When we think of LUSH Cosmetics, we think of organic ingredients, handmade bubble bars, and candlelit baths, and with LUSH’s commitment to look after the world we live in, we couldn’t be happier to welcome them back as a sponsor for the 2012 Projecting Change Film Festival.

We’re sure you’ve all had a LUSH Bath Bomb fizzling in your tub, but have you ever taken a peek at their We Believe statements or their Green Policy? You’ll appreciate that sweet scent wafting from your skin that much more once you learn exactly which sustainable practices LUSH participates in. From sticking to vegetarian ingredients to minimizing packaging to never testing their products or ingredients on animals; LUSH is the kind of company we wish all others would emulate more often.

Their next campaign, Oil Spills Affect Everyone, addresses the expansion of the Alberta Tar Sands and will be speaking out against the Enbridge Pipeline in Canada and Keystone XL in the United States. Our screening of Pipe Dreams on Saturday, April 21st complements this campaign as it illustrates the battle farmers and landowners engage in to save their property from destruction. We encourage you visit your nearest LUSH shop between May 28th and June 10th to sign the Dogwood Initiative petition against the Enbridge pipeline. Alternatively, the petition will also be available online at www.lush.ca.

Psst… word on the street is LUSH will putting a little something in our opening night gift bags on April 17th – another reason not to miss it.

It’s our sponsors that truly make our film festival happen, and we’re excited to share with you how Vancity is involved with the Projecting Change Film Festival this year.

Banking makes the world go round. We couldn’t do without it if we tried. So why wouldn’t we want to pick a bank that keeps our world healthy? With over 479,500 members entrusting them with $16.1 billion of assets, Vancity is Canada’s largest credit union. All you have to do is take a peek at their website to know they aren’t your ordinary financial institution.
Not just about money, Vancity knows how important it is to invest in the environment and community. Their Good Money™ Starts Here motto outlines their vision to positively redefine wealth in the community. They’re making sustainable strides by investing in energy and the environment, particularly businesses that produce green products and services, and by investing in the importance of local, natural and organic food.

It doesn’t stop there…

Vancity is redefining the way people bank with their green services, which include enviro Visa, Clean Air Auto Loan, Bright Ideas Home Financing, and Home Energy Loan Program, amongst others. They are taking social responsibility seriously, which is why we are so happy to have them involved in PCFF.

On Wednesday, April 18th at 7:00pm Vancity will be sponsoring the screening of In Organic We Trust, a film that challenges the “organic” brand and teaches people how to truly make their food sustainable. A speaker panel comprised of Tara McDonald, Peter Ladner, Seann J Dory, and Preet Marwaha will discuss the film topic following the screening.

You won’t want to miss this eye-opening film that will make you think about what “organic” really means.

Big thanks to Vancity for their support of PCFF 2012!

PS.  If you’re a Vancity member, click here to get 2 for 1 tickets to a film of your choice at PCFF 2012!

On Opening Night (April 17th) we’re featuring the award-winning film, World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements, featuring TED2011 speaker, John Hunter.  World Peace interweaves the story of John, a school teacher from Virginia with his student’s participation in a game he created called the World Peace Game.  The game triggers an eight week transformation of the children from students on a neighbourhood public school to citizens of the world, by exposing them to complex issues of the greater geo-political environment.  The film reveals how a wise, loving teacher can unleash students’ full potential.

We’re honoured to welcome John Hunter and his producing partner Chris Farina to speak to the audience following the film.  Chris will discuss the process of producing the film, while John will comment on the key issues facing educators and students today.  Given the current educational climate in BC, John’s inspirational message of hope and the power of education and mentorship for young people could not be more timely.

Watch John Hunter’s TED Talk here  and learn more about the World Peace Game here.

We hope you’ll join us following John’s talk at the Opening Night Gala in the Woodward’s Atrium for our Opening Night Gala.  Check the website for ticket info soon!

We chose to partner with the Fairmont Waterfront because of their commitment to sustainability.

• They have electric vehicle charging stations and offer complimentary parking to any guests with HYBRID vehicles
• Their 3rd floor, 2100 sq ft herb garden was one of Vancouver’s first “green” roofs and today provides much of the fruits, vegetables, and herbs for Herons West Coast Kitchen + Bar, and their special events menus.
• Over 500,000 honey bees make their home in the herb garden, providing over 600 lbs of honey which is also used by the culinary team at the Fairmont Waterfront!
• The hotel is a proud member of the Oceanwise program, offering sustainable seafood choices on all of their menus.
• They are actively engaged in energy and water conservation programs, as well as waste management programs on property.
• The Fairmont Waterfront continually gives back to the community and supports numerous local initiatives.

• • Your exclusive PCFF 2012 package includes:
• • 20% off “Rate of the Day”
• • 20% off all Food & Beverage during your stay
• • $20 donation to the Projecting Change Film Society
• • Complimentary parking for HYBRID vehicles
• • Complimentary 2pm late check out

We’ll also have a complimentary PCFF shuttle from the Fairmont Waterfront to SFU Woodward’s during evening film screenings.

Click here to book your stay!

With International Women’s Day here, and so many amazing stories being told of women young and old, it gives us a wonderful opportunity to re-engage and align from a place of change.

There is a remarkable trend amongst global organizations who are focusing on a more positive gender balance for a better tomorrow. Women and men around the globe are now understanding how a dynamic shift in the way women lead, will not only help hold up our communities, but bring new energy to our planet.

It’s encouraging to see so many people support this movement, not necessarily from a feminist approach, but more from a place of oneness.

This is why the Passion Foundation (a.k.a me and all the amazing people supporting us) is so excited about the opportunity to partner with the Projecting Change Film Festival.

As a young female entrepreneur and fellow change maker, who has worked in human services for over a decade (12 years to be exact) I’ve had the honour of moving along side some really exciting individuals and organizations. At the end of this month I am continuing this trend by embarking on a journey! We’re setting out to ask young women from continents far and wide, about their roles in leadership, their dreams and their challenges. We are going ask about their views on what shifts they think need to happen, not just in their communities and countries but within themselves. Our goal is to document their answers and figure out how we might connect and assist each other as we move toward this brighter future of equality and balance.

Over the next two years, we will be going into communities in various parts of the world, to hear the trials and triumphs of young women and their views on how they will make an impact on the world around them. The Projecting Change Film Festival will assist us in getting this series out to our communities.

In addition, I am thrilled to be part of this year’s PCFF, facilitating discussions around the documentary Miss Representation.

To help make this all happen, we’ve launched the Global Sorority project on Kickstarter! We only have a week left to reach our set goal, and we need everyone’s support to reach it. So please act now! Visit our project page www.kickstarter.com/projects/1477497/global-sorority.

The more dialogue that happens, the more connections are made, the more we will all have a better world to live in.

See you at PCFF 2012!

In honor of International Women’s Day this Thursday March 8, we’re excited to announce the screening of Miss Representation at PCFF 2012.  The film has received a lot of critical acclaim already, and many of you may have seen it at other festivals or on television.  So, we’re bringing Miss Representation to the people we think might benefit the most from watching it – young girls and boys who can and will be the ones to change the media landscape, and their accountability within it.  We’re inviting students from all over Vancouver to watch the film as part of our Youth Programming on April 19 at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.

Watch a trailer of Miss Representation here.

Following the screening, Loretta Cella, Founder of the Passion Foundation will lead a workshop focused on empowerment.  Loretta began the Passion Foundation in November 2009 with a mission to help young women achieve success in life by teaching them to support one another. We’re thrilled to be partnering with her this year to bring this very important message to our young audience.

Also, stay tuned for more news on Loretta’s next project and how Projecting Change will be supporting her.

Here’s what some of our favourite local change-makers are doing in honor of International Women’s Day:

•    Dress for Success Vancouver is hosting their annual event IMPACT, an event for change.  Purchase tickets here.
•    The City of Vancouver will recognize “Remarkable Women” at a special cocktail reception: vancouver.ca/eeo/womensday.htm
•    Check out opening night of the Women in Film Festival:  www.womeninfilm.ca/filmfestival.html
•    Oxfam hosts “Women. Food. Planet.” at the Vancouver Public Library: bit.ly/z80rEb

Why tokens? No paper, no tickets, no printing. Instead we give each festival attendee a token they trade for entrance to the theater at each screening.

By purchasing a Token, you are not buying yourself a ticket to the festival (but we hope you’ll do that too when tickets go on sale March 15!). Instead, you’re donating to a unique fundraising campaign that helps to provide a festival experience to someone in our community. Plus, your name will be etched into the token (or tokens!) you purchase in recognition of your contribution. These tokens are then used in place of tickets during the Festival. See? Full circle!

The coolest part? The Token are made by Tradeworks, a training and employment center in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. At Projecting Change we’re all about involving the community, providing sustainable opportunities for success, and affecting change wherever we can.

Hope you’ll join the Tokens of Appreciation legacy and purchase one today!

Click here for the details and to donate (or as we like to call it the WIN WIN WIN WIN).

How it works: (or the WIN WIN WIN WIN)

1. Your Donation: Support the festival and give access to people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend. They win.
2. Your Recognition: Every donor will have their name emblazoned on a token, indicating your support of the festival. The Festival Wins.
3. Your Chance to Win: We’ll do a fantastic raffle prize draw at the end of the festival. You win.
4. Your Support of the Community: Each token is make by Tradeworks, a training and employment center in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. The community wins.

3 levels of donation:

$5 – helps a student attend our Youth Day Program – Click to donate
$10 – helps an adult attend the festival – Click to donate
$50 – helps a young filmmaker attend the documentary workshop – Click to donate

Thanks for your support!

Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.  Katherine Monk, Vancouver Sun film critic had this to say about the film: “A truly fascinating documentary that unravels the complex morality of taking on a cause, this movie is the perfect starting point for what we can only hope is a continuing discussion of how to care for the planet.”

The film debuted at Sundance in 2011, and won a Documentary Editing Award.  It is now nominated for Best Documentary at the 2012 Academy Awards coming up on Sunday, February 26. Join us in April at Projecting Change 2012 and click here to learn more about the film.

Q: How are you projecting change?

I am working with an amazing volunteer team on the start-up of a new non-profit called Peace Geeks. We help strengthen the technological and professional capabilities of non-profit organizations working on peace, accountability and human rights initiatives by remotely connecting them to skilled volunteers. Our client organizations gain the benefit of skilled volunteers, while our volunteers (over 100 and counting) can stay at home and have the opportunity to make an impact globally. We also have a secondary objective of raising public awareness about the important work done by individuals and organizations working on these issues around the world. We don’t hear their stories often enough through traditional media channels and we want to help change that.

We want to work on projects that advance the strategic objectives of our client organizations so what that looks like will vary from one organization to another, but projects can include: developing organizational web sites to disseminate important information with relevant audiences; setting up data collection or crowd sourcing tools to assist with research, programming and policy advocacy efforts; implementing mobile phone applications to assist with early warning tools or to support awareness-raising campaigns; creating training programs for social media strategy, web site management, etc. We also work on the development of strategic management and planning skills, including team coaching, marketing strategy, human resources management, program strategy, etc. We will also explore developing new tools or integrating several existing tools if and when we see that it addresses a broad need.

Q: Do you feel film has power to create social change?

Yes, absolutely. In fact, this team initially came together after 14 individuals who didn’t really know each other met up watch the documentary film ‘Pray the Devil Back to Hell’ at the Amnesty International Film Festival this past November. This movie tells the amazing story of the Liberian women’s movement, which played a pivotal role in helping to end the 14-year civil war in that country. When the screening ended, the energy was palpable. Many of us wanted to do something to support the amazing work of organizations such as Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), featured in the film. I have since toured this film across the country for different audiences, and no matter where I show it, people are inspired by the courage and fiery determination of the Liberian women.

Q: Tell me about the inspiration behind your newly founded NGO…

Apart from the screening, the idea for Peace Geeks culminated from my experience in the private sector where I worked on IT projects for eight years, and later in the non-profit sector and with the UN where I worked on peace and security issues. I came to realize that many of the organizations working in this space lacked the basic tools, systems and skills they needed to be most effective with their limited resources. Sometimes cost is the most significant barrier to accessing these tools, but more often than not, it is lack of awareness about the options available or limited access to the skills needed to get them. Some non-profits also may have limited strategic management capabilities and in some cases we may have a role to play in supporting the development these skills.

Another important piece of the puzzle was that I could see that many people with professional backgrounds wanted to contribute their skills and time to support such organizations, but just didn’t know where to get started. We help make these connections and harness this potential. We recognize that while the core work on these issues happens on the ground in the countries where our clients operate, we can nevertheless play an important support role in building their technological and management capabilities so they can be most effective with their resources and make the greatest impact in their communities.

Interested in finding out more about Peace Geeks? Checkout the website at www.peacegeeks.org .

Want to get involved? Send an email to volunteer@peacegeeks.org or register as a volunteer at www.peacegeeks.org/pg/volunteer_registration.php

- Rebecca @rebeccaapeel

In particular, this year’s festival showcased three films that our panel of organizers felt had a significant impact on our audiences. As tradition calls for, we award three major awards at the end of each year’s festival, and this year’s candidates did not disappoint.

Home-grown The Clean Bin Project, a feature film about an everyday couple and their journey to answer the question “is it possible to live completely waste free?” picked up this year’s Best Canadian Documentary Award: “The film depicts a year’s journey as partners Jen and Grant go head-to-head in a competition to see who can swear off consumerism and produce the least landfill garbage in an entire year. This film presents the serious topic of waste reduction with optimism, humour, and inspiration for individual action.”

The award for Best Documentary went to Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson. This film was a crowd pleaser, igniting a sold-out house. It tells the story of a man on a mission to save the planet and its oceans: “The film follows “professional radical ecologist” Paul Watson as he repeatedly flouts the law so that he may apprehend what he sees as the more serious law-breakers: the illegal poachers of the world.”

The Projecting Change Award goes to the film that we feel truly encompasses the philosophy behind our festival. Director Susan Edwards’ Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000 was this year’s award recipient: “The film details the parallel journey of two characters: one, a young woman discouraged at her future as a suburban housewife, the other, a river – once beautiful and teeming with wildlife – now a hopeless, toxic sludge pit. The basis of this documentary lies in the fact that acclaimed environmental pioneer Stoddart took on and singlehandedly accomplished a huge goal – cleaning up the Nasua River.”

To spice up this year’s festival we ran a contest through social media where we asked our friends and followers to submit a 60 second video documenting how they project change in their everyday lives. We received some inspiring entries – everything from locals creating international movements to one little boy who projects change through being a positive and loving human being in his daily life. The winner of our contest, who also received a $1000 cash prize and the premiere of their video at our closing gala film screening, was the brilliant and hilarious Fair Trade Gangsta Rap video created by the SFU chapter of Fair Trade Vancouver.

Congratulations to the minds behind all of these amazing films! To our audience, we hope you enjoyed each and every one, and if you haven’t gotten the chance to check them out, we highly encourage you to do so. Each film we handpicked for this year’s festival is a beacon for change and hope, and we hope it will inspire a passion within you to fulfill your own goals of projecting change in this world.

– Marisa Woodham (@MarisaWoodham)