Think Different Film Series 2015/16 - Glen Weimer Holodynamic Bodywork

Since 2012 I have collaborated with the Nantucket Atheneum Library to present a documentary film series that explores new ideas and perspectives related to wellness. This is our fifth year and I think our best ever. The thing I love most is that the Think Different Series challenges the audience to consider new ways of perceiving life and generates some great conversations.

Here’s our 2015/16 series. The movies are 7pm on Fridays in the Nantucket Atheneum Library Great Hall (where speakers including Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau have presented over the years). I hope you can join us!

Unacceptable Levels

Over 80,000 chemicals flow through our system of commerce, and many are going straight into our bodies. Even our unborn children are affected. Due to this constant exposure, we have approximately 200 synthetic industrial chemicals interacting with our cells every single day. Until recently, modern science really didn’t understand what that could mean for all of us in the long run, but that is now changing.

UNACCEPTABLE LEVELS examines the results of the chemical revolution of the 1940s through the eyes of affable filmmaker Ed Brown, a father seeking to understand the world in which he and his wife are raising their children. To create this documentary, Brown traveled extensively to find and interview top minds in the fields of science, advocacy, and law. Weaving their testimonies into a compelling narrative, he presents us with the story of how the chemical revolution brought us to where we are, and to where, if we’re not vigilant, it may take us.

The film challenges to our companies, government and society to do something about a nearly-unseen threat with the knowledge that small changes can have massive impact.

A Movement of Movement

A MOVEMENT OF MOVEMENT is a documentary film about the philosophy, lifestyle, movement, and world of Pilates. Told through archival footage of Joseph Pilates and the eyes of world renowned Pilates elders / instructors, and everyday people who have been transformed by the Movement.

Every lifestyle, sport, and activity has that one film that brings everyone together. The one thing that all of these films have in common is a compelling story about something that came along and changed the world forever. Pilates has done just that and this film tells that story. We are living in a historical movement, a phenomenon of human experience. The movement is about us, it’s about today, and it’s about exploring our full potential, but what does that mean? That is what A Movement of Movement is.

AWAKE: The Life of Yogananda

AWAKE: The Life of Yogananda is an unconventional biography about the Hindu Swami who brought yoga and meditation to the West in the 1920s. Paramahansa Yogananda authored the spiritual classic “Autobiography of a Yogi,” which has sold millions of copies worldwide and is a go-to book for seekers, philosophers and yoga enthusiasts today. (Apparently, it was the only book that Steve Jobs had on his iPad.) By personalizing his own quest for enlightenment and sharing his struggles along the path, Yogananda made ancient Vedic teachings accessible to a modern audience, attracting many followers and inspiring the millions who practice yoga today.

Filmed over three years with the participation of 30 countries around the world, the documentary examines the world of yoga, modern and ancient, east and west and explores why millions today have turned their attention inwards, bucking the limitations of the material world in pursuit of self-realization.

Archival material from the life of Yogananda (who died in 1952) creates a spine for the narrative, but the film stretches the dimensions of a standard biography. The footage includes stylized interviews, metaphoric imagery and recreations, taking us from holy pilgrimages in India to Harvard’s Divinity School and its cutting-edge physics labs, from the Center for Science and Spirituality at the University of Pennsylvania to the Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California. By evoking the journey of the soul as it pushes its way through the oppression of the human ego and delusion of the material world, the film creates an experiential immersion into the unseen realms. AWAKE is ultimately the story of humanity itself: the universal struggle of all beings to free themselves from suffering and to seek lasting happiness.

Chemerical

CHEMERICAL is a shocking tale about the products we use to clean our homes and bodies. The film is at once humorous, as we watch the Goode family try to turn a new leaf by creating and living in a toxic-free home, and informative, as director Andrew Nisker works with experts to give audiences the tools and inspiration to live toxic-free.

From the creator of the award winning film Garbage! The Revolution Starts At Home (Sundance Channel, Super Channel) comes a shocking tale about the products we use. CHEMERICAL explores the life cycle of everyday household cleaners and hygiene products to prove that, thanks to our clean obsession, we are drowning in sea of toxicity. The film is at once humorous, as we watch the Goode family try to turn a new leaf by creating and living in a toxic free home, and informative, as director Andrew Nisker works with many experts to give audiences the tools and inspiration to live toxic free.

CHEMERICAL tackles “the toxic debate” in a truly informative and entertaining way, not only by raising awareness, but most importantly by providing simple solutions.

Bought

The hidden story about vaccines, big pharma and your food… Three huge topics in one film, BOUGHT.

Why put all this in one movie? Because these issues are directly related, and we have an opportunity to harness the millions of us engaged in each of them to overcome the noise put out by the medical-industrial conglomerate. You peel back the layers and see what’s really driving our industrialized food, our vaccine expansion, and our dependence on pharmaceuticals – it’s the same culprit.

Huge corporations funded by individual misery, one broken life at a time. These three story lines converge on Wall Street, but this story takes us beyond the problem to the inspiring and empowering role mothers are now taking in uniting to protect their families.

BOUGHT examines herd immunization, the mass drugging of our population, and the industrialized production of cheap, storable food. Serious illnesses have been on a steep incline since the number of mandated vaccines has skyrocketed (starting with infants within their first hours of life) coupled with the advent of GMO foods since the mid 1990’s. Your food, your health, your family’s health has been BOUGHT.

In Organic We Trust

IN ORGANIC WE TRUST is an eye-opening food documentary that follows Director/Producer Kip Pastor on a personal journey to answer commonly asked questions about organic food: What exactly is organic? Is it really better, or just a marketing scam?

The film digs deep with farmers, organic certifiers, scientists, and organic critics to explore the content beneath the label and the truth behind the marketing. It takes a balanced approach to clear up misconceptions about organic food while highlighting practical solutions that are transforming the way we grow and eat.

Along the way, Kip learns that what began as a grassroots movement of small-scale farmers has turned into a $30 billion industry. Small, diversified organic farms have been replaced by large corporate operations and the “certified organic” label has become a marketing tool.

The film reveals that in spite of the corporatization of organic, the original grassroots philosophy is making a comeback in many innovative forms.

Mobilize

MOBILIZE investigates the cellphone industry and the issue of cellphone radiation and the long-term health effects. It includes interviews with Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak and other major cellphone engineers and scientists. The film also examines politics and the cellular industry through accounts from California State Senator Mark Leno and California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, as well as Nick Mavodones, former mayor of Portland, Maine.

There are 6 billion cell phones worldwide but what do we really know about the effects of this revolutionary technology? The film exposes the long-term health effects from cell phone radiation including brain tumors and infertility. Through extensive research and interviews with the world’s leading doctors, politicians, and cell phone companies, this film traces the rise of an unregulated industry and uncovers the detrimental relationships which have debased corporate responsibility.