The Transition Network recently produced a Memorandum of Understanding for emerging national Transition organisations, which now are up and running in Ireland, New Zealand, the US, Sweden and Italy. The idea is to enable and support the transfer of the jobs Transition Network does (in particular assessing applications for ‘formal’ Transition status) to a group in that country. Recently, in New Zealand, a fascinating debate has emerged about the MoU in its current form, and to what extent it is ‘top down’, and whether it is even desirable at all.
On Wednesday night, ‘In Transition: from oil dependency to local resilience’ was shown for the first time in communities around the world. I was at the screening at the almost-full Barn Cinema in Dartington, where I introduced the film along with producer Emma Goude. We asked the audience to wave for a photo (see left). The film was also being shown in 8 cinemas in New Zealand, as was reported in the Timaru Herald. There were at least another 20 places in the UK that we know of where the film was shown. Were you at a screening, or did you organise one? Do tell us your stories of your first screening. Over September and October we are hoping to get as many public screenings of the film held as possible. For details on organising one, see here.
As already mentioned here, in December, after a couple of months of just public screenings, the DVD version of ‘In Transition’ will be released. We have had many requests from around the world for the DVD version to have subtitles in a number of languages, and many people have already volunteered to do that. In order to proceed, we need someone (or a team of people) to produce a transcript of the film that they can work from. Would anyone out there like to volunteer to do this? Your name(s) would of course appear in the credits, and you’d have the pleasure of being able to watch the film all to yourself (albeit very slowly!). If you would like to, please contact me at robjhopkins (at) gmail.com. Thanks!
Here is a great short film from the Unleashing of Transition Town Langport on April 4th 2009. As many of you will know, an Unleashing is a big public event which launches the Transition initiatives in question. Langport chose a different route to the big-public-event-with-speakers model that most places have used so far. The film provides a very useful document of day. Thanks to Transition Town Langport for making this, and for making it available, we need more like this. Transition Langport also benefit from having the best graphic designer of any Transition initiative that I have yet seen!
As more of this year’s Oxford TED talks go up online, I will be sharing with you the ones that made the strongest impression on me. James Balog‘s talk was in an extra evening session, which I expected to be lighter than the rest of it, but James’s presentation was stunning. Ever imagined ice sheets as living, breathing systems? This is a talk to sit climate deniers down in front of, not to win over with arguments, just to experience at a gut level what is happening in the Arctic, and what is revealed by Balog’s extraordinary time-lapse photography. The irony of this video being sponsored by BMW is palpable. I couldn’t get to sleep that night.
How might our response to peak oil and climate change look more like a party than a protest march? This site explores the emerging transition model in its many manifestations
Read more»
The Transition Network recently produced a Memorandum of Understanding for emerging national Transition organisations, which now are up and running in Ireland, New Zealand, the US, Sweden and Italy. The idea is to enable and support the transfer of the jobs Transition Network does (in particular assessing applications for ‘formal’ Transition status) to a group in that country. Recently, in New Zealand, a fascinating debate has emerged about the MoU in its current form, and to what extent it is ‘top down’, and whether it is even desirable at all.
On Wednesday night, ‘In Transition: from oil dependency to local resilience’ was shown for the first time in communities around the world. I was at the screening at the almost-full Barn Cinema in Dartington, where I introduced the film along with producer Emma Goude. We asked the audience to wave for a photo (see left). The film was also being shown in 8 cinemas in New Zealand, as was 
As 
Here is a great short film from the Unleashing of Transition Town Langport on April 4th 2009. As many of you will know, an Unleashing is a big public event which launches the Transition initiatives in question. Langport chose a different route to the big-public-event-with-speakers model that most places have used so far. The film provides a very useful document of day. Thanks to 
