It's my month for "From the Filmmakers," so I thought, just to be different, I'd write about films! Or maybe I ought to say - movies, schemes and pipe dreams.

It appears that many filmmakers were heartened by the success of BLEEP, followed by An Inconvenient Truth, followed by The Secret. And not only filmmakers. Authors, scientists, futurists, economists, and ecologists have latched on to the dream that they can make a film, get it distributed and do something about the sorry state of the world. (The external world that is.)

Between having been one of the filmmakers of BLEEP, the financier, and a person who had never done a film before, I get a lot of calls. Some people want money, some want advice, some look for collaboration, some write to bounce ideas around, and some people want me to tell them how it's done.

As for the last one, all I can say is don't give up and don't believe it when they tell you it can't be done!

At least once a week a new project pops up. And the projects are all over the map. From hard science to a quest to find out what people mean by "God," from enlightened news programs to programs highlighting where science and spirit meet. But there is a common theme - transformation. (Which is why I think the term "Transformational Cinema" is much better than "Spiritual Cinema".) It appears that many people have taken on the task of doing something about the world we live in.

Much talk has been given to The Paradigm Shift, The Great Awakening, the New Earth. From where I sit it seems that all of the above are rapidly gaining momentum. A lot more people have realized that we must do something, change something, if the human race is to proceed and evolve instead of self-destruct and devolve. An example of this is the ecological movement. It has moved from isolated tree-huggers to a mainstream movement.

When Betsy, Mark and I were going around the country during "What the BLEEP's" opening, one question we got a lot was:"What can I do about making the world a better place?" People often feel so small next to the monoliths of governments and corporations. What can one person do!

Ever hear of R. Buckminster Fuller, a.k.a. Bucky? I recently stumbled on to his life and works. He was born the beginning of the 20th century and died in 1983. In his 30's he began a lifelong experiment called "Guinea Pig B" (B=Bucky). The experiment was to see how much one person could do to change the world and make it better. Along the way he invented affordable housing, a self-contained bathroom that recycled everything and showered you clean on just 1 cup of water; he invented a car that in the 1930s got 30-50 MPG. He coined the terms "ecology" and "spaceship earth," and created the geodesic dome.

His inventions were, for the most part, shot down by big business and the banks and the unions, but he kept on. According to Bucky, change never ever never comes from institutions and large organizations. So don't look to politicians and CEOs to make this world a better place. Try "mirror mirror on the wall."

Bucky had a completely metaphysical take on Universe (He never said "the universe" - it would be like calling Betsy, the Betsy). One aspect of that was his insight that nature had created humans as an integral part of Universe, and that we are now in the position of determining whether that creation was beneficial or a stupid dead-end. My take on it is that many humans are awakening to the reality of nature's experiment - and through constructive choices and actions they are choosing a path that guarantees that the path continues on to greener pastures.

'til later,
Will Arntz