On Saturday, March 16 at 2:00 pm, Encompass in association with The Church of the Ascension will present the premiere screening in New York City of the new film by award-winning filmmaker John Feldman:
About Symbiotic Earth
Symbiotic Earth explores the life and ideas of Lynn Margulis, a brilliant and radical scientist, whose unconventional theories challenged the male-dominated scientific community and are today fundamentally changing how we look at our selves, evolution, and the environment.
The screening will be followed by a panel that will include Fritjof Capra, Ph.D., scientist, activist and author of The Tao of Physics and The Systems View of Life, via Skype.
Fritjof Capra is a Vienna-born physicist and systems theorist who first became popularly known for his book The Tao of Physics (1975), which explored the ways in which modern physics was changing our worldview from a mechanistic to a holistic and ecological one. His most recent book, The Systems View of Life (2014), presents a grand new synthesis of his work—integrating the biological, cognitive, social, and ecological dimensions of life into one unified vision. He is also author of The Turning Point (1982), The Web of Life (1996), Learning from Leonardo (2018) among others. Capra is founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy and is a Fellow of Schumacher College, a center for ecological studies in the UK. He teaches internationally through his Capra course.
Fritjof Capra will join us via video-conference from Berkeley, CA.
Bill Blakemore is a veteran journalist. He spearheaded ABC News’ coverage of global warming, traveling from the tropics to polar regions to report on its impacts, dangers and possible remedies. Overseas he has covered wars and major conflicts including 1973 Arab-Israeli, Iranian and Beirut civil wars, Iraq wars and Afghan/Taliban war. In 2004 he began focusing on biodiversity, extinctions, and global warming and hosted ABC’sNature’s Edge until 2012. He has won six Emmy Awards. He currently writes on the journalistic profession and the “Many Psychologies of Global Warming.”
Mirian Vilela is Executive Director of Earth Charter International and has worked with the Charter since 1996. She teaches courses on Sustainable Development, Education for Sustainable Development and Environmental Governance at the University for Peace Costa Rica. She has been working in the field of sustainability since 1990 when she worked for the UN Conference on Environment and Development in preparation for the 1992 UN Earth Summit.
Mirian Vilela will join us via video-conference from Costa Rica.
Tyler Volk is a professor in the Departments of Environmental Studies and Biology at NYU. His research involves the global carbon cycle, world energy, the role of life and evolution in the biosphere and general systems studies. His books include Quarks and Culture: How We Came to Be (2017), Gaia’s Body: Toward a Physiology of the Earth (1998), CO2 Rising: The World’s Greatest Environmenal Challenge (2008), and Metapatterns Across Space, Time and Mind (1995), among others.
The panel will be moderated by Encompass’ Artistic Director Nancy Rhodes. Filmmaker John Feldman and composer Sheila Silver will also be present.
As the climate crisis becomes more and more urgent, Lynn Margulis’ symbiotic worldview and the Gaia theory she developed with Jim Lovelock serve as important jumping off points for discussions about our ethical responsibilities toward the Earth and the living system that sustains us. Symbiotic Earth explores these subjects within the rich context of Lynn Margulis’ life as a maverick scientist.
Bill Blakemore, veteran journalist and ABC foreign correspondent and climate change expert writes: “An astonishingly important, deeply transformative, and original film—historic in fact. Its momentous news that all biological life (including ours) succeeds not by competition but by collaboration, offers ways to resolve even our devastating global climate emergency.”
Professor Margulis traveled and networked with collaborators around the world on ideas of symbiosis among all living things from bacteria to Gaia. Many of these world-famous scientists and thinkers are in the film. Embracing the depth of our relationship to all of nature, Lynn Margulis often quoted Chief Seattle, “The Earth does not belong to us. We belong to the Earth.”
Click here to watch the movie trailer.
EVENT DETAILS
What: Symbiotic Earth: How Lynn Margulis Rocked the Boat & Started a Scientific Revolution. (147 minutes)
When: Saturday, March 16 at 2:00 pm, followed by a delicious reception and Panel Discussion: EARTH ETHICS AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS with Fritjof Capra, New York University Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences Tyler Volk, and others. Filmmaker John Feldman and Sheila Silver who composed the film score will also be present. The panel will be moderated by Encompass’ Artistic Director Nancy Rhodes.
Where:: The Church of the Ascension (entrance on Fifth Avenue between 10thand 11th Streets, West side of the street.)
How: Suggested Donation $15; Students & Seniors: $10 at the door
Please join us. We look forward to greeting you on Saturday, March 16th at 2:00 pm.
Sincerely,
Nancy Rhodes, Artistic Director, Encompass-Paradigm Shifts
John Feldman, filmmaker; Susan Davies, Hummingbird Films Producer
Revs. Elizabeth Maxwell and Edward Chinery, The Church of the Ascension
Additional Information:
Encompass New Opera Theatre – 718-398-4675
[email protected]
www.encompasstheatre.org
Further info about the film:
www.hummingbirdfilms.com/symbioticearth