Sustainability films

A new short film on sustainable business alternatives, ELY: At the Crossroads, is playing (free) Thursday, April 23, 7 PM at Bell Museum.
http://www.sustainability.umn.edu/minor/sustfilm.html

The feature film is
The Next Industrial Revolution: William McDonough, Michael Braungart and the Birth of the Sustainable Economy (http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/next.html). "One of the most informative, brilliant and hopeful films about the transformation of industrial and economic activities that will lead to a healthy, just, socially stable and environmentally sustaining society for all current and future generations."

Please share freely our short film. (I can supply DVDs if you have a use.)
ELY: At the Crossroads
A film about grass-roots economic growth -- on Minnesota's Iron Range (6::55 min.)

Growing and sustaining employment through innovation, while maintaining and
enhancing this world-class natural environment –- this is the challenge and
opportunity of healthy, self-sufficient communities in these economic times.
http://vimeo.com/3930597 (HD)
http://vimeo.com/3765898 (Std.-Def.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Frwae41gY (Low-def)

In Minnesota, we recognize multiple “crossroads“ converging: 3 vegetation
biomes – eastern mixed forest, northern conifer forests, and southwestern
prairies; 3 weather patterns – dry winds from the Rockies, warm moist winds from
the Gulf, arctic winds from Canada; and 3 directions of fresh water
dispersion. Startlingly unique.

Ely, in the midst of Minnesota’s prized lake country, stands at the edge of
both Iron Range and wilderness. Clean fresh water is rapidly becoming the most
valuable global resource. MN is one of the richest water states in the world.
How can we protect these natural gifts and still create jobs that provide a
sustainable living for ourselves and the generations to come?*

Everyone knows some special, unique qualities or conditions where we live.
Everyone has special interests and talents and skills. How do we marry these
human resources with the natural resources to build sustainable communities?
How do we replace a destructive, boom-bust extractive paradigm with an
imaginative, enhancing sustainable paradigm?

At The Crossroads is a small group of individuals who are passionately
interested in how history moves in repetitive patterns. Each time we return to
a crossroads, we have a choice. We can either repeat the same patterns of the
past, leading us in a direction of familiarity, or we can make a different choice.

*©**2009 **At the Crossroads Films*
*AttheCrossroads.info*