than that. Theyre starting to snap out of the consensus trance. Green calls the localization response to peak oil a significant moment in American history. Its bringing together all disparate groups. His filming in Willits, where localization supporters include a bank president, environmentalists, emergency services providers, city staff and officials, back-to-the-land settlers, and the Chamber of Commerce, brings the point home. Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age is due out in September of this year. Posting URL: willitsnews.com
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