2012 Summer Film Series

You're invited to fill one or more of your summer afternoons with an inspirational movie during our Nutiva sponsored 2012 film series. The Coalition will be screening four films: "The City Dark," August 11; "Revenge of the Electric Car," August 25; "Seeds of Freedom," September 1; and "Cultural Creatives 1.0," September 15.

According to The New York Times, "The City Dark" makes you want to go find a starry sky and camp under it quickly before it all disappears. In this award winning film, director Ian Cheney blends visual poetry and hard facts for a film that chronicles the disappearance of darkness. After the film we will discuss how Ojai can become a designated 'dark sky' town with the added bonus of a drawing for a Meade Telescope model 4501, valued at about $200.00. The telescope was generously donated by member Bobbie Boschan.

In the next film, "Revenge of the Electric Car," director Chris Paine goes behind closed doors at Nissan, GM, and Tesla Motors to chronicle the global resurgence of electric cars, only five years after thousands of new electric cars were destroyed by their own makers. Times they are a changing and with major car makers finally jumping into the market to produce the "best" electric model, "Revenge" is there to document it. According to the filmmakers, it's not just the next generation of green cars that's on the line, but the future of the automobile itself. A special thank you to New Energy Answers, Santa Paula Chevrolet, Team Nissan, and Ventura Toyota for their sponsorship of this film and the simultaneous EV car show event, which takes place on Signal St., next to the theatre, from 3:30 to 7:00 p.m.

Our third film, "Seeds of Freedom," explores the history of the corporate takeover of seed and the resulting impacts on communities across the world. According to the film, agriculture has changed more over the last 50 years than in the previous ten thousand and the most frightening of all these changes is the drastic change in farm ownership and seed production. The concentration of all levels of agriculture in the hands of a few corporations is leading to the loss of indigenous seeds. With their loss goes the richness of biodiversity, cultural traditions and practices, livelihoods, and ultimately our agricultural independence. We'll combine this film with updates and a call to action to get proposition 37 - The California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act - passed in November.

Finally, "Cultural Creatives 1.0 - the (R)evolution," promises to end the series with a wallop by giving your brain something to wrap itself around and get your creative juices flowing. The filmmakers identify and focus in on what they call an all-encompassing "creative cultural shift of over 200 million people across the globe." The storyline follows the societal changes they see in the making due to the economic ramifications of reaching peak oil production and its eventual depletion. This film is not a "downer" but an "upper" as it spotlights positive changes despite the challenges across the globe. Plan to stay after for a discussion facilitated by psychotherapist Ruth Cooper, as she looks at the common experience of aloneness that Cultural Creatives experience. Ruth will explore how we can reduce our own isolation and the isolation of others. Discover how you can add to the architecture of ideas, find inspiration, and make our community more resilient.

This series is being generously sponsored by Nutiva. The films will be shown Saturdays at 4:30 P.M. at the Ojai Playhouse Theatre, 145 E. Ojai Ave. So make a date to beat the heat and let OVGC stimulate and entertain you. Suggested donation for each film and program is $10 at the door.

Resource Center Lending Library
Open for Business

by Evergreen Hericks, OVGC member and volunteer

"Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen
from one to another mind." ~James Russell Lowell

When I think of all that is right with the world - an important practice of feeding my hope - at the top of the list must be libraries. What better long-lived example of the love of wisdom mixed up with the radically practical notion that a whole community can share a store of resources, and with extremely little fuss? And so, eager to get on that particular bandwagon of sharing information, nurturing life-long learning and, by the way, using our material resources wisely, we proudly announce that the Coalition lending library is now up and running.

To borrow books or DVDs, or to browse, simply visit the Resource Center at 327 E. Ojai Avenue during open hours (Wednesday through Friday, 12 to 5 p.m.) where you will find a self-service checkout sheet on the side of the bookcase. We are also ready to welcome more small donations of books at the Resource Center. Donated books (or DVDs) should, in general, be related to environmental topics, be in very good condition, and should be recently published (with some exceptions, depending on subject matter). If you have a donation of more than fifty books, or would like to give funds specifically for wish-list items, or if you have questions please call the Resource Center at 805-669-8445 or call me at 805-205-4016 or send an email.

Gratitude goes out to OVGC member Laurie Walters, who got us started on the path to being borrower-ready by donating many DVDs and cataloguing about 50 total, largely documentaries, on everything from plastics and other toxics in the environment to food and water issues, sacred aspects of life, and everything in between. Through the thoughtful donations of OVGC members and my own book-obsessed gleaning, this small collection now also contains about 150 books covering a wide range of topics that address environmental issues from just about every angle.

to read more click here.

Save the Date
Saturday, October 6th

4th Annual Green Home
and Building Tour

We've selected four homes and one business that show a great cross section of energy efficiency, water conservation, and many other 'green' building features. Please plan to join us!

Thank you to our Early Sponsors:

Allen Associates 

California Door and Hardware 

Ojai Valley News 

Marleen Luckman, MS, BBEI 

Kerry Miller Designer | Builder 

Modular Lifestyles 

Pacific Stoneworks 

Sol Haus Design 

Frontier Paint 

Meiners Oaks Sash & Door 

For your consideration -

"Buildings represent a huge opportunity to move the needle on reducing our energy use. U.S. buildings consume more energy than any other sector of our economy, using 42% of all energy and 72% of electricity. And, if they were a separate country, U.S. buildings would be the third biggest energy user behind the U.S. and China." - Rocky Mountain Institute